| Summary: | Agricultural development has historically focused on rural areas and the needs of rural
populations, it has virtually ignored cities. Indeed, farming was an activity perceived to be
'traditional' and not befitting modern concepts of urban development. Nevertheless, urban
agriculture has persisted and expanded in Third World cities to reduce hunger and
malnutrition amongst the urban poor. Urban agriculture is documented as occurring in
numerous cities throughout the developing world as a 'survival strategy'.
This study takes urban agriculture beyond 'survival' and evaluates urban agriculture for its
contribution to the development of sustainable cities. Increasingly, finding ways to achieve
sustainable development is becoming the challenge for planners. Sustainable development
calls for an integrated approach to the problems of Third World Cities. Social, ecological
and economic issues need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner: widespread
environmental damage is often symptomatic of social and economic problems. This study
examines the background literature to sustainable development and urban agriculture to
find positive links between them. I use the city of Nairobi, Kenya as my study site. Urban
agriculture in Nairobi has already been adopted by small NGOs through development
projects. Their projects target a small number of cultivators and provide them with
technical assistance. Meanwhile hundreds of other 'urban farmers' continue to cultivate
without any outside assistance. What if any, additional benefits does the incorporation of
urban agriculture into a development project bring the farmers? This research answers that
question by using the City of Nairobi, as a case study and adopting a comparative approach
to the sampling method
Prior to developing my survey an extensive literature review, meetings with government
officials, UN workers, rural farm managers and project leaders helped develop a contextual
framework to evaluate urban agriculture. To determine the advantages of project assisted
cultivation my study examines three urban agriculture projects facilitated by two NGOs -
the Undugu Society of Kenya and the Help Self-Help Center. Fifty-five cultivators were
chosen for study out of a total population of 200. Because it would be difficult, if not
impossible, to determine the total number of cultivators farming without project assistance,
a control group of 'non-project' farmers representing one-third of the 'project' sample
were selected for comparison.
I used a questionnaire presented to the cultivators to assess the strengths and weaknesses of
current practices and to determine the contribution of urban agriculture to sustainable
urban development. Meetings and discussions have shown that there is a growing
awareness of the benefits of urban agriculture, yet, it still goes unrecognized by
development planners and government officials. I provide recommendations as to how
current practices can be improved and how policy can support urban agriculture.
Currently, policy, land use regulation, and general mismanagement of environmental
resources are restricting the ability of urban agriculture to expand and flourish. Dedicated
policy and programmes would expand the direct and indirect benefits of urban farming to
improve the livelihood of urban residents and to improve the health and sustainability of
urban centers. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of === Graduate
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