Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Urban Farming in South African Low-Income Settlements: A Case Study in Durban

Abstract

Growing urban centres have been attracting ever higher numbers of rural migrants, including small-scale farmers, looking for better opportunities due to the rise of large-scale farming, loss of land and climate change. Consequently, there has been an increase in the number of spontaneous and informal settlements being constructed as cities do not keep up with the planning and infrastructure development for new arrivals. Urban dwellers in informal, unplanned settlements where issues of land tenure and access to services are prevalent have, consequently, been exposed to precarious living conditions with limited access to food and water scarcity. Urban agriculture (UA) strategies have been adopted by those residents to alleviate poverty and food insecurity, and have been seen to perform other functions, such as environmental, social, cultural and developmental. This study explores challenges and opportunities for sustainable urban farming as an integrated environmental management strategy for the upgrading of informal settlements in three case studies in Durban. This paper demonstrates the need for municipalities to support community driven processes to ensure sustainability of UA initiatives and sustained investment for maintenance. Policy makers need to create an enabling environment for academics, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector to co-develop water efficient solutions to manage the food-water nexus and capitalise on localised community structures and groups, such as co-operatives and women groups.

Perceptions of the Challenges and Opportunities of Utilising Organic Waste through Urban Agriculture in the Durban South Basin

“…Although the effect of urban agriculture to the economy remains unquantified, its practice is commonly postulated to play a significant role in society, for example, that it offers benefits and opportunities to urban dwellers [50]. The results confirm the view that urban farming creates environmental awareness in urban communities.…”

Practices and Barriers to Sustainable Urban Agriculture: A Case Study of Louisville, Kentucky

“…Skilled and experienced urban growers are critically needed, especially in the case of low-income neighborhoods in Louisville's West End [45,60]. Past research suggests a strong correlation between age, experience, and farm productivity [45,46,60]. Better farming performance ideally comes with experience, skills, and knowledge [46].…”

“…Many factors influence the adoption of sustainable urban farming, including the age and the level of education of urban farmers, their knowledge about innovative sustainable farming practices, farm size, and access to resources, tools, and data [42,43]. Land availability, which affects farm size and lack of funds to access other resources, are commonly accepted barriers to urban agriculture [44][45][46]. Soil contamination with heavy metals and other chemicals is considered a major health risk associated with urban agriculture [47][48][49][50], and parts of West Louisville host some chemical plants, landfills, and brownfields [51,52].…”

Sustainable Urban Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of a Coupled Single-Loop Aquaponics System in Nigeria

“…These are farming practices 'within and surrounding the boundaries' of a city, providing food products from crops, livestock and fisheries, forestry products, non-wood forest products, and environmental services (FAO, 1999). In most cities in sub-Saharan Africa, urban farming is a common coping strategy of the poor to prevalent poverty and food insecurity, and sometimes a means to generate additional income (Nkrumah, 2019;Bisaga et al 2019;Gray, 2020). Urban farming may boost the availability and continuous access to food, and alleviate poverty (Bisaga et al, 2019;Nkrumah, 2019;Gray et al 2020;Junge et al 2020).…”

“…In most cities in sub-Saharan Africa, urban farming is a common coping strategy of the poor to prevalent poverty and food insecurity, and sometimes a means to generate additional income (Nkrumah, 2019;Bisaga et al 2019;Gray, 2020). Urban farming may boost the availability and continuous access to food, and alleviate poverty (Bisaga et al, 2019;Nkrumah, 2019;Gray et al 2020;Junge et al 2020). For food produced within the urban ecosystem, the urban dwellers tend to have improved access to more diverse, 'fresh and nutritious food' e.g.…”