Farming and the city: the changing imaginary of the city and Maputo's irrigated urban agriculture from 1960 to 2020

Urban Farm DB summary

A study grounded in the Infulene Valley, Maputo's main green belt, showing that irrigated urban agriculture drawing on various water sources has been consistently present throughout the Mozambican capital's history. The authors trace how urban planning evolved from 1960 onwards and what those policies meant for urban farming and the livelihoods depending on it. Documenting the city's imaginaries across four eras of Maputo's development, they find that agriculture occupied a prominent place in the post-colonial city and remains significant despite its vague recognition within urban planning after the shift to neoliberalism, and argue for acknowledging urban irrigated agriculture as an intrinsic feature of the city.