Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 13
Compost: A Tool to Sustainable Urban and
Peri-Urban Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa?
Blaise Pascal Bougnom, Onana Boyomo, Dieudonné Nwaga,
Jean Justin Essia Ngang and François Xavier Etoa
Abstract
Africa, with around one billion inhabitants is the world's second largest
and most-populous continent after Asia, the majority of this population live in cities
and generate urge amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) which constitute a seri-
ous threat to the health of the residents and the environment. Urban and Peri-urban
agriculture (UPA), an activity that was developed in African cities in response to the
structural adjustments programmes in 1990s is becoming more and more intensive
with the continuous raising population. Composting MSW represents an economi-
cally, environmentally and socially advantage that could inspire all stakeholders
involved in urban planning, within an integrated municipal waste management sys-
tem, since the MSW that is daily generated has a significant percentage of organic
waste that could be easily recycle within the cities in order to close the carbon cycle.
Keywords
Urban agriculture
·
Sub-Saharan Africa
·
Sustainable development
13.1
Introduction
According to the United Nations (
2008
), it is estimated that 76.9 % of population in
low and middle income countries will live in the cities by 2020. The world's urban
population is projected to grow by more than a billion people between 2010 and
2025, while the rural population will hardly grow at all. In 1900, worldwide, the ra-
tio of rural dwellers to urban dwellers was 1:6.7, and this ratio is projected to be 3:2
by 2025. Africa, with more than one billion inhabitants located in 61 countries is the
world's second largest and most-populous continent after Asia, with approximately
60 % rural and 40 % urban dwellers; the urban population growth rate is 6.6 % per
annum while the rural growth rate is static (0 %) (Earthtrends
2008
). The world's
urban population exceeded its rural population for the first time in 2008; the rapid
