Urban agriculture can have a significant impact on various levels of any nation. This ranges from immediate impacts like job creation, income generation, food security and dietary diversification to long term impacts such as environmental and health benefits as well as agricultural knowledge to subsequent benefits. However, in the Sub Saharan Africa, the major importance of urban agriculture is its contribution to food security and nutrition as in order to alleviate poverty and hunger.
2.3.1.1 Food security and nutrition
Urban agriculture is already showing a huge impact in contributing towards food security in certain cities of the sub Saharan Africa (Maxwell, 1995; Lourencio-Lindell, 1996; Mwalukasa, 2000; Nugent, 2000). For example, in Dar
…show more content…
Urban agriculture is increasingly becoming an important source of employment for the urban poor who are incompetent for jobs in the formal sector. It is estimated that 40% of the urban dwellers in African countries are involved in agricultural sectors (Zezza and Tasciotti, 2010). In Dar es Salaam, urban agriculture was the second largest employer in 1988 was 20% of the working adults participated in urban agriculture (Smit & Nasr, 1992). A 2011 survey in Malawi showed that 17 per cent of all households interviewed had worked for a wage on some sort of urban agriculture enterprise in during 2004/2005 agricultural year. This makes urban agriculture the second most important source of income of all households surveyed after formal …show more content…
Africa is experiencing rapid urbanization and in a growing city, a lot of waste is produced and disposal of this waste becomes a problem. However, urban agriculture can be used solve that problem converting urban wastes into a productive resource (Cohern & Garrett, 2010).
In some local municipalities, there are initiatives to collect household waste and organic refuse from vegetable markets and agro-industries in order to produce compost or animal feed. Compost allows an urban farmer to use less chemical fertilizers and by doing so preventing problems related to the contamination of groundwater. Moreover, compost-making initiatives create employment and provide income for the urban poor (Cohern & Garrett,
By exploring the past and its threats to human populations, the global modern mythology of sustainable agriculture can begin to be narrowed down as to the how and why rural communities may or may not have benefited from agricultural sustainability. By describing the dynamic analysis in the livelihoods of developing countries, the historical changes that had occurred in rural communities, can be understood. Halberg and Müller stated that globally “The world’s population was about 7 billion in 2010 and is expected to grow much more. The expected growth is highest in parts of the world that are vulnerable to hunger and adverse climate condit...
As one of the hottest and poorest country in the world, with a population of 20.67 million, growing at a rapid 3.8% annually, Niger’s food crisis and insecurity has been on the rise. According to the UNDP’s 2015 Human Development Index, Niger was ranked as one of the least developed countries. As a completely landlocked country, in the middle of Africa’s Sahel region, Niger is predominately hot, dry, and dusty desert. With extremely small amounts of average rainfall, and temperatures as high as 41°C in August, it is easy to understand why Niger is experiencing an increased food crisis. A reported 1.5 million people in Niger have also been affected by food insecurity in 2017, and almost 20% of the
“Africa is failing to keep up with population growth not because it has exhausted its potential, but instead because too little has been invested in reaching that potential.” Paarlberg backs this claim with evidence that India’s food issue was solved with foreign assistance in development and offers that the solution to Africa’s food shortage is also development and farm modernization endorsed by foreign aid.
My family already has a composting pile in the yard and I never really noticed its value. I always thought of it as a pile of trash and would be reluctant to recycle leftovers when my parents told me to. It would have been so much easier to just throw everything away in the trashcan. In “Waste Not Want Not” Bill McKibben states that, “we toss 14 percent of the food we buy at the store” (304). That is a lot of food that can be put to better use instead of being wasted. Old food scraps will eventually turn into rich soil that can be used to grow an organic garden. The produce that I buy in the grocery store is not as healthy as I think it is because most of it is filled with chemicals that can be harmful to humans. There is a “displacement of nearly the entire farming population and the replacement of their labor and good farming practices by machines and toxic chemicals” (Berry 401). Using compost to plant my own food I do not have to live in fear about what I am feeding to my family. Composting is not only a good source to keep food out of landfills but it promotes a healthy and natural lifestyle.
World Food Programme. (2013). Comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis (CFSVA): Uganda. Retrieved from http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp256989.pdf
Our nation was founded on agriculture, and for hundreds of years we were able to migrate across the nation bringing our farming tools and techniques with us. Technology has driven populations away from rural areas towards industrialized cities. With money now being pumped into cities, rural farmers are suffering the most. Farmers are taking out large loans in order to sustain their farms, leading to debt and in some cases suicide. Patel spoke about a farmer in India whose husband took his life because he was unable to live with the amount of debt from his struggling farm. This man left his wife and chi...
Agriculture is the science and practice of producing crops and livestock. The primary aim of agriculture is to use the land to produce more abundantly to feed and clothe the world at the same time protecting it from deterioration or misuse. Humans had to improve agriculture as they became more dependent on food, creating a solitary evolutionary connection between plants and animals (Campbell and Reece, 2001). In this day and age, so many people have forgotten the authentic premises of survival. It is easy for some to believe that the grocery stores produce food and clothing is produced by shopping centers. These inaccurate presumptions are being made due to the lack of knowledge of how agriculture truly works. There are also significant differences in the levels of understanding between rural and urban communities.
Famine has struck parts of Africa several times during the 20th century, and to this day is still going strong. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the average African consumes 2300 kcal/day, less than the global average of 2700 kcal/day. Recent figures estimate that 316 million Africans, or approximately 35 percent of the continent's total population, is undernourished. Although hunger in Africa is hardly new, it now occurs in a world that has more than enough food to feed all its citizens. Moreover, while Africa's population is growing rapidly, it still has ample fertile land for growing food. Hunger therefore reflects not absolute food scarcity but rather people's lack of access to resources—whether at the individual, house-hold, comunity, or national leve that are needed to produce or purchase adequate food supplies. The reasons people cannot obtain enough food are: several different historical patterns of in equality. These patterns include the in equalities between Africa and its former colonisers or contemporary financiers, and between Africa's rich and poor. It also includes in equality between members of the same households, where food and the resources needed to obtain it (such as land and income) are often unevenly distributed between men and women, old and young. Whatever the reasons for food deprivation, when the result is malnutrition it can do damage, increasing diseases such as malaria, rickets, anemia, and perhaps acquired immune deficiency syndrome aka AIDS Mal-nourished children suffer stunted growth and, often, learning problems. Malnourished adults have less energy to work. Over the long term, inadequate nourishment can cast communities into a cycle o...
...earch and extension, rural infrastructure, and market access for small farmers. Rural investments have been sorely neglected in recent decades, and now is the time to reverse this trend. Farmers in many developing countries are operating in an environment of inadequate infrastructure like roads, electricity, and communications; poor soils; lack of storage and processing capacity; and little or no access to agricultural technologies that could increase their profits and improve their livelihoods. Recent unrest over food prices in a number of countries may tempt policymakers to put the interests of urban consumers over those of rural people, including farmers, but this approach would be shortsighted and counterproductive. Given the scale of investment needed, aid donors should also expand development assistance to agriculture, rural services, and science and technology.
Africa is a continent that is rich and diverse in terms of culture and traditions. The continent is also considered to be the agricultural hub in the world. Due to this, most of African culture is ultimately intertwined with the foodstuffs that the land has to offer. In general, most of the inhabitants of Africa live within the rural areas and rely on subsistent farming to meet their day to day food needs. Fast food restaurants and supermarkets where processed and packaged food is sold are usually frowned upon and considered a waste of money and resources (AIG, 2011).
The global population in the year 2050 is expected to be nine billion and the agricultural demand is expected to double. With the current population already over seven billion people, there are hunger issues all around the world (“New” par. 1). How are we going to deal with food shortages in the future? With less land to work with, strains on the soils, and the lack of water, it is getting harder for the farmers of the world to support our growing population. These complications are making it harder for farmers to produce quality, affordable food. To help the crops grow better, farmers use fertilizers and chemical sprays to enhance growth and control the weeds. Farming in the United States is a relevant business because it supplies people with food, provides people with jobs maintaining the used equipment with the new equipment being much more expensive, and it provides research for more efficient ways on how to feed the world.
Haruna. U. Nasira. M. Umar. M.B. Sustainability Issues and Nigeria’s Agricultural Paradigm, Agricultural Economics and Extension Programme, Abuakar Tafawa Bawela University, PMB 0248, Bauchi, Nigeria. Department of Agricultural Technology, Jigawa State College of Agriculture, PMB 01, Hadejia State, Nigeria
In rural areas, often on small family farms, it is difficult to improve one's standard of living beyond basic necessities. Farm living is dependent on unpredictable environmental conditions, and in times of drought, flood or pestilence, survival becomes extremely problematic. Cities, in contrast, are known to be places where money, services and wealth are centralized. Cities are where fortunes are made and where social mobility is possible.
To understand why is agriculture important in the world of today, then first of all we must know what agriculture is? Agriculture is the basic material production of society, the use of land for agriculture and livestock, mining plants and animals as raw materials and labor to produce mainly food and some raw materials for industry. Agriculture is a major industry, covering many disciplines: planting, breeding and processing of agricultural products; in the broadest sense, also including forestry and fisheries. Agriculture is an important economic sector in the economy of many countries, especially in the past century , when the industry has not yet developed. Since the dawn of history, agriculture has been one of the importance means of producing
Mendelsohn, R. (2000, July 12). Climate Change Impacts on African Agriculture. Retrieved December 4, 2009, from www.ceepa.co.29