The state of urban food security, a global and national overview: The case of Algerian Cities

Abstract

In recent decades, an overview is given by the United Nations Population Division about the urbanization extent in the world. Africa and Asia - whose urban populations are already larger than those of Europe, Latin America or North America, respectively - are the continents where the share of city dwellers has increased the most since the middle of the 20th century.   The objective of our study is to visualize and clarify the reality of food security in cities and urban agglomerations around the world, and then distinguish the challenges of urban dwellers to ensure their food security precisely in Algerian cities.    Our study arrived after having treated the world food challenges and those of Algerian cities that the problem of urban food security is relative to four dimensions: Food availability especially what is interested to urban agriculture and domestic food production level ; Food access is relative to the lower levels of income and high food inflation; Food utilization explained by a large number of people with obesity and chronic diseases; and the Stability of these three indicators, That is the case of negative impacts related to fluctuation in international food prices, climate change, an unexplained price spikes especially those associated to some food commodities for the purpose of speculation , as well as some irrational urban consumer behaviours (Consume fast foods  as well as food products offered in cities without respecting food safety requirements).