Nevertheless urban food production would by far have less importance if there would not be a shortage of adequate and accessible income opportunities and an unsatisfied demand for appropriate quantity and quality of agricultural products in cities. Responsibilities have to be taken over by the appropriate authorities to ensure and to support food security in cities and have an impact on urban poverty alleviation. A major problem in the acceptation of urban agriculture as a serious contributor to food security in the city and sustainable urban development. Another critical institutional constraint to urban agriculture, particularly crop cultivation, is access to land. This uncertain legal status of urban agriculture is such that official projects or programmes aimed at improving urban agriculture have been relatively rare.
Gender plays an important role.
Women tend to dominate urban cultivation because they are marginalised in other forms of employment in the formal sector of the urban economy. The term urban greening could assist in broadening the idea of urban agriculture. Therefore it is needed to bridge the rural-urban artificial detachment. They however play an increasing important role in development activities. Little is actually known on the functioning of these local institutions.