Abstract
Urban farming takes advantage of its proximity to market, transport and other urban infrastructure to provide food for the city and sustain the livelihoods of urban and peri-urban dwellers. It is an agricultural activity which employs more than 50% of the local urban population with positive and negative impacts on local and national development. Urban agriculture is an informal activity not supported by law but in practice is regulated to a certain extent by state institutions, traditional rulers, farmers and national and international non-governmental organisations. Tamale’s rapid population growth, exacerbated by the unplanned development system and institutional conflicts, are factors contributing to the present bottlenecks in the urban agricultural system. In this paper, these bottlenecks are conceptualised as problems of governance. These issues will be illustrated using ethnographic data from land sales, crop-livestock competition, waste-water irrigation, and markets. I will explain how conflicts which arise from these different situations are resolved through the interactions of various governance systems. Informal governance arrangements are widespread, but neither they nor formal systems are always successful in resolving governance issues. A participatory governance does not seem possible due to actors’ divergent interests. A governance solution for this sector is not yet apparent, contributing to food and nutritional insecurity.
Highlights
Urban agriculture is still considered a rural activity in many African cities as it does not fit in with the modern city model [1], as the case of Tamale
Urban agriculture in the Tamale metropolitan area in Northern Ghana could potentially contribute to food and nutritional security at the local and national level [1,3] when it is integrated into the spatial planning system of the country [4]
There exist certain bottlenecks which constrain urban farming in many African cities, and Tamale is not an exception [1,9]. These could be conceptualised as ambiguous institutional governance systems which exist at multiple scales and levels due to the way resource politics plays out especially in the urban sphere
Summary
There exist certain bottlenecks which constrain urban farming in many African cities, and Tamale is not an exception [1,9]. These could be conceptualised as ambiguous institutional governance systems which exist at multiple scales and levels due to the way resource politics plays out especially in the urban sphere. This paper explain everyday governance processes that shape urban agricultural practices, thereby meeting the gap described by [1]. It will further describe how the diverse interests of actors influence the functioning of urban agriculture through its governance mechanism, with implications for the sector’s contribution to the city’s development in the short and long term
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