Abstract:

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is an increasingly important phenomenon
throughout Africa. The vast majority of urban farmers are women, and most live in lowincome households. Urban farming is typically a survival strategy to improve household
food security and, in some cases, increase incomes. Yet, urban farmers throughout the
developing world generally benefit little from agricultural research. The lack of attention
to urban agriculture by agricultural researchers is also reflected in the focus of the
growing literature on the subject. Many studies have been conducted on the social and
economic benefits of UPA (e.g. Sawio, 1993; Mougeot, 1994; Maxwell, 1995; Sawio,
1998), access to land, legal and policy aspects (Maxwell, 1995), health and nutritional
aspects, environmental (Rose, 1999) and gender related issues (Hovorka, 1998; Hasna,
1998), and a considerable literature exists on urban agriculture in Uganda (Kimeze,
2002). However, less attention has been given to a diagnosis of technical constraints and
generating agricultural technologies appropriate to urban farmers.