Dick Foeken & Samuel O. Owuor

In: UA Magazine 2 - Livestock in and around cities

In a survey done in 1999, basic information was collected on urban farming practices in Nakuru, Kenya. The main aim was to obtain a general overview of urban agriculture in this town for the local authorities in the context of their town planning exercises. Part of the survey covered several aspects of livestock keeping.

Safiétou Touré Fall

In: UA Magazine 2 - Livestock in and around cities

The main agricultural cities of Senegal are located in the Niayes Zone. Production in this zone accounts for more than two thirds of the total horticultural production, and urban livestock is also well represented. Livestock keeping is well integrated into the production systems, in the form of waste recycling and animal traction. Considerable efforts are being made to restructure the production system in order to meet increasing demand for animal products. An exploratory study of the main agricultural systems in the Niayes Zone indicated that there is great diversity in farm products (fruit and vegetables as well as livestock) and also potential for further development. The main constraints to further development are the land tenure system, deterioration of natural resources, lack of organisation of farmers and minimal access to credit.

Sara Pantuliano

In: UA Magazine 2 - Livestock in and around cities

The Beja are a confederation of tribes united by a common language, TuBedawiye, and a common segmentary structure, each of which is linked to a common ownership and use of land. The three main tribes are the Amar'ar/Atmaan, the Bishariyyn and the Hadendowa, who mostly live in North-eastern Sudan between the Egyptian and the Eritrean borders, and all speak similar versions of TuBedawiye. This article describes the migration of Beja pastoralist labour to Port Sudan from Halaib Province (NE Sudan). It reviews the different livestock holdings that the Beja have in town and shows that, although most urban-based pastoralists live in great poverty, some manage to successfully exploit urban opportunities whilst continuing to engage in rural-based livelihood strategies.

Johan Bentinck

In: UA Magazine 2 - Livestock in and around cities

In the streets of urban India, many cows can be seen scavenging around. At first glance it may appear as though the cattle are an undisputed part of city life, but the case of Delhi shows that the issue is surrounded by controversy. The persistence of dairy farming in the city is related to how villages and their people become urbanised. Since 1951, about 140 villages have become completely incorporated into the city of Delhi (Census of India, 1991). Caste-specific economic traditions and constraints cause certain households to continue dairy farming despite the spatial constraints.

Fiona Nunan

In: UA Magazine 2 - Livestock in and around cities

A review of dairies and pig-keeping in the twin-city of Hubli-Dharwad, in the State of Karnataka, illustrates the role of livestock in household livelihood strategies in Indian cities. Small urban dairies and roaming pigs are a common sight in Hubli-Dharwad and make an important contribution to household livelihoods and urban food supplies. However, the future of livestock keeping in urban centres can be questioned, given public concerns at city and national level and recent moves by city authorities to evict pigs.

Anne C. Bellows, Verdie Robinson, Jennifer Guthrie, Troels Meyer, Natalie Peric and Michael W. Hamm

In: UA Magazine 2 - Livestock in and around cities

Urban livestock agriculture (ULA) in the USA is a constructive, yet largely unknown, underground, and unevenly regulated activity. Livestock encompasses multiple meanings for practitioners in the urban environments: economic buttress, tradition, cultural and/or religious endurance, and community cohesiveness. Research on and policy development for urban livestock (as for community food security generally) is lacking and needed. However, because livestock in the city is kept under diverse legal, illegal, and quasi-legal conditions, and because practitioners tend not to be part of the dominant culture, care must be taken to raise the issues under circumstances of support. In this article it is argued that issues of invisibility, distrust, and/or animosity between regulators and practitioners of urban livestock are founded more in the lack of attention paid by policy makers to food systems and food security generally, than in insurmountable challenges of urban livestock as a positive urban land use.

Louis P. Tremante

In: UA Magazine 2 - Livestock in and around cities

For two centuries after the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam agriculture on Manhattan Island remained not all that dissimilar from farming elsewhere in northern North America. Over the years farm families engaged in both commercial and subsistence production, raising livestock, garden and field crops. They gladly sold surpluses when they existed, but always sought to provide for domestic needs first.

Hans Schiere, Azage Tegegne, René van Veenhuizen

In: UA Magazine 2 - Livestock in and around cities

The cobblestones of the streets in the old city of Pompeii near Rome are scarred by the wheels of wagons that used to be drawn by horses and/or oxen, for carrying goods or for supplying the military. The covered bridge in Florence is now the home of goldsmiths and jewellers who replaced butchers and fish traders, supposedly because a 'Medici' queen complained of the smell.

(A. Scappini, pers. communication 2000)

Ann Waters-Bayer

In: UA Magazine 1 - Maiden issue

Urban livestock keeping in sub-Saharan Africa: Report of a workshop held on 3-5 March 2003 in Nairobi, Kenya. Edited by Wyn Richards and Sarah Godfrey, NR International, UK