Maravi

(HERALD) Let’s embrace urban farming

Let’s embrace urban farming
Friday, 30 September 2011 02:00

In contemporary years the world has been bombarded with unending challenges of food security, economic development, poverty alleviation, urban blight, waste recycling and environmental preservation effects which have also proved to be new threats to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, urban communities have been the most affected and have taken urban agriculture as an ameliorative tool.

This has resulted in the expansion of urban agriculture worldwide - a phenomenon that has wedged the attention of policy makers, pressure groups, politicians and funding agencies. Within the last decade, the practice has gained widespread value in urban areas due to increasing urban food insecurity, souring environmental degradation and competition from other land uses such as residential development.

As a result, today's planners are of the view that these recent developments and acceptance of urban agriculture be it formal or informal, presents a new dawn of challenges for planning and managing the urban space for urban agriculture. Urban agriculture generally refers to the growing of plants and the raising of animals for food and other uses within urban and peri-urban areas, related activities such as the production and delivery of inputs, and the processing and marketing of products. It takes many dimensions, which include-plot farming around the residential plot such as out growers and off-plot, which takes place on open spaces within the built up areas.

To many people, farming in general is often seen as a rural livelihood but that has since challenged the notion as cities have become consumers of "rural foodstuffs".
This stereotype is such that when people migrate to urban areas they tend to ditch agriculture but the truth can be rather different. Urban dwellers have, however, due to rapid urbanisation in developing countries failed to break their rural way of life leading to the proliferation of urban farming. It is like a mother and foetus relationship whereby the existence of each rest on each other

This scenario has mainly been precipitated by declining economies of scale in respect to less developed countries of which Zimbabwe is not an exception.
Moreover, due to the growing effects of climatic change which have impacted negatively on most economies especially in developing countries, quite a number of cities simply could not feed themselves without the support of produce from their backyards, roadside verges, riverbanks, parks and allotments hence urban agriculture.
During the past decade, state land policies through land reform emphasised mainly on allocation of land to the majority especially the landless in rural areas.

This development in fact seems sidelining urban agriculture as people will always have the perspective that farming is only for rural areas hence creating stereotyping. Of late, in Harare urban agriculture has been a vital source of food for the poor and even middle-income households.
Furthermore, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recognises urban agriculture as global phenomenon as it stipulates that one in three of the world's urban residents grow some food, and urban areas provide around 15 percent of global food production. Of particular importance is the fact that the role of urban agriculture in the food supply of cities and towns, as a compliment to rural agriculture, is becoming a critical issue in the world economy.

A recent study by Sharanbir Grewal of the Ohio State University found out that it's possible for a city to be 100 percent reliant on food grown and raised in the city to meet basic food needs. And at the very least urban agriculture could be doing much more to feed the city.
There is clear evidence that urban agriculture is increasing rapidly in urban areas, particularly in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia and Tanzania.

It has become an essential socio-economic activity for the urban poor particularly in Harare and a great contributor to food security and income generation for the poor families. With the 2015 deadline for the attainment of the MDGs and the widespread notion of sustainable development on cards, the inevitable factors of rapid urbanisation coupled with the dwindling socio-economic environment faced by most developing nations, urban agriculture face the prospect of growing to unprecedented levels in the near future.

The only constriction is its growth in residential development. In addition, the Herald of 13 July, 2010 carried a headline, "City of Harare boundaries extended" of which it was reported that 20 farms have been sidelined for residential development hence clearly outlining the fact that agriculture is being seen as a peripheral activity yet it is the backbone of the country in the region and that taps from the responsibility of ensuring food security in the Sadc region.

More so, urban agriculture often exists in a "permissible no-man's land" and access to land has basically been through informal means such as self-allocation, invasion, and inheritance, resulting it taking place on illegal land.

This has resulted in farmers living in constant fear of eviction. This happened the previous season in Harare as maize crops were slashed owing to the informal nature of it. One may also need to ask questions of this nature: has urban agriculture improved or deterred development of urban areas, what are its major implications in general and is there a permanent solution to the challenge of formalising urban agriculture?
Currently, Harare urban agriculture has been an embedded strategy for sustaining livelihoods of urban populations as it presents a lot of benefits such as providing food and indirectly generating household income through petty cash sales and saving on food expenditure, employment and selling of surplus production.

In addition, it has sustained urban population in terms of poverty and has contribution to urban economic activities through processing and marketing of the produce. Socially, it retains the rural links, and makes individuals feel complete as humans thus according them status and self-sufficiency and restrain them from being "beggars".

However, without bypassing the negative effects, most urban farmers practice environmentally threatening farming methods such as monoculture, cultivating on
ecological sensitive areas.

Urban agriculture thus remains a vital activity that should not be given a blind eye or passive attention by local authorities. To most urban planners and municipalities, urban agriculture is viewed as a detriment activity to urban development and management yet in reality it might be an antidote to urban development and management if it is formalised, consciously planned and supported. In other words this may imply professionalisation of urban agriculture.

* Shingai T Kawadza is a final year Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Rural and Urban Planning at the University of Zimbabwe.

Labels: AGRICULTURE, URBAN FARMING

posted by MrK @ 5:21 PM