L'HORTICULTURE URBAINE A OUAGADOUGOU: CARACTERISATION ET PROSPECTIVE

Abstract

Horticulture in urban areas is a solution to real problems such as food security, unemployment, social integration, environment issues, green space creation and so on. Nevertheless, in spite of its vital functions in developing countries, urban horticulture suffers from a lack of recognition and carries little economic weight. This is explained by its use of scarce resources and the health and environmental risks associated with its practice. This situation is well put in evidence in the specific case of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, the city that features as the subject of field research conducted for this article. The study aims at making a forward-looking analysis of the agricultural activity in this city and to supply information for the decision-making support relative to its expansion. The characterization made from field data unveils an activity dominated by truck farming that provisions the urban markets of the city with more than 90% of its intake of fruits and vegetables. Truck farmers are subjected to the scarcity and controversial availability of land and water resources, as well as to the rudimentary character of the equipments used, the poor quality of soils, and the health risks associated with the use of untreated waste water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The skills of Ouagadougou’s farmers are not adequate enough to sustain a prosperous agricultural activity. Indeed, most of them had no formal schooling or training and do not have the required knowledge of agro-pedagogical, economic, environmental and sanitary issues. The key challenge facing the development of the agricultural activity in Ouagadougou is land use and access and the insecurity that deters investors from committing resources to the development of the sector. A spatial inventory reveals the existence of 102 agricultural sites distributed on 35 zones. This inventory proves that far from receding or being pushed aside, the agricultural activity does not stop growing in spite of a quasi-ban due to the “fuzzy” legal character that surrounds it and the constraints that characterizes it. The adoption of the SDAGO horizon 2025, a national large-scale document adopted during the Council of Ministers, designates green spaces to be rehabilitated on the municipality’s territory. It is then the ideal springboard to give to this space all its enriching functions and turn urban horticulture in Ouagadougou into a practice that can contribute to the to the real construction of Mougeot’s (2006) agricultural cities or cities of the future.