Abstract
The literature on urban agriculture (UA) as a food security and poverty alleviation strategy is bifurcating into two distinct positions. The first is that UA is a viable and effective pro-poor development strategy, and the second is that UA has demonstrated limited positive outcomes on either food security or poverty. These two positions are tested against data generated by the African Urban Food Security Network’s (AFSUN) baseline food security survey undertaken in 11 Southern African cities. At the aggregate level, the analysis shows that (1) urban context is an important predictor of rates of household engagement in UA—the economic, political, and historical circumstances and conditions of a city are key factors that either promote or hinder UA activity and scale; (2) UA is not an effective household food security strategy for poor urban households—the analysis found few significant relationships between UA participation and food security; and (3) household levels of earnings and land holdings may mediate UA impacts on food security—wealthier households derive greater net food security benefits from UA than poor households do. These findings call into question the potential benefits of UA as a broad urban development strategy and lend support to the position that UA has limited poverty alleviation benefits under current modes of practice and regulation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Battersby, J. (2011). The state of urban food insecurity in Cape Town. Urban Food Security Series No. 11. Queen’s University and AFSUN: Kingston and Cape Town. p. 42.
Byerley, A. (1996). Urban Agriculture in Botswana: A Preliminary Investigation of Extent, Issues and Potential Working Paper 307, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, 1996, p. 3.
Cofie, O., & Drechsel, P. (2007). Water for food in the cities: the growing paradigm of irrigated (peri)-urban agriculture and its struggle in sub-Saharan Africa. African Water Journal, 1(1), 26–50.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). New York: Academic.
Corder, G., & Foreman, D. (2009). Nonparametric statistics for non-statisticians. Toronto: John Wiley and Sons.
Crush, J., Hovorka, A., & Tevera, D. (2011). Food security in southern African cities: the place of urban agriculture. Progress in Development Studies, 11(4), 285–305.
FAO. (2012). Growing greener cities in Africa: first status report on urban and peri-urban horticulture in Africa. Rome: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Frayne, B. (2004). Migration and urban survival strategies in Windhoek, Namibia. Geoforum, 35, 489–505.
Frayne, B., Pendleton, W., Crush, J., et al. (2010). The state of urban food insecurity in southern Africa. Urban Food Security Series No.2. Cape Town: AFSUN.
Hovorka, A. (2004). Entrepreneurial opportunities in Botswana: (re)shaping urban agriculture discourse. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 22(3), 367–388.
Kutiwa, S., Boon, E., & Devuyst, D. (2010). Urban agriculture in low income households of Harare: an adaptive response to economic crisis. Journal of Human Ecology, 32(2), 85–96.
Kwambisi, D., Fraser, E., & Dougill, A. (2011). Urban agriculture and poverty reduction: evaluating how food production in cities contributes to food security, employment and income in Malawi. Journal of International Development, 23, 181–203.
Lee-Smith, D. (2010). Cities feeding people: an update on urban agriculture in Equatorial Africa. Environment and Urbanization, 22(2), 483–499.
Lee-Smith, D. (2013). Which way for UPA in Africa? City, 17(1), 69–84.
Mbiba, B. (2001). Urban agriculture in Harare: between suspicion and repression. In N. Bakker, M. Dubbeling, S. Gündel, U. Sabel Koschella & H. de Zeeuw (2000). Growing cities, growing food: urban agriculture on the policy agenda. A reader on urban agriculture. Leusden: Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Forestry.
Pendleton, W., Nickanor, N., & Pomuti, A. (2012). The state of urban food insecurity in Windhoek, Namibia. Urban Food Security Series No. 14. Cape Town: AFSUN.
Riley, L. (2012). The political economy of urban food security in Blantyre, Malawi. Occasional Paper Series Vol. 1, Iss.2. London, ON.: Africa Institute.
Rudolph, M., Kroll, F., Ruysenaar, S., & Dlamini, T. (2012). The state of food insecurity in Johannesburg. Urban Food Security Series No. 12. Cape Town: AFSUN.
Sheldon, K. (1999). Machambas in the city: urban women and agriculture in Mozambique. Lusotopie, 121–40.
Simatele, D., & Binns, T. (2008). Motivation and marginalization in African urban agriculture: the case of Lusaka, Zambia. Urban Forum, 19, 1–21.
Simatele, D., Binns, T., & Simatele, M. (2012). Urban livelihoods under a changing climate: perspectives on urban agriculture and planning in Lusaka, Zambia. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 13(2), 269–293.
Smit, J., Nasr, J., & Ratta, A. (2001). Urban agriculture: food, jobs and sustainable cities. New York: The Urban Agriculture Network, Inc.
Stewart, R., Korth, M., Langer, L., Rafferty, S., Da Silva, N., & van Rooyen, C. (2013). What are the impacts of urban agriculture programs on food security in low and middle-income countries? Environmental Evidence, 2(7), 1–13.
Tawodzera, G. (2010). Vulnerability and resilience in crisis: Urban household food insecurity in harare, Zimbabwe. DPhil Thesis, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science. University of Cape Town.
Tawodzera, G. (2012). Urban households vulnerability to food security and climate change: Experiences from urban areas Zimbabwe. In B. Frayne, C. Moser, & G. Ziervogel (Eds.), Climate change, assets and food security in Southern Africa. New York: Earthscan.
World Bank (2013). World Development Indicators. http://data.worldbank.org/. Accessed September 2013.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Canadian Government for its research support and the AFSUN partners for their contributions to the food security baseline survey on which this paper is based.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frayne, B., McCordic, C. & Shilomboleni, H. Growing Out of Poverty: Does Urban Agriculture Contribute to Household Food Security in Southern African Cities?. Urban Forum 25, 177–189 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-014-9219-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-014-9219-3