Urban cultivation gains momentum

News
WHAT is for breakfast? What is there to eat? These questions have become more pressing in most of Zimbabwe’s urban poor households as hunger bites the population because of massive crop failures mainly caused by protracted droughts.

WHAT is for breakfast? What is there to eat? These questions have become more pressing in most of Zimbabwe’s urban poor households as hunger bites the population because of massive crop failures mainly caused by protracted droughts.

Urban-farming-3

LINDA CHINOBVA OWN CORRESPONDENT

Rapid rural-to-urban migration has exerted too much pressure on resources forcing a large number of the urban population to live well below the poverty datum line.

Food and clean water are now scarce leaving most families struggling to get just a single meal a day.

 

It is no surprise then that the main cause of urban hunger in Zimbabwe is poverty and people lack secure access to food.

In a bid to mitigate hunger in urban areas most urban dwellers have resorted to growing their own food on council land.

Urban farming is now a growing trend within most communities to stave off hunger.

This helps a lot of urban households to meet their dietary requirements and even sell to local markets to meet some of their financial obligations, particularly school fees for their children.

Since the rains started falling in Bulawayo, urban cultivation has gained momentum.

The city’s residents have once again converted some non-developed land such as refuse dumping grounds, abandoned stands and available open areas into agricultural land.

Residents are busy working the pieces of land they have allocated themselves to grow the to staple maize crop.

Most open pieces of land in Bulawayo’s high and some low-density suburbs have been or are being cleared, as residents toil to plant the crop which until the 1990s was the major source of livelihood and food for the rural population.

But urban dwellers are now planting it to make ends meet.

Urban-farming-2

Urban residents’ existing fields are vulnerable because most people have no title to the land and may lose it easily.

These urban farmers need official recognition, regulation and support or they risk being swept aside by other demands on city space.

Already, the Bulawayo City Council has published notices in the local Press warning residents against cultivating on undesignated land saying crops grown in such areas would be destroyed and perpetrators fined or prosecuted.

Council has in the past come under fire from residents for slashing maize crops about to mature.

Part of the notice issued by Bulawayo town clerk Middleton Nyoni reads: “Notice is hereby given to members of the public that according to Act 12/73 of Bulawayo (Protection of Lands and Natural Resources) by-laws of 1984, cultivation of undesignated areas is prohibited and discouraged at all costs.

“Stream bank cultivation will attract a fine or crops shall be destroyed by council workers and no compensation shall be paid.”

 

The dying economy, high unemployment and low wages have seen most residents opting for urban farming to offset some of their financial challenges and meet dietary requirements.

Bulawayo residents have expressed dismay at council’s threats to slash their crops saying it was yet another sign city fathers had no concern whatsoever about their welfare.

James Mawuswa, who has been surviving on urban farming for years, is failing to come to terms with council decisions.

“The city council is being inconsiderate to the people of Bulawayo. City dwellers have resorted to urban farming due to the strained economy in the country which has caused high unemployment,” Mawuswa, who was working on his piece of land just outside Bellevue along Plumtree Road, said.

Another resident Grace Dube, who has been practicing urban farming for more than five years and was headed for her field in Southwold said: “Urban farming has enabled us to send our children to school and fend for our families as we have to sell the crops so as to generate funds. We can’t rely on meagre salaries because they can’t afford us decent lives. They are very low and sometimes they are not even paid.”

Urban-farming-1

In light of this, residents believe it is inconsiderate and inhumane for the city council to come up with such draconian by-laws.

They want council to provide residents with designated farming land where they could cultivate without any fear.

“How can the city council threaten to slash our crops when we have been farming on the same land for years? They must first allocate us alternative areas to farm because we are poor and that is our only source of livelihood,” Sibonginkosi Ncube who was digging at her field in Bellevue said.

“They must see to it that they allocate fertile land to residents before considering their scheme,” she added.

Urban farming has been popular because of the abundance of open spaces and abandoned stands in most of Bulawayo’s suburbs, especially in new residential areas situated on the outskirts of the city.

Richmond, Mahatshula and Fig Tree are some of the areas where urban farming is prevalent because of their enormous empty spaces and fertile land.

“We have so much fertile land in our areas and we cannot sit on it when it can give us a little income we need to feed our families with. More so, there is hunger in our region and urban cultivation is one of the ways of curbing it,” said Thandolwenkosi Nkomo, who was preparing to plant maize in Kumalo.

Residents also accused council of sabotaging President Robert Mugabe’s efforts through the input scheme for rural and urban farmers to resuscitate the agricultural sector and boost food security.

“The city council must not come into the way of production. The maize seed distribution programme is economically empowering us and they must not take it away from us,” said Priscilla Hushe, who was clearing an open space in Famona to cultivate for the first time.