Beacon Mbiba

In: UA Magazine No. 11 - Availability, Access and Usability of Land for Urban Agriculture

This paper looks at under-utilisation of urban agricultural land in the London Borough of Bexley and considers the challenges that municipal officials face in making decisions about the future use of such land. Whereas the financial costs and benefits for alternative land use are clear, those for urban agriculture are not. Essentially, technical decisions on the use of land are made with an eye on local politics and pressures from competing constituencies. In the highly populated residential areas, like in Kenya, where arable land to cultivate is too scarce to facilitate meaningful farming, vegetables can be grown in space-confined gardens, like bags.