The Emergence of Contemporary Urban Agriculture

Urban Farm DB summary

This historical account argues that urban agriculture existing in African cities prior to colonization has been overlooked, despite African towns having been fundamentally agrarian, unlike their Western European counterparts, and that colonial authorities discouraged and cracked down on urban farming even as food shortages prompted the government to encourage Ghanaians to increase food production. It identifies the Rawlings regime's economic retrenchment as the most significant contributor to contemporary urban agriculture, having driven an increase in the number of people engaged in the practice.