Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
increase of urban population is source of worries since it leads to a rapid increase
in urban poverty, environmental pollution and food insecurity (Satterthwaite et al.
2010
). The low income of this very large urban population worldwide put their
health and nutritional status at risk from any staple food price rise (Cohen and Gar-
rett
2009
). To meet the food needs, agricultural activities has been developed by
urban dwellers in the cities, 200 million peoples are reported to be employed in ur-
ban farming and related enterprises, contributing to the food supply of 800 million
urban dwellers (UNDP
1996
).
Urban and Peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is the keeping of livestock or the pro-
duction of crops for sale or consumption within the city limits; it is well established
that UPA addresses the three global goals on food security (FAO
2008
), i.e., (i)
sustainable increases in food production and availability, (ii) economic and social
progress and, (iii) sustainable management and use of natural resources.
UPA require large amount of inputs, including plant nutrients and should cope
with proper management of urban towns, on the other hand, the management of mu-
nicipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the most serious environmental problems that
is facing the cities in sub-Saharan Africa since MSW generated, when inefficiently
managed and responsible of bad odours, water pollution, proliferation of pests that
constitute a serious threat to the health of the residents. Landfilling of organic waste
is reported to be the major contributor to the increase of Greenhouse gas (GHG)
emission in sub-Saharan Africa; developing countries were responsible for about
29 % of these emissions in the year 2000, and this share is predicted to increase to
64 % in 2030 and 76 % in 2050 (Monni et al.
2006
).
Achieving food security in the cities requires increasing the productivity while
taking into account the sustainability of the farming system. Chemical fertilizers
are generally recommended to subsistence farmers, but their high cost prevents
its use, and moreover, they are found to be responsible of water and groundwa-
ter pollution from nitrates sources and the decline of soil quality; therefore, a
policy of substituting inorganic to organic fertilizers should be seriously envis-
aged since the amount of organic waste that is daily produced in the cities is not
a limiting factor.
Composting of MSW appears to be a possibility to cope with the management of
organic wastes in the cities as well as to provide UPA with organic fertilizers.
The intensification practices of agriculture in an urban environment, waste
management and sanitary issues related to agriculture, as well as institutional inter-
actions between urban farmers and municipalities, together create important chal-
lenges to urban governance (Parrot et al.
2009
). The transformation of UPA into a
legitimate and viable economic activity in addressing food insecurity, unemploy-
ment and poverty while ensuring sustainable environmental management and mini-
mal health risks required adequate policies and programmes (Page
2002
; Zezza and
Tasciotti
2010
).
The present chapter evaluates the potential that represents composting MSW for
sustainable UPA.
