Dar es Salaam Open-Space Vegetable Farming
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania · Operator: Independent urban farmers and informal farmer groups, with intermittent support from municipal authorities and programs such as the Sustainable Cities Programme
Overview
In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city, vegetable growing on open urban land is a visible part of the cityscape. Since the Sustainable Cities Programme of the 1990s, integrating agriculture into city planning has been debated, and the practice has drawn international research attention for both its insecure tenure and its importance to livelihoods.
Citizen participation
In Dar es Salaam, urban farmers cultivate roughly 650 hectares of open space—plots awaiting development, river valleys and other vacant land—for market-oriented vegetable production. Most farm under insecure arrangements of renting, borrowing or tacit tolerance, negotiating access with landowners, while backyard farming is also widespread. Together they form a key pillar of the city's food supply and livelihoods.
Operating model
Smallholder market production. Leafy vegetables are in high demand because their perishability limits competition from outside the city; farmers earn their living selling most of their harvest to vendors and some directly to nearby residents.
Impact
Contributes substantially to feeding a fast-growing city and provides income for tens of thousands of households. Research showing that some 95% of farmers lack secure tenure has fuelled policy debate on integrating urban agriculture into city planning and zoning.
Land tenure
Most farmers use land awaiting development through renting, borrowing or tacit encroachment; research finds about 95% lack secure tenure.
Crops
- amaranth (mchicha)
- leafy greens
- Chinese cabbage
- sweet potato leaves
- okra
- vegetables
Scale
An estimated 650 hectares of open space across the city are used for market-oriented vegetable production, alongside widespread backyard farming
Sources（3）
This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.
- PaperAccess to land for urban farming in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: histories, benefits and insecure tenure (Journal of Modern African Studies) ↗researchgate.net
- PaperGoing with the food flow: The contribution of urban agriculture to a growing African city (Development Southern Africa) ↗tandfonline.com
- PaperFood security: The role of urban and peri-urban agriculture. A case of Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania (IJAAR) ↗innspub.net
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