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Urban Agriculture in Africa: What Has Been Learned?

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Abstract

Though the crisis in world food prices exploded during 2008, the problem of urban food insecurity in Africa has been a fact of life for many low-income urban dwellers for decades, and especially since the period of structural adjustment in the 1980s (Maxwell 1995). It is not that there is no food; it’s that poor urban consumers cannot afford it. This is the stark but simple truth lying behind much of the agriculture that is widespread within and around African cities. What urban households have known and practiced for generations, urban decision-makers have begun to recognize much more recently: urban agriculture is a livelihood strategy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although not elaborated in the chapter, these beliefs appear to relate to the power of these medicines deriving from their wild growth and its absence in cultivated versions (Schippmann et al. 2002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Urban Harvest, International Potato Center (CIP), Lima, Peru

    Gordon Prain

  2. Mazingira Institute, Box 14550, Nairobi, Kenya

    Diana Lee-Smith

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  1. Gordon Prain
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Correspondence to Gordon Prain .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CIP, Urban Harvest, Av. La Molina 1895, La Molina, Lima, Peru

    Gordon Prain

  2. Mazingira Institute, Nairobi, 00800, Kenya

    Diana Lee-Smith

  3. Urban Harvest, CIP, Nairobi, 00100, Kenya

    Nancy Karanja

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Prain, G., Lee-Smith, D. (2010). Urban Agriculture in Africa: What Has Been Learned?. In: Prain, G., Lee-Smith, D., Karanja, N. (eds) African Urban Harvest. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6250-8_2

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