Katheka Revisited: Urban Agriculture, Participation and the Challenge of Intensified Resource Utilization

Urban Farm DB summary

Field research in three rural Kenyan communities—Katheka, Mbusyani and Gilgil, each within a 90-minute drive of Nairobi—revisited earlier analyses and action plans meant to strengthen community institutions' capacity for natural resource management and production. The methodology combined questionnaires with group discussions and interactive data analysis drawing on Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques. The findings suggest that explicit attention to commercial crops suited to rainfed, dryland conditions would be more appropriate than Katheka's existing agricultural practices. The chapter concludes that a major new effort working with small, commercial, income-generating farmers in the drylands is needed to assist poor, small farmers such as those in Katheka, who are quickly running out of options.