Kenya: Urban agriculture thrives in Nairobi during COVID-19 crisis

This presents an opportunity for policy makers to design and implement urban agriculture policies that support localised food systems and short food supply chains.

By Sam Ikua,
Mazingira Institute
RUAF
June 11, 2020

Excerpt:

Jemimah, 44, produces vegetables in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum. She acknowledged that her sales have increased during the current crisis, saying “I now have a high number of customers because there are not many vegetables available in the market from upcountry nowadays”. As people are not allowed to travel, they now buy from her farm which is in the neighbourhood. Jemimah attributes her continued production, despite the cessation of movement, to local access of inputs. She gets manure from livestock keepers in her area and seeds from local agro-vets. She also plants vegetables in different stages, noting that, “when I finish harvesting some, there are others already mature for harvesting and others are ready for planting”. This keeps the production constant.

With many people preferring to stay at home, David, 55, a dairy cattle producer, has also experienced an increase in customers. He attributes this to his home delivery services, as people do not want to go out for shopping. The lack of movement in Nairobi has not affected his access to inputs since he sources them locally.

Joyce, 40, rears indigenous chickens for eggs. As she feeds them kitchen waste and vegetable cuttings from the farm, they are not costly to maintain and she has been able to continue production as normal. Joyce says, “my production cost is low, hence I have not increased the price even though there is shortage of eggs in the market”. Similarly, her sales have not been affected because many customers are within the neighbourhood and they just walk to the farm.

In another part of the city, a group of 35 youth, some of them homeless, grow vegetables and herbs in a public space. Since the space is limited, they use urban agriculture technologies such as container and sack gardening. They farm for subsistence and income, using the money to buy maize flour to cook a meal of ugali. In a time when regular food supply is not assured, urban agriculture has proved to be an effective intervention against food insecurity for the group and their neighbours. They are still selling to community members and they say their sales have not been affected by the current crisis. Stephen, a member of the group, says, “Our customers are still coming. They like our products because they are organic”. Just like other small-scale farmers, they get manure from the neighbours and seeds from local agro-vets. The cessation of movement has not affected their production as they access all their inputs locally.

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