30.07.2022

How Urban Gardening Can Help Kampala's Poor

Although over two-thirds of Uganda’s population live in rural areas, populations are exploding in urban areas too. IN Kampala, Uganda's capital, there are over 12 million people, and land is scarce. To meet the growing population's need for food, some people are growing vegetables using a technique called "vertical farming". A global analysis found that urban agriculture could yield up to 10 percent of many food crops—good news for its future as a force for sustainability. This will reach the urban poor who make up almost half of the capital's population. Kampala alone needs around 4,000 tons of food per day to feed its population. While cities may not easily be regarded as production centers for food, they do offer opportunities for creating gainful employment in agriculture. In fact, urban farming scattered around Kampala and its suburbs is growing and contributes around 35% of the food that comes to the city. Urban and peri-urban farms can be easily managed and there is good access to high end markets, so youth participation in urban farming is increasing. But there are challenges: most urban farmers are growing food for subsistence purposes, live in unhealthy environments (e.g. sharing small plots of land with plants and animals), use poor/non-organic farming practices, have poor post-harvest handling methods, lack business management skills and knowledge of the value chains to improve their output. Credit: DW