Time to help the city farmers of Africa

Lee-smith, D.; Lee-smith, D

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Time to help the city farmers of Africa

Lee-smith, D.

People and the Planet 5(2): 24-26

1996

ISSN/ISBN: 0968-1655

PMID: 12295720

Document Number: 310038

In 1987, a study by Mazingira Institute found that almost 1 in 3 of urban households in Kenya farm crops in town. However, while middle-income earners can grow food in their backyards, low-income earners lack space and farm on public land when they can find any. The growth of the city population makes it harder and harder for the urban poor to find land to farm because the land gets allocated to other users. In addition, while growing crops can produce essential money for the farmers, just under half the urban population said they had no access to land, either rural or urban, where they could grow food. It is noted that in Kenya, little has been made to address the needs of the urban poor although they have been defined as one of the groups with nutritional problems. Hence, it is recommended that a physical planning measure supported by local government services be implemented in the country, as well as the whole region. Recognition and planning of urban subsistence farming could support the initiatives which city farmers are already taking to make African cities more sustainable.