Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1983). The N'sele and N'djili Rivers are both important tributaries of the
Congo River in the region of Kinshasa (Fluoriot et al, 1975; Van Caillie, 1983).
Kinshasa is surrounded by numerous local rivers which drain the hills encircling
the city and influence its climate. Kinshasa has a humid tropical climate
characterized by a rainy season and a dry season (Crabbe, 1980; Van Caillie,
1983).
Kinshasa occupies 9965.2 km
2
, of which only 600 km
2
is residential land,
indicating that the city has a vast peri-urban area where urban development
has yet to occur (de Saint-Moulin, 1976; INS, 1991). The city is divided into
24 communes and has a population of five million (Ministe` re du Plan, 2004),
including more than 40,000 market gardeners.
The formal large-scale practice of market gardening in Kinshasa began in
1954-1956, when the Belgian agronomist Voldeker established the first two
market-gardening centres in Kinshasa - the N'djili and Kimbanseke centres -
to produce vegetables and exotic fruits destined for Europeans living in
Kinshasa (Symposium des Organizations et Dynamiques Maraıˆ che` res, 2004).
In 2004, the Ministry of Rural Development reported that 90 per cent of the
vegetables consumed in Kinshasa are produced by market gardeners living in
Kinshasa (Symposium des Organizations et Dynamiques Maraıˆ che` res, 2004).
C
ONCEPTS
,O
BJECTIVES AND
H
YPOTHESIS
Mougeot (2005) has defined UA as an industry that is localized inside a city
(intra-urban) or on the periphery (peri-urban) and distributes a variety of food
and non-food products, uses human and material resources and provides
products and services to satisfy the needs of an urban population. According
to Autissier (1994), market gardening is the production of annual plants
(shrubby or herbaceous) in a delimited agrarian space, generally exploited
intensively, whose yield is sold in fairly large quantities and may be used as
ingredients for sauces or salads. Several studies have described the
organization of UA in various countries (Due, 1986; Lele, 1986; Barry, 2005;
Tallaki, 2005). Hovorka (2005) and others have described the importance of
analysing gender when studying UA.
The water needed for urban farming is often provided by both raw and
treated wastewater in many developing countries (Mara and Cairncross,
1991). While it is ideal that water used for farming be treated before it is used,
the effectiveness and scale of treatment often limits the availability of safe
irrigation water. Farmers are then exposed to health risks as they end up using
lower-quality waters. Wastewater can be treated in numerous ways, and the
type of treatment determines the final use of the wastewater (Eckenfelder,
1982; Bontoux, 1983; Mukana and Kifuani, 2000; Kifuani, 2004).
This study had the following objectives:
1
Identify the structure, organization, characteristics and constraints of UA in
Kinshasa
