The Sunday News
Lungile Tshuma Business Correspondent
URBAN farmers have been challenged to improve their harvest as urban agriculture has proven to be one of the major sources of food security and employment with reports that 36 percent of urban farmers’ income is solely from urban agriculture.
Zimbabwe used $4 million to import fresh vegetables from South Africa and there are fears that if this is not dealt with, the country could lose $16 million this year importing produce that is locally available.
Urban farmers have an advantage of proximity to the market in selling fresh vegetables than their counterparts in rural areas.
Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP) urban agriculture and environmental planning co-ordinator Mr Takawira Mubvami said the country could stop importing fresh vegetables as urban farmers had the capacity to farm and still regard farming as an important source of income.
He said urban farming was in line with the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation’s food security and nutrition cluster.
“Earnings are still low, around $75-$90 per month for the majority. Two percent of the farmers earn around $200 per month. By encouraging urban farming, we are also creating jobs while at the same time tackling issues of nutrition and food security,” said Mr Mubvami attributing the low returns to poor marketing of products by urban farmers.
“About 40 percent of all the green leafy vegetables consumed in towns are now locally produced. The figure could be higher given the fact that most people are now trying to reduce their budgets on food by producing for themselves.
About 25-30 percent of urban households are also now self-sufficient in terms of producing the staple maize, for example, producing enough which will take them through to the next season, particularly for those with access to large pieces of land.”
He noted that urban farmers had been reluctant to put more money in farming in the urban to peri-urban areas because of the land ownership problems that characterise urban farming. As a result of such problems, he said farmers ended up take farming as a leisure activity.
“Farmers have also not invested much into urban farming because of the problems of security of tenure in urban areas. Digging wells to augment water supply or improving soil quality has been limited because farmers know that they can be kicked out from the land at any time. There is a need to engage the authorities so that farmers can get secure tenure and invest more in urban agriculture to improve their harvests.”
Urban agriculture is increasingly becoming a source of employment for many as studies have shown that 39 percent of urban agriculture farmers have been unemployed for over 12 months while 36 percent of urban farmers indicate that urban farming is their only source of income.
