Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Gender and urban agriculture
According to Hovorka (2005), women have limited access to agricultural land
and only 4.5 per cent participated in UA. When provided with adequate land,
however, women were more ecient producers than men, which agrees with
Scanlan (2004), who commented that women's role in agriculture covers all
the production stages, which include acquisition, processing and preparation.
UA in Malawi is dominated by men and high-income people who are able to
invest and undertake UA as a 'luxury' livelihood strategy, and are able to
access information, private and expensive agricultural consultants/experts and
agro-input.
Urban agriculture and education
Education is known to be a major determinant of living standards, and
information on education and literacy status is essential for planning and
evaluation of existing policies; and statistics for Malawi showed that the majority
of poor farmers were illiterate (World Bank, 1986; Government of Malawi,
2005a). Correlation between education and food security reveals that another
challenge for the policy makers to surmount before the country can achieve
sustainable UA is literacy: the majority of people in Malawi remain illiterate.
Production constraints
Different social groups cited different constraints including access to land, poor
product presentation, unstructured markets, lack of government support and
shortage of extension services (see also Maxwell, 1995). UA was one of the
livelihood strategies for the many low-income households, but street vending
and small-medium enterprises are preferred to farming. This observation
confirms Ellis's (2000) comment that diversification into different sources of
income has been used as a mechanism by poor households, especially in the
informal market, and should be taken into consideration in urban development
issues (Mougeot, 2005b). An increased consumption of street food has negative
consequences on the nutrition and health status of the people due to a shift in
dietary patterns (Ruel et al, 1999; quoted by Kennedy, 2003).
C
ONCLUSION AND
P
OLICY
R
ECOMMENDATIONS
Urban residents in Malawi engaged in agricultural activities mainly for
consumption irrespective of their socio-economic status. However, many
households did not consider urban farming as a commercial entity due to lack
of support from the government and other institutions. The study has shown
that it represents a safety net to marginal female-headed and low-income
households. If the development strategy remains as it is in rural Malawi (to
provide improved living conditions to the poor and disadvantaged societies),
then government policies should encourage collective groups that would
practise farming as a business.
