Johannesburg Urban Agriculture: Short Food Value Chain Model
Johannesburg, South Africa · Operator: Small-scale farmers and community groups
Overview
Small-scale farmers in Johannesburg practice urban agriculture through direct-to-community short food value chains. Reduces middlemen, improving farmer incomes while enhancing community food access. Represents an 'invisible' but significant local food economy.
Citizen participation
Small-scale farmer and community group-led agriculture using direct sale and short food value chains
Operating model
Local economic circulation through short value chains, combining farmer livelihoods with community food security
Impact
Improved livelihoods for small-scale farmers, strengthened local food security, activated community economy
Land tenure
Diverse tenure arrangements (private land, vacant lots, common land, etc.)
Crops
- vegetables
- fruits
- grains
Scale
Multiple distributed sites across Johannesburg
Sources（2）
This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.
Related cases
Abalimi Bezekhaya Cape Town Community Gardens
ZACape Town, South Africa
Abalimi Bezekhaya (established 1982 during Apartheid) assists thousands to set up and maintain home and community gardens on tiny city land fragments. Harvest of Hope social business sells produce to Cape Town residents.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Incredible Edible Todmorden
GBTodmorden, United Kingdom
A citizen movement in a small UK town planting free-to-harvest crops in public gaps. Its 'edible town' concept has spread to communities worldwide.
incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk
Agris Seijo
JPTokyo, Japan
A station-front garden built on artificial ground over buried Odakyu rail tracks, offering 300+ plots across about 5,000 m2 as an accessible urban allotment for beginners.
agris-seijo.jp+1
1.2 mile community compost (Omotesando, 4Nature)
JPTokyo, Japan
A community-compost project hubbed at an Omotesando food court where residents within a 2-km radius bring household food scraps to compost together; the finished compost and vegetable-growing foster 'neighborly ties starting from soil' in central Tokyo.
corp.4nature.co.jp+2