Urban agriculture and food security in developing countries: a case study of Eldoret Municipality, Kenya

Abstract

As many parts of the world are facing an ever increasing challenge of urbanization, absolute and relative growth in urban poverty and food insecurity are becoming a challenge. Urban Agriculture (UA) which entails production, processing and selling of food and other products within and around cities and towns is gaining ground as a mitigating measure to these challenges in many urban centres worldwide. There is now a general recognition of the importance of UA in most countries of the world and in the African continent in particular. Available literature shows that over the past ten (10) years, rapid growth in interest and activity in UA has increased tremendously (Urban Harvest, 2008, Mbiba, 1998, 1999; Lee- Smith, 1998). Urban Agriculture could therefore become an instrument that could tackle household food insecurity if geared towards increasing urban food production and employment by encouraging productive participation in urban development. According to the United Nations Habitat, UA in many cities play a critical role in sustaining the integrity of the environment and in contributing significantly to the attainment of food self-reliance by improvement of livelihoods of the urban poor, through cultivation of a wide range of crops and rearing of livestock with substantial yields. However UA still receives the least priority in many countries, particularly in the area of development planning (United Nations, 2005; UN-Habitat, 2006). This paper investigated the contribution of Urban Agriculture to the food security of residents of Eldoret Municipality, Kenya with the aim of laying the foundation for future policy formulation for Urban Agriculture in Kenya.