Since 1998 the International Development Research Centre has supported graduate research on urban agriculture and in 2005 a first book was published. With more than 60 awardees and much more work completed, this second book has been completed by graduates who come from many disciplines and who are all associated with particular development groups. The work is carried out in a participatory way that balances social and biophysical approaches and reveals much about how urban farmers and gardeners try to survive and develop more sustainable livelihoods. The introduction by the editor presents an overview of the book and focuses on themes: access to resources, gender analysis, participatory action research methods, education, health and learning, the livelihoods framework, constraints for researchers and the social and economic implications of urban agriculture. Thirteen case studies are covered in 12 chapters on: urban agriculture from Nairobi, Kumasi, Harare, Lilongwe, Blantyre and Lima; on water quality impacts from Ghana, Kinshasa and the Rimac River (Peru); on health impacts from Dakar and Rosario (Argentina); on socio-ecological networks from Managua and on urban agriculture and physical planning from Zaria (Nigeria). The book concludes with thoughts on the resilience and importance of urban agriculture and the significance of using participatory and interdisciplinary methodologies in this kind of research. There are some outstanding pieces of work here and some valuable lessons in how to present findings on complex farming and livelihood systems in a concise and clear manner. There is only one chapter that directly addresses urban planning so the subtitle might have been a more appropriate title for the book.