Research & reports

Liku Workalemahu Habtemariam, KetemaAbebe Tufa, Lise Byskov Herslund, Patience Mguni · Progress in Development Studies · Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)

This article explores water resource management in Addis Ababa's condominium housing and urban agriculture cooperatives to identify challenges and potentials for water-resilient livelihoods. Findings indicate both communities are heavily affected by water stress, with farming communities being vulnerable due to natural asset dependence but more flexible than condominium residents facing malfunctioning infrastructure. Potential for resilience exists if policy frameworks integrate local situations with landscape-based stormwater management.

Jenny Smart, David Tschirley, Francis Smart, Smart, Jenny Cairns, Tschirley, David, Smart, Francis · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Mozambique

Food system transformation and changes in diet quality were assessed in Mozambique amidst rapid urbanization and income growth. Rising incomes and processed food consumption were found to be associated with a worsening of negative dietary factors. Furthermore, urbanization, controlling for income, was more strongly associated with a worsening of negative factors than an improvement in positive dietary factors. However, owning one's own farm had a positive and significant effect on nutrition for urban households, primarily driven by reduced purchases of unhealthy foods.

Joyce-Ann Syhre, Meike Brückner · · Kenya (Nairobi)

This chapter illustrates agricultural alternatives in Nairobi, Kenya, emerging through practiced urban agriculture. These alternatives enable socio-ecological spaces of food sovereignty, biodiversity, and agency. The chapter discusses the socio-cultural values of farming and food, the role of gender in Nairobi's urban agricultural landscape, and the diverse perceptions of human-nature relations among female farmers.

Ubokudom E. Okon, Kesit Nkeme, Ubon Asuquo Essien, Chukwuemeka Chiebonam Onyia · American Journal of Business and Management · Nigeria

This study assessed the economic vulnerability of 289 urban farm households in three states of South-south Nigeria using vulnerability index analysis. The results indicated a high level of economic vulnerability among urban farmers, primarily caused by lack of access to formal credit, lack of land, low asset value, and low farm income. Households entirely dependent on farm income were 66% more likely to be vulnerable to economic shocks.

Sky Roberts, Charlie M. Shackleton · Land · South Africa

This study investigated urban community food gardens in four towns in South Africa, using surveys and GIS analysis over three decades. It found that common motivations included cash poverty (37%) and the need to grow food (34%), with reported benefits such as a healthy lifestyle (58%) and food consumption (54%). A significant challenge was theft of garden infrastructure or produce, and there were declines in the number and area of urban community gardens, with only 16% of gardens from the 1980s still operating in the 2000s.

Désiré Bisimwa Byamungu, Affermi Kufinu Dia Matondo, Mireille Kimanda Asha · · Africa

A spatial analysis and socio-economic survey were conducted on land occupation, land conflicts, and their management in the Funa Valley in Kinshasa. The findings revealed a strong evolution of anthropogenic presence in the valley and identified multiple land conflicts, including illegal sales of parcels by customary chiefs and illegal occupation of agricultural land by non-market gardeners. The management of these conflicts is often referred to the district chief and the justice ministry.

Chihambakwe, Michelle, Mafongoya, Paramu, L., Jiri, Obert · University of Zimbabwe Institutional Repository (University of Zimbabwe) · Africa

This review examines the application of food sovereignty principles in urban and peri-urban agriculture in Zimbabwe. It notes that despite urban households integrating these practices into their livelihoods, institutional arrangements governing them remain ambivalent. The review concludes that the failure to involve all stakeholders undermines urban and peri-urban agriculture, leading to increased food insecurity and unsustainable practices.

M.K. Saleh, Azher Mustafa · Journal of Agricultural Extension · Nigeria (Kaduna State)

This study investigated food security and productivity among 213 urban farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria, using interviews and statistical analysis. Results showed that 54.5% of households were food insecure. A regression model predicted that the probability of urban farming households being food secure was 51%, indicating a limited effect on food security despite urban farming efforts.

Ibrahim Aliyu Kankara, Hani Farouk · Annals of Geographical Studies · Nigeria (Kano)

This research evaluated potable water distribution problems in Kano municipal, Nigeria. Using data from 384 questionnaires and investigations of water supply institutions, the study concluded that water supply in Kano municipal does not meet demand due to problems such as insufficient water treatment plants, power failure, and funding shortages.

Kwaku Obosu-Mensah · · Africa

This chapter examines the economic and socio-political factors behind changes in official attitudes toward urban agriculture in Africa, focusing on Ghana. Some officials are described as negative toward the practice and as acting irresponsibly to discourage it, while officials are more willing to condone urban farming when farmers hold higher social class or status. In Ghana, an official of the Agricultural Extension Services expressed concern about contamination from the wrongful use of chemicals. Public opinion is described as having shaped official acceptance, and in 1992 personal intervention by the President of Ghana helped encourage more positive official attitudes. Some Ghanaian officials held the view that the country would eventually industrialize and require more workers in the industrial sector.

Céline Veríssimo, Leo Name · · Africa

This essay by Veríssimo and Name examines community practices of edible landscaping in outdoor domestic spaces in the city of Dondo, Mozambique, framing them as a form of quiet resistance to marginalization and as a means of household-community empowerment; the authors argue these diversified spaces support food sovereignty and call on landscape architects to draw on this knowledge, which they say is typically disregarded by professional practice.

Kh. N. Shaaban, M. Abul-Soud, OSAMA A. EL-BEHAIRY · Journal of Environmental Science · Africa

On the rooftop of the Central Laboratory for Agriculture Climate, Agriculture Research Centre, Egypt, tomato was grown over two summer seasons and strawberry over two winter seasons during 2014-2015 to test vermicompost-perlite substrate mixes (10%, 20%, 30% vermicompost, and a perlite-only control) combined with chemical, vermi-liquid, or combined nutrient solutions. Vegetative growth, yield and leaf N/P/K content were highest with chemical or combined chemical/vermi-liquid solution paired with the 30% then 20% vermicompost mixes, and applying or increasing vermicompost reduced heavy metal content in the tomato and strawberry fruit.

Nanna Jordt Jørgensen · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · South Africa

Drawing on a case from the Amanzi for Food project in South Africa's Eastern Cape and earlier material on community gardens in Port Elizabeth, this think piece reflects on how people whose livelihoods depend on land and animals experience and cope with the uncertainty generated by climate change. It focuses on intergenerational interaction and learning in food gardening, arguing that these processes shape responses to uncertainty oriented toward creative solutions rather than debilitation.

Nolwazi Z. Khumalo, Sibanda, M., Khumalo, N., Sibanda, M. · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · South Africa

A survey of 208 stratified-random-sampled households (109 farming, 99 non-farming) in Tongaat, eThekwini Municipality, South Africa. Using the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), 54% of farming households consumed more than six food groups versus 40% of non-farming households. Using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), about 72% of farming households reported rarely or never worrying about food shortages, versus about 61% of non-farming households. Farming households showed better food access and dietary diversity outcomes than non-farming households.

Thandiwe Blauw · · South Africa

Against the backdrop of South Africa, where the majority of the population still lives below the poverty line twenty-three years after democratization and women and children are the most affected, this study investigated the impact of women's participation in an urban agriculture project — a vegetable garden — on poverty alleviation at the Kwasa Project in Walmer Township, Port Elizabeth. Using a qualitative approach with individual interviews conducted via an interview schedule and supplemented by secondary scholarly sources, the study investigated the challenges facing the Kwasa Project and, in its final analysis, provided recommendations aimed at resolving some of the problems identified through the interviews.

Sahar Babiker Ahmed Abdalla · · Africa

With rapid urbanization in Khartoum increasing the need to produce more food for the growing urban population, while food production in and around the city has received limited attention from scientists and policymakers, this study analyzed the socio-economic conditions and production practices of urban gardeners through a baseline survey conducted from March to June 2007. Forty households with gardens were purposively selected, and heads of household were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire, with descriptive statistics and a two-step cluster analysis used to classify households into homogeneous groups. Urban agriculture was found to be the exclusive domain of men. All 40 surveyed households engaged in commercial vegetable gardening, 33% also cultivated fodder crops, and 5% kept goats and sheep. Seventy-eight percent of gardeners were under 55 years old, and 80% were not native to Khartoum. Few were landowners; 90% operated under a tenant-sharecropping system. Vegetable growing was the main source of income for 83% of gardeners, and short-cycle leafy vegetables such as Jew's mallow, purslane and rocket were the dominant crops. Irrigation came mainly from the River Nile (60%) and wells (37.5%), and almost all gardeners applied pesticides and mineral fertilizers. Ninety-five percent of gardens were cultivated continuously year-round without a fallow period. Households were classified into three groups: mixed vegetable-fodder gardens (10%), mixed vegetable-subsistence livestock gardens (42.5%), and pure vegetable gardens (30%).

Kwaku Obosu-Mensah · · Africa

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.

Abiodun Olusola Omotayo, Ijatuyi Enioluwa Jonathan, Olorunfemi Oluwasogo David, Agboola Peter Temitope · Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica · South Africa

A structured-questionnaire survey of urban agricultural households in Limpopo Province, South Africa, analyzed food security using descriptive and inferential statistics. Respondents were predominantly male with an average age of 46, mainly relying on public tap water, and households had an average monthly income of R2,668.75 against average monthly food spending of R1,284.75 — food costs consuming nearly half of household income. The study suggested interest-free credit for small-scale farmers to improve access to risk-management technologies.

Kra Kouakou Valentin · European Scientific Journal ESJ · Africa

A study of Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire, analyzes new land-use dynamics around intra-urban shallow lowlands (bas-fonds) and their effects on market gardening. It finds that rising stakes over these lowlands have drawn in new actors, reducing cultivated areas and making market gardening more unstable and casualized. The operating rules for the floodplain plots previously allocated to gardeners have been redefined, and public servitude land and unbuilt areas are increasingly subject to illegal land transactions and unauthorized construction — indicating a breakdown in land governance and the neglect of urban agriculture within public policy and city management in Côte d'Ivoire.

Omondi S. O., Oluoch-Kosura W., Jirström M. · Geographical Research 55(2):231-241 · Kenya

Through Kenyan case studies, this paper examines how urban-based agriculture strengthens the livelihood strategies and food security of urban households, particularly the poor, highlighting its role within the urban food system.

Olivier D. W., Heinecken L. · Agriculture and Human Values 34(3):743-755 · South Africa

Examining NGO-run urban agriculture in Cape Town, this study finds projects aid food security while helping low-income women build supportive networks that unlock personal, social, and economic benefits beyond food provision.

Courtney M. Gallaher · CABI eBooks · Kenya

This chapter considers the effects of landscape greening, including small urban farms and sack gardening, on residents' perceptions of the environment in Kenya's Kibera slum over the last 10 years. It examines what environmental issues residents perceive as most serious, who they believe is responsible for addressing these problems, and to what extent they believe sack gardening is changing Kibera's physical and social environment.

Shailesh Deshpande, Priyanka Verma, Piyush Yadav, Jay Gubbi, P Balamurali · Asian Journal of Geoinformatics · South Africa (Johannesburg)

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes in Johannesburg City, South Africa, were analyzed using Landsat imagery from 2000 to 2016. The analysis revealed that impervious surface increased by 57.03% during this period, leading to a 47.8% loss of urban vegetation (grass, tree cover) and urban agricultural land. Additionally, soil and water loss amounted to 16.75%.

Paulos Lukas · Journals & Books Hosting (International Knowledge Sharing Platform) · Ethiopia

This study investigated the effects of urban expansion on the livelihood of 100 dislocated farming households in Wolaita Sodo, Southern Ethiopia, using household surveys, group discussions, and interviews. The findings indicate that the implemented expansion program was not participatory, marginalized the farming community, and excluded youth and women from compensation schemes. The dislocation program was not rehabilitative and negatively affected the livelihood of the dislocated farming community.

Ophélie Robineau, Christophe‐Toussaint Soulard · Natures Sciences Sociétés · Africa

This article emphasizes the utility of the agri-urban system concept for analyzing expanding urban agriculture and the complex relationships between cities and agriculture, moving beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. Based on a case study in Bobo-Dioulasso, West Africa, it aims to develop a framework for understanding these relationships at the city and regional scale. It distinguishes three groups of city-agriculture interactions: spatio-historical, interactions between the current urban system and agriculture, and interactions within the urban agrarian system, seeking to identify factors influencing the diversity and future of urban agriculture.