Abstract
Urban farming, practiced by about 800 million people globally, has contributed significantly to food security and food safety. The practice has sustained livelihood of the urban and peri-urban low income dwellers in developing countries for many years. Its popularity among the urban low income is largely due to lack of formal jobs and as a means of adding up to household income. There is increasing need to sustainably manage urban farming in developing nations in recent times. Population increase due to rural-urban migration and natural, coupled with infrastructure developments are competing with urban farming for available space and scarce resources such as water for irrigation. Lack of reliable data on the extent of urban/peri-urban areas being used for farming has affected developing sustainable policies to manage urban farming in Accra. Using ground based survey methods to map the urban farmlands are inherently problematic and prohibitively expensive. This has influenced accurate assessment of the future role of urban farming in enhancing food security. Remote sensing, however, allows areas being used as urban farmlands to be rapidly established at relatively low cost. This paper will review advances in the use of remote sensing technology to develop an integrated monitoring technique for urban farmlands in Accra.
Highlights
Urban farming, a phenomenon that can be observed worldwide, is a widely practiced industry that has existed for a long time
This paper presents an overview of the advances in the use of remote sensing technology to develop an integrated monitoring technique for urban farmlands in Accra and how the information derived can be used to develop sustainable policies for urban farming in developing countries
A recent project by [48] in Dar es Salam, Tanzania used remote sensing and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to map out vegetable production in open spaces
Summary
A phenomenon that can be observed worldwide, is a widely practiced industry that has existed for a long time. In considering the broad development and sustainability of urban farming practices, many assumptions are often made. This is with regard, to the likely risks and public health hazards of the practice to urban farmers, market workers and the consumers of the products. The benefits that accrue from urban farming, such as increased availability of fresh crops, especially vegetables, and contributions to food security and sustainable livelihoods, are often underestimated and undervalued. Urban farming has assumed global concern and become a topic of scientific research in recent years. This is because the increasing growth of hunger in most parts of the world, especially in developing nations, has presented a huge challenge to governments. The World Bank [2]
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