Urban Agriculture in Southern and Eastern Africa: Policy Questions and Challenges

Urban Farm DB summary

This paper argues that the literature on urban agriculture is full of complaints about its negative treatment by researchers, urban managers and policymakers, who have regarded it as a new "eldorado" to be grabbed and exploited by whoever gets there first. Despite documented actual and perceived benefits to the urban economy, most cities in the region are said to lack policies that vigorously support urban agriculture. Most commentators hold that policy should provide more land, use of wastewater, security for crops and gardens, improved technologies, more demonstration projects, and credit, loans and extension services, and the paper concludes that a policy solution will not be found within urban agriculture itself but by taking the debate outside it.