Healthy City Harvests: Generating Evidence to Guide Policy on Urban Agriculture

In this accessible and policy-relevant volume, contributors discuss urban agriculture in Kampala utilizing the diverse perspectives of public health, human rights and good governance. Urban agriculture has long been recognized for its potential to enhance food security, improve nutrition and strengthen livelihoods. Urban agriculture is also extremely prevalent in Uganda, for example, a survey found that around half of Kampala’s households produced some of their own food (page 4). Kampala’s city council revised its ordinances in 2006 to support urban agriculture and enhance the monitoring, licensing and control of farming practices. The book is the product of several institutions, including Makerere University and the University of Toronto, whose research partly informed Kampala’s revised ordinances. Contributors examine the governance processes behind these reforms and discuss community perceptions, health impacts and risk management strategies among farmers in Kampala. The volume combines policy recommendations, health assessments and participatory research. It promotes urban agriculture as crucial to healthy and sustainable cities, while also seeking to improve the evidence base on its health risks and forging policies to mitigate them.

#Throughout the book’s five sections, the authors present original case studies as well as commentaries on key themes and future areas of research. Section A explores the perspectives of major stakeholders namely, local farmers (Chapter 2), health researchers (Chapter 3) and municipal officials (Chapter 4). The next three sections contain detailed studies: Section B on food security and nutrition, Section C on healthy horticulture and Section D on urban livestock (chicken rearing and dairies). In Chapter 6, researchers report that urban agriculture was associated with dietary diversity and improved child Vitamin A status. Chapter 11, on Kampala’s dairies, includes a discussion of “indigenous risk mitigation” strategies, which are said to illustrate “…the benefits attainable by encouraging good practices already present” (page 206). Section E concludes with an account of Kampala’s urban agriculture ordinance reforms (Chapter 12) and a broader discussion of urban agriculture’s relation with good governance and sustainable development (Chapter 13). It is too early to assess the ordinance’s impact but the example helps illustrate participatory research and governance processes that may strengthen public decision-making (page 242).

Acknowledging that urban agriculture may present significant risks, the authors propose policy guidelines and several health interventions. City officials should educate consumers on healthy horticultural preparation, provide clean water in markets, promote safer crop selection and improve water sources (pages 171–172). Distinct strategies are needed to reduce risks from biological and chemical contaminants. Urban livestock management can be enhanced through better sanitation, refrigeration, food surveillance programmes and other educational interventions. Many households who raised chickens already immunized their flocks but had not adopted other strategies such as protective clothes. Future interventions may need to recognize gender differences, as many female farmers in Kampala had lower levels of knowledge concerning urban agriculture’s health risks.