Urban agric boon for income opportunities

MAUREEN Mubanga has made it a point to grow vegetables in her backyard for domestic consumption.

Growing a variety of vegetables also gives 45-year-old Mubanga, an elementary teacher, some extra income which she uses to supplement her monthly earnings.

Vegetable cultivation is something she has been doing for the past three years. She grows almost all vegetables from her garden, which gives her more than enough for domestic consumption, and sells excess to her colleagues.

For most urban populations, urban agriculture is not a new development. City dwellers and persons from peri-urban areas have long been using unoccupied areas for agricultural production. What is probably new is the commercialisation of the practice.

It has become increasingly common for individuals and communities to be engaged in some form of agricultural activities to ensure household food security as well as enhance nutritional needs.

This is case for 60-year-old Patrick Daka. For Daka, who has for over five years been involved in vegetable cultivation to supplement his family’s income, the exercise has enabled him to pay his children’s school fees and to meet other domestic needs.

He gets approximately US$100 from selling vegetables every month, and this has greatly helped him and his family to stay afloat financially.

Besides growing a variety of vegetables, he also uses his gardening space to cultivate sugarcane and maize, for consumption as well as for sale.

Aside from vegetable production, an increasing number of urban dwellers are also turning to livestock production for sustenance and as an income-generating venture. Piggery, fish farming and poultry production are some of the ventures that populations in the aforementioned areas are involved in.

Farming not only provides households with food, but also helps individuals to stay active.

It is practically impossible to lead a sedentary life when one is involved in agriculture because it requires one to be up and about.

Agriculture is not only a fulfilling venture, but also one that offers urban dwellers opportunities to earn a living from, more so now with the increase in population.

In terms of opportunities, urban agriculture is providing smallscale resellers with produce that is readily available, thereby cutting down costs.

Urban agriculture expands the economic base of the city through production, processing, packaging and marketing of consumable products. This, in turn, increases business and entrepreneurial activities and creates jobs.

In urban areas where people need to spend a lot of financial resources to survive, agriculture helps to increase savings in household expenditure on consumables, which increases the amount of financial resources allocated to other needs.

Urban Farmer