Urban farming increasingly being encouraged
Date: 08/12/2009
Introduction:
Many urban workers across Africa are increasing their incomes through absentee agriculture. With prices for basic foodstuffs at their highest levels in decades, many urbanites feel well rewarded by farming. Absentee agriculture also bolsters national pride – and pride in traditional diets – by specialising in vegetables specific to the region. "For too long our country has been flooded with imported food and westernised foods," Wangari from Kenya says. "This is our time to fight back – and grow our own." Across Africa, political leaders, long dismissive of rural concerns, have woken up to the importance of agriculture and the role that educated people, even those living in major cities, can play in farming. In Nigeria, former president Olusegun Obasanjo has a huge diversified farm and has pushed for policies to help absentee farmers prosper. In Uganda, the vice-president routinely travels the country, promoting higher-value farming, such as dairy production. Perhaps the most visible political support for absentee agriculture is in Liberia, a small west African country where civil war destroyed agriculture, rendering the population dependent on food imports, even today. The president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, recognising that educated people could contribute much to an agriculture revival, has launched a "Back to the Soil" campaign in large part to encourage urban dwellers to farm. (Source: the Guardian, 2 November 2009)
