|
Regional training course for Anglophone Africa on Urban Agriculture
from 8 - 26 March, 2004
Together
with the "Cities Feeding People" programme
of IDRC, The Urban
Management Programme of UN-Habitat, the Municipal
Development Partnership of Zimbabwe, the Ministry of
Planning of the Government of Kenya, the Resource
Centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security, and
the International Water Management Institute, Urban
Harvest will hold a three-week regional training
course for Anglophone Africa on Urban Agriculture
from 8 - 26 March, 2004. This course is based on
a participatory learning model pioneered in
Francophone Africa in 1998 and in Latin America in
2001. Seven training modules on different aspects of
urban agriculture (UA) address the content of
proposals developed by teams from different cities
or towns in the region. The teams consist of three
members - a researcher, a municipal officer
concerned with a locally important aspect of UA, and
an implementer of UA projects. The course will be
held in Nairobi, Kenya. To view the final
list of course participants please click
here.
Preliminary meetings on the 2004 course were held in
Nairobi last year as well as in May 2003, involving
CFP, Urban Harvest, and local and international
agencies likely to be involved in the course.
To read and/or print the "formal call for
applicants" to participate in this
course (in pdf folder format) please
click here. To view the
"Annexes" outlining the format for the 6
page application please click
here. The deadline for applications
has passed.
back
to top
Urban Harvest - Nairobi hosts CFP workshop on health risks and
benefits of UPA, June 2003
Urban Harvest hosted a Cities Feeding People and Ecosystem
Approaches to Human Health sponsored workshop in
June, 2003 whose themes were health risks and
benefits of urban and peri-urban agriculture in
Sub-Saharan Africa. The workshop aimed to improve
understanding on how to assess the health risks and
benefits related to urban farming practices. The
event brought together around 30 participants
including researchers, resource persons, government
authorities and NGO representatives.
To read more about this workshop on the CFP site please click
here.
back
to top
Establishment of Health Coordination Committee in
Kampala
As part of the implementation of the
project in Kampala on health impacts and analysis, a
Health Coordination Committee has been established.
This committee brings together stakeholders from the
City Council, the local University, national and
international research institutes, and the NGO
sector. The committee provides a forum for dialogue
between these different perspectives to ensure that
there is a common understanding and agreement on
project goals; and that there is negotiation and
agreement on priorities, the ordering of activities
and the use of resources. Dialogue at the local
level between technical and policy specialists is a
prerequisite for project implementation and the
Kampala experience provides a model for projects in
other anchor cities to follow.
back
to top
Establishment of Waste-Net in Nairobi
In Nairobi, Urban
Harvest participated in the establishment of Waste-net,
an advocacy group addressing waste management and
urban and peri-urban agriculture which is
constituted by public and private sector bodies,
University departments, Kenya Agricultural Research
Institute, and international organizations.
back
to top
Some
Partner Activities in UPA within the region
Scoping
study on peri-urban and urban livestock keeping in
East Africa
The
Livestock Production Programme (LPP) of the British
Department for International Development (DFID)
commissioned a scoping
study on peri-urban and urban livestock keeping in
East Africa in 2002.
The aim of the scoping study was to understand the
current situation of poor urban livestock keepers in
East Africa, and identify areas where future
research could make a contribution to the
development and promotion of this activity. The
study was based on five city case studies conducted
in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. The cities
were Dar es Salaam, Kampala, Kisumu, Nairobi, and
Addis Ababa.
Five local consultant teams were employed to conduct
the case studies. Purposeful sampling targeting of
poor livestock keepers, and a combination of
questionnaires and stakeholder meetings were used to
obtain the information required. Secondary
information was used to supplement this primary
data.
The case studies reveal that urban livestock-keeping
benefits the poor and provides a way of diversifying
livelihood activities that are accessible to
vulnerable groups. It also provides a source of
locally produced food products for people living in
the vicinity of the livestock keepers. However,
there are various externalities (zoonoses, access to
clean drinking water, environmental contamination,
product safety) which require addressing, to clear
the way for a sustainable development of urban and
peri-urban livestock-keeping.
To read more about DFID- LPP activities consult
their website: www.lpp.uk.com
Note: DFID also supports a project in urban
street-foods in Africa through Natural Resources
Institute. To read more about this consult the link:
www.nri.org/streetfoods/index.htm
back
to top
Enhancing
the diverse and essential contributions livestock
make to smallholder farming
The International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to
improve the well being of people in developing
countries by enhancing the diverse and essential
contributions livestock make to smallholder farming.
Since 1992, ILRI
has been involved in various UPA-related
projects, including smallholder dairy enterprises in
peri-urban areas and study of zoonoses related to
livestock-keeping. Concern
with landless and peri-urban
livestock farmers is an aspect of ILRI’s focus on
poverty alleviation through livestock research*.
Although most of ILRI's work has been in peri-urban
areas they are increasing their focus on urban
livestock-keeping through two recent projects:
the Market Oriented Smallholder Dairy (MOSD) in East
Africa, and the Market Oriented Livestock Systems in
West Africa. MOSD is an important strategy for small-scale
enterprises development especially in urban areas as
earlier research has shown that 70 per cent of the
milk consumed in cities like Nairobi is produced
informally and that health risks are minimal as
people boil milk. Working in partnership, ILRI's
market-oriented smallholder dairy research in East
Africa has already improved dairy productivity,
natural resource management, marketing and policies.
The focus on market-oriented livestock systems came
after the realization that peri-urban
livestock production has increased in most of the
major cities of Nigeria.
You
can read more about these and other projects of ILRI
on their website at: www.cgiar.org/ilri/research/research.cfm
back
to top
Generation
and dissemination of appropriate agro forestry
technologies for resource-poor farmers
The
World
Agroforestry Centre
(ICRAF) aims to initiate and assist in the
generation and dissemination of appropriate agro
forestry technologies for resource-poor farmers and
other land users. ICRAF recognizes the importance of
UPA and one of its research and development
activities to 2010, especially in East and Central
Africa will be to expand the scope of the research
and development agenda to include among others urban
and peri-urban agroforestry*.
They have currently two projects in
which urban or peri- urban agriculture is a major
component:
 Developing
strategies and policies to match agro forestry tree
seed supply with demand in Burkina Faso, Malawi and
Uganda 2000 – 2010
Tree
nursery trade in urban and peri-urban areas. A
survey in Nairobi and Kiambu districts, Kenya.
back
to top
Integrated
pest management in peri-urban vegetable crop
production in Benin
The
International
Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has
been an important partner for Urban Harvest project
activities in Yaounde, Cameroon (see project
activities above). They have recently started a
project on integrated pest management in peri-urban
vegetable crop production in Benin. Read a project
report on this.
back
to top
Water
and land resources management for improving food
availability, livelihoods and natural resources
The
International
Water Management Institute (IWMI)
aims at water and land resources management for
improving food availability, livelihoods and natural
resources. Their Water
Health and Environment (WHE) programme in West Africa is the main vessel through
which all the urban and peri-urban research
activities are channeled*. There are activities going on in Kumasi,
Accra and Temale in Ghana as well as in Ouagadougou,
Bamako, Lome, Cotonou and Dakar. Projects with a UPA
component include:
Relationship
between Malaria and urban agriculture in West Africa
Improving
the rural-urban nutrient cycle through peri-urban
agriculture: composting of faecal sludge and
municipal waste for urban and peri-urban agriculture
in Kumasi
Safe
and sustainable irrigated vegetable production
Farmers
perception and willingness to pay for urban waste
compost in Ghana
To read about
the above IWMI projects please consult their project
portfolio on the IWMI website.
back
to top
Market Garden and
Horticultural Products Program
CIRAD - the
French Agricultural Research Centre for
International Development, has jointly implemented
UPA projects in Cameroon together with the
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
and IRAD. Their Market Garden and Horticultural
Products Program promotes, among other things, the
sustainable development of peri-urban agriculture to
guarantee supplies of fresh, healthy vegetables to
urban markets in developing countries. This also
increases the financial security of stakeholders in
the different commodity chains. CIRAD also works on
ornamental and aromatic plants, which serve to
diversify agricultural activities and provide
additional income.
To know more about these and other projects in
Cameroon, please mail the contact person for CIRAD
in Cameroon: Jean-Louis Reboul at ciradcam@camnet.cm
back
to top
Phase
2 of The Nakuru Urban Agriculture Project (NUAP II)
The
African Studies
Centre of the University of Leiden in the
Netherlands is currently involved in Phase 2 of The
Nakuru Urban Agriculture Project (NUAP II) . This
project consists of a number of specialized studies
in the context of urban farming in Nakuru town,
Kenya: (i) Rural livelihood sources for urban
households; (ii) School farming in Nakuru; (iii)
Urban agriculture and urban planning (to be
developed); and (iv) Farming in the Nakuru
metropolitan zone (to be developed). For more
information on the project please contact Dr
D.W.J. Foeken at foeken@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
back
to top
Cities
Feeding People (CFP) program
The International
Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada
supports several projects relating to urban
agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, through their
Cities Feeding People (CFP) program. CFP works
through several public- and private-sector bodies,
and international and national research agencies
such as Makerere University in Kampala, Mazingira
Institute in Nairobi, ILRI and IWMI - to name a few.
To read more about the CFP projects in Sub-Saharan
Africa click
here
Note: Cities
Feeding People co-organized a workshop in Nairobi
this June (2003) on health risks and benefits of UPA.
To read about this workshop on the CFP website,
please click
here
back to top |
