Usage en agriculture des eaux usees urbaines non traitees dans les pays a faibles revenus (Conférence électronique - 24 juin - 5 juillet 2002)

Dennis Osino and Paul S. Opanga

In: UA Magazine No. 13 - Trees and Cities - Growing Together

A rapid increase in rural to urban migration has resulted in serious soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, and deteriorating health and safety conditions, which have consequently led to food insecurity and ultimately extreme poverty in Kenyan cities such as Nairobi and Kisumu.

Felicity Chancellor

In: UA Magazine No. 12 - Gender and Urban Agriculture

Urban poverty is an increasing problem. Around 70% of the world's poorest people are women, many of whom are widows or single mothers with the responsibility of feeding children and old people. Small-scale food production as part of a range of opportunities is vital to the livelihoods of poor people and poor women in the city. The social, cultural, and economic climate of the city moulds the ways men and women can use and benefit from urban agriculture. The two studies referred to in this article provide a rudimentary gender analysis as the basis to discuss how urban agriculture actually benefits the major stakeholders.

Pay Drechsel, Ursula J. Blumenthal and Bernard Keraita

In: UA Magazine 8 - Wastewater Reuse in Urban Agriculture

To protect farmers' and consumers' health, the World Health Organization (WHO) published guidelines for the safe use of wastewater in agriculture (WHO, 1989); they are currently under revision. The purpose of the 1989 guidelines was to guide design engineers and planners in the choice of wastewater treatment technologies and water management options. The application of the guidelines, however, has been found to be difficult in many field situations. It was suggested that the WHO guidelines need adjustment for better application in wastewater exposed urban and peri-urban agriculture in resource-poor countries. A model/flow diagram of a new process for deciding on locally appropriate health protection measures is suggested here.

Agricultural use of untreated wastewater in low income countries (E-conference - 24 June - 5 July 2002)

Rob Small

In: UA Magazine 6 - Transition to Ecological Urban Agriculture: A Challenge

South Africa is being pulled into the global economy. Still there is a great need for locally produced food, as is shown in this story about the Cape Flats bio-zone. The Cape Flats townships, low-income settlements to the northeast of Cape Town, are vast encampments at the city gates. While the majority of government agricultural development funds are being poured into the conventional, often large-scale farm movement, the general organic movement is alive and well. Abalimi Bezekhaya (Planters of the Home) is an NGO focusing consistently on direct poverty alleviation through micro-organic vegetable gardening among the poor.