Survival Strategy or Business Training Ground? The Significance of Urban Agriculture for the Advancement of Women in African Cities

Abstract

Crop cultivation and the rearing of livestock in the open spaces of large third world cities have reached the point where their importance as a part of the urban informal sector can no longer be overlooked. In East Africa, several recent surveys have confirmed that urban cultivation, carried on largely by women, is both prevalent and vital to the livelihood of a significant proportion of the population (Freeman 1991; Rakodi 1988; Mazingira Institute 1987). These surveys complement a rather slim body of previous field research focused specifically on urban agriculture in Africa. Most of the latter deal with cities in Francophone central and west Africa (Vennettier 1988, 1972, 1961; Jeannin 1972; Morriniere 1972; Lassere 1958). A number deal with cultivation in the peri-urban fringe (Swindell 1988; Guyer 1987; Haubert 1985). The general conclusion of these studies is that many urban households, at all income levels, produce a considerable proportion of their own subsistence needs. The more recent evidence further suggests that, despite a relatively short history in large African cities like Nairobi, cultivation of open spaces by women seems set to become even more important in the years to come. By contrast, most studies dealing generally with African urban development and the informal sector have either ignored women cultivators altogether (International Labour Organization [ILO] 1985, 1972; Sandbrook 1982; House 1981; Rempel 1978; van Zwanenberg 1972), accorded their food-production efforts little real significance (Peil and Sada 1984, 59; Hake 1977), or viewed them as a subcategory of other, more visible activities of urban women entrepreneurs (Coquery-Vidrovitch 1991; Beavon and Rogerson 1990; Robertson 1976).