Kibera Sack Gardening
Nairobi, Kenya · Operator: Community residents with NGO/government support (e.g. Solidarités International)
Overview
Vertical sack gardening spreading through Nairobi's large Kibera settlement, where residents grow kale and spinach in soil-filled bags in densely packed areas with no farmland.
Citizen participation
Residents fill sacks with soil and organic matter, poke holes, and grow vegetables vertically in cramped alleyways and doorways, with NGOs and government providing seeds and training.
Operating model
A livelihood strategy combining subsistence and small-scale sales; some households earn roughly EUR 34-60 a month from sack produce.
Impact
Adopted by over a thousand residents, improving food security and strengthening social capital among them.
Land tenure
Free use of informal settlement land (vulnerable to eviction)
Crops
- vegetables
Scale
Spread across 16 villages of the Kibera settlement; over a thousand residents adopted the practice
Sources（5）
This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.
- PaperCreating Space: Sack Gardening as a Livelihood Strategy in the Kibera Slums - JAFSCD ↗foodsystemsjournal.org
- PaperVertical gardening undergirds household food security: Kibera - Frontiers ↗frontiersin.org
- ArticleA Few Years Later: Transforming Nairobi's Informal Settlements Through Urban Farming ↗healthyfoodafrica.eu
- OfficialSack gardens in Kenya (FAO factsheet) ↗fao.org
- ArticleSack Garden Intervention in a Kenyan Informal Settlement (PMC) ↗pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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