City of Farmers: Informal Urban Agriculture in the Open Spaces of Nairobi, KenyaIn an insightful new study, Donald Freeman examines the development and significance of urban agriculture in Nairobi, Kenya, overturning a number of common assumptions about the inhabitants and economy of African cities. He addresses the ways in which urban agriculture fits into a broader picture of Kenyan social and economic development and discusses the implications of his findings for development theory in general. Freeman begins by exploring the context of urban agriculture, tracing its development in the colonial and post-colonial city. He then provides a detailed description of urban farmers, their land use practices, and their crops. Freeman gathered this rich body of information through on-site surveys of 618 small-scale cultivators in ten different parts of Nairobi. He concludes by considering the implications of the burgeoning practice of urban agriculture for the cultivators themselves, for the city, and for the developing economy of Kenya. Although the empirical work is focused on Nairobi and its informal sector, the scope and implications of the study are broader and the conclusions relevant to other parts of the Third World. "Urban" productive activities in the Third World, Freeman suggests, need redefining to take account of basic food production in the city and its interrelationships with other informal and formal sectors. A City of Farmers will interest not only economic geographers and students and scholars of development studies and African history but anyone concerned with economic and social conditions in the Third World. |
Contents
The Lure of me City | 3 |
Promises Unfulfilled Life in the Urban Informal Sector | 13 |
Open Spaces and Colonial Views The Early Years in Nairobi | 21 |
Open Space in the City Beautiful Nairobi as a Modern Planned Capital | 34 |
KENYAS URBAN FARMERS AND THEIR GARDENS | 45 |
Urban Food Production and Consumption in Six Kenyan Municipalities | 49 |
City Dwellers with Farming Backgrounds Nairobis Urban Cultivators | 54 |
Inner City Farmers and Suburban Cultivators A Comparison | 64 |
Harsh Realities Impediments and Problems of Urban Agriculture | 96 |
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF URBAN AGRICULTURE | 103 |
The Importance of Open Space Farming to Urban Families | 105 |
The Importance of Urban Agriculture to the Community and the Nation | 111 |
The 1987 YorkKenyatta University Survey | 123 |
Statistical Tables | 127 |
Glossary of Kiswahili Terms | 147 |
| 149 | |
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City of Farmers: Informal Urban Agriculture in the Open Spaces of Nairobi, Kenya Donald B. Freeman No preview available - 1991 |
Common terms and phrases
activities administrators African cities Area 7 cultivators askaris Author's survey average cent central business district City Commission colonial period Comparison of Area cultivation practices district Eastleigh estates European farming formal sector growing harvest hectare household ibid informal sector inner city interviews Isiolo Kakamega Kenya Kenyatta University Kiambu Kikuyu Kisumu Kiswahili Kitui labour land reform landless maize majority male Mathare Mazingira Mazingira 1987 Mazingira Institute Mazingira Report Mazingira study migrants Mombasa Nairobi dam Nairobi National Park Nairobi River non-farm job open space pattern population problems produce public land railway residential respondents Road role rural areas sample areas sample squares settlement shamba plots shillings significant Six Kenyan Municipalities soil Source squatter sukuma sukuma wiki Table theft Third World town urban agricultural sector urban agriculture urban areas urban crops urban cultivators urban farmers urban informal sector urban land urban shambas usufruct vacant land wage women cultivators
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Page xii - The views expressed are my own and are not necessarily shared by any organization or institution with which I am associated.
Page xiii - Part of the reason for this lack of attention may be that this form of urban land use is seasonal and ephemeral, and so may escape the notice of researchers who concentrate on more visible, permanent forms of urban land use. At certain times of the year, however, especially at seasons of peak rainfall, many Third World cities are transformed by armies of "urban farmers" who till the open spaces to produce flourishing vegetable gardens and fields of grain and fruit.