The areas surrounding urban centers play an important part in the provision of food to urban consumers, and the proximity of these areas to urban markets lowers food transport and storage costs. At the same time, urbanization is at its most intense in these peri-urban areas. Peri-urban areas show wide regional variations. Southeast Asia's extended metropolitan regions involve a mix of agriculture, cottage industry, industrial estates, suburban development, and other residential settlement over a wide radius. But in Sub- Saharan Africa, where the industrial base is usually weaker, agriculture prevails around cities, although with important transformations in land ownership and use.
Speculative purchases can also withdraw agricultural land from food production.
In Manila's extended metropolitan region, for example, large areas of rice land have been converted to industrial, residential, and recreational uses or have lain idle while owners awaited either development permits or more propitious market conditions. Such changes eliminate highly fertile agricultural land from production that urban households would otherwise rely on for affordable food. Around Paraguay's capital, Asunci n, for example, limited access to credit severely constrains the capacity of small farmers to grow produce, which is in high demand among urban consumers. On the outskirts of Bamako, Mali, the lack of transport makes it difficult for many small-scale fruit and vegetable producers to reach the city's markets. Social networks among traders and middlemen can also exclude small producers from access to local markets.