A review of practices for sustaining urban and peri-urban agriculture: Implications for land use planning in rapidly urbanising Ghanaian cities
Introduction
Rapid urbanisation, mainly in terms of high population growth, continues to pose substantial threats to the sustainability of cities in the global south. This phenomenon threatens urban ecological services, social stability, and health systems (Cobbinah et al., 2015a; Lester et al., 2016; UNDESA/PD, 2013). Current population predictions present a gloomy picture for the future. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division (UNDESA/PD, 2013) forecasts that the world’s urban population will grow by 60% by 2050, which implies an absolute increase of about 2.5 billion people. Out of this number, 90% will live in Africa and Asia, where the struggle to meet the demands of the ever-growing urban population is more intense.
The rapid growth of the urban population has also had implications for the rising demand for urban land, which in turn results in higher land values (Appiah et al., 2017; Pribadi and Pauleit, 2015; Thuo, 2013). These high land values have fuelled the leapfrog development that characterises many cities in the global south. The leapfrog development emanates from non-agricultural land users’ annexation of cheaper lands in the urban peripheries (Cobbinah and Aboagye, 2017; Cobbinah and Amoako, 2012; Martellozzo et al., 2015; Naab et al., 2013). For instance, in Bangladesh, 1% of agricultural land is lost to non-agricultural uses annually (Halim et al., 2013), while between 1993 and 2007, a third of the total agricultural land in Hanoi, Vietnam was converted to non-agricultural uses (Pham et al., 2015). Similarly, in Tamale in Ghana, approximately 60% of new urban development takes place on agricultural lands at the urban periphery (Naab et al., 2013). The implication is that uncontrolled urbanisation prices out agricultural land use from the urban land use system (Amponsah et al., 2015b). Alonso’s bid-rent theory attributes this phenomenon to agricultural land users’ low bid-rent, which implies their inability to compete with non-agricultural land users for space within the cities.
Removing agricultural land use from a city’s land use system, however, has the tendency to undermine its economic, social and ecological sustainability efforts. The environmental cost (for instance, loss of ecosystem services, pollution from poor urban sanitation and waste management) associated with urban sprawl can be enormous; therefore, there is a need for policy makers and city managers to implement measures to help protect the natural environment of cities (Glaeser, 2013). The development of urban agriculture presents an opportunity for cities to preserve the urban environment while simultaneously promoting social and economic benefits. This claim is based on the profound roles urban and peri-urban agriculture, particularly crop farming, plays in the sustainability of communities. For instance, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (2012), urban agriculture is currently an important international development issue because of the rising levels of urban poverty and food shortages in Africa. In most African cities, agriculture, comprises the production of food and the rearing of domestic livestock (Binns and Nel, 2013). The outputs from these agricultural activities help to supplement the nutritional needs and food budget of the urban poor. Prain and Lee-Smith (2010) disclose that urban agriculture provides 8% of the protein and 40% of the calcium intake of urban dwellers in Yaounde, Cameroun. Also, 25% of the vegetables that are produced in Yaounde are consumed by the farmers themselves (Prain and Lee-Smith, 2010). Urban agriculture, therefore, helps to reduce the urban poor’s expenditure on food.
Apart from the economic and social benefits, urban agriculture also renders ecological and political services to cities. The ecological services include air quality enhancement and the regulation of water resources in cities (Lin et al., 2015). Politically, urban farms support political activism and volunteerism in cities. For instance, when compared to the general population, urban farmers in New York City are more politically active and more likely to engage in voluntary works for community development (Obach and Tobin, 2014; Pole and Gray, 2013). Similarly, in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, urban farms served as an important ground for political campaigns during the 2010 election (McLees, 2016).
The literature covered in the present study reveals the multi-functional roles of urban agriculture in the sustainability of cities. These roles are summed up as a) food security (see: Ackerman et al., 2014; Opitz et al., 2016; Specht et al., 2013), b) ecosystem services (see: Camps-calvet et al., 2015; Lin et al., 2015), c) employment creation and income generation (see: Darkey et al., 2014; International Labour Organization, 2013; Zezza and Tasciotti, 2010), and d) socio-political functions (see: Bradley and Galt, 2013; Jacques and Collins, 2003; Obach and Tobin, 2014; Ober Allen et al., 2008; Pole and Gray, 2013; Prain and Lee-Smith, 2010; Schnell, 2007; Travaline and Hunold, 2010). In this regard, city authorities should strive to promote and sustain agriculture in the city landscape as they contribute to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (11th Sustainable Development Goal [SDG]). The ecological functions of urban agriculture can mitigate the adverse environmental impact of cities (SDG target 11.6) and enhance people’s access to green spaces (SDG target 11.7). Similarly, the socio-economic functions of urban and peri-urban agriculture can improve the links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas (SDG target 11a) and promote resource-use efficiency and enhance climate change adaptation (SDG target 11b). Furthermore, the employment and income generation potentials of urban and peri-urban agriculture can accelerate poverty reduction (SDG 1). For this study, the term ‘sustaining’ agriculture refers to the continuous growth of agriculture within cities as these cities urbanise.
There is a litany of recommendations on how to sustain urban and peri-urban agriculture in the conventional literature. The known recommendations include securing the right of homeowners to grow crops in their front yard, allowing for on-site sales from urban farms, enabling local growers to have apprentices and interns and allowing gardening as a principal or accessory use of a property (Hendrickson and Porth, 2012). The other recommendations are reviewing land use/city zoning and planning controls, government acquisition and provision of land, offset benefits, differentiated agrarian taxes, rebates for farm inputs and subsidies to sustain production in difficult circumstances (Pearson et al., 2010; Pribadi and Pauleit, 2015). These recommendations may be relevant to cities in both the global north and south. However, case studies that consider these recommendations in the light of the space constraints in cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are less common in the conventional literature.
Therefore, practices that can adapt to the increasing space constraints in rapidly urbanising cities could hold prospects for the sustenance of agriculture in the city landscape. On this basis, the purpose of this article is to review the literature on the “best” practices for sustaining urban (peri-urban) agriculture in an era of growing land scarcity and discuss their implications for land use planning in Ghana, which is a Sub-Saharan African country experiencing rapid urbanisation. The value of this study to the conventional literature and the advancement of science is its analysis of the proposals in the context of cities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The study included peri-urban agriculture due to the rapid transition of peri-urban areas to urban status and the threats this poses to agriculture in these areas. The implication is that the land constraints that undermine the sustenance of agriculture in the cities are prevalent in the peri-urban areas but only different in intensity. Therefore, any endeavour to promote agriculture and enhance its roles in the economic, social and ecological sustainability of cities should consider the peri-urban areas. These peri-urban areas hold brighter prospects for food crop diversification to include cereals, root and tubers, which are uncommon within the cities. This means that without peri-urban agriculture, there is the tendency to limit the discourse on the role of agriculture in cities to vegetables and herbs, whose calorie contents are low. However, many authors hardly distinguish between the concepts of urban and peri-urban agriculture. Following the work of Opitz et al. (2016), urban agriculture is distinguished from peri-urban agriculture based on their spatial characteristics, ecological features and socio-economic attributes.
Geographically, Opitz et al. (2016) observed that peri-urban agriculture means residual agricultural activities that occur in the transitional zones between cities and the rural areas. In relation to urban areas, peri-urban areas are characterised by lower population densities, relatively poor infrastructure and larger land areas for agriculture (Piorr et al., 2011). The agricultural activities that take places in this area are characterised by: a) low land use conflicts due to the legal status of the farms, and b) the absence of space-related adaption even though there is pressure on the land due to price surges. On the other hand, urban agriculture occurs within the developed areas of the city system, and exhibits the following characteristics: a) small farm sizes, b) occurs in the forms of gardens, c) owners live near their farms, d) land use conflicts because they take place on non-agricultural lands, and e) adapts to the complexities of the society such as vertical farming (Opitz et al., 2016). Community gardens, allotments, backyard gardens and rooftop gardens from which vegetables and herbs remain the main produce typify this type of agriculture.
In terms of the ecological features, urban agriculture is known to utilise waste and recycled materials from plant residues after harvest or from kitchen waste (Mees and Stone, 2012), and depends on irrigation for all-year-round production (Ackerman, 2011). Regarding the socio-economic characteristics, urban agriculture involves gardeners who are usually local residents, migrants or children whereas farmers who are engaged in peri-urban agriculture are professionals (Armstrong, 2000). The motivation for engaging in urban agriculture include exercise and health, recreation, food provision, nature experience and supplemental income (Turner, 2011). On the other hand, the motivation for engaging in peri-urban agriculture is mainly income generation (Opitz et al., 2016) although household food production remains an essential factor. Based on these distinguishing features, the authors gather that peri-urban agriculture provides an important avenue for agricultural activities on scales that are larger than those within the densely-populated areas of the city systems. The vegetables and herbs from urban agriculture play nutritional roles while the high calorie-content foods from peri-urban agriculture make more profound contribution to food security. Therefore, urban and peri-urban agriculture together offer critical contributions to the sustainability of cities.
Section snippets
Nature of urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa is the least urbanised but fastest growing region in the world. As of 2010, two in five people in Africa lived in urban areas, although five decades earlier, only one in 10 people lived in urban areas (see Table 1). Forecasts indicate that by 2050, approximately three in five Africans will live in urban areas. This makes the region the fastest growing in the world (UNDESA/PD, 2012). Sub-regions such as Eastern Africa (4%) and West Africa (3.96%) contribute the most to Africa’s
Sources of data and methods of collection and analyses
The study relied solely on data from secondary sources. The term secondary data is used in this article to refer to data that are examined to respond to research questions that are different from the ones the original collector sought to answer (Vartanian, 2011). The study obtained the secondary data from internet sources (see Table 4). The authors began the research by first seeking to understand the role of urban and peri-urban agriculture in sustaining cities. Using phrases such as
Results of the study
As discussed in section 2 of this paper, land scarcity due to rapid urbanisation in the cities in Sub-Saharan Africa poses the most serious threat to the sustenance of urban crop farming. In this regard, the paper focusses on the practices that may promote the growth and sustenance of crop farming in the cities amidst the growing land scarcity. The authors identified seven practices from the global literature that have the potential to promote the growth and sustenance of urban crop farming.
Practices and strategies for the promotion of urban agriculture
Agriculture in urban and peri-urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa is under siege by urbanites who are acquiring land for non-agricultural purposes. The phenomenon undermines the sustenance of agriculture, and ultimately hampers its roles in the economic (Darkey et al., 2014; International Labour Organization, 2013; Zezza and Tasciotti, 2010), social (Hamilton et al., 2013; Walker, 2015) and ecological (Heather, 2012; Opitz et al., 2016) sustainability of cities and their peripheries. Therefore,
Conclusion
The formulation of appropriate policies with the requisite institutional structures in the management of cities will help create desirable, vibrant and aesthetic places to live (Troy, 2012). As much as Troy (2012) focused on energy efficient cities, the promotion of urban agriculture will go a long way to help city authorities in creating vibrant, healthy and energy efficient cities. Agriculture is known to play an important role in the economic, social and ecological sustainability of cities.
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