ABSTRACT
In Nigeria, metropolitan agriculture is omnipresent as before. Very recently there has been a sizable expansion of it both in outskirts of the cities and in the backyards and vacant space of urban dwellers. Understanding the impact that metropolitan agriculture plays in the economic contribution to the urban dwellers helps to realize its relevance in urban poverty alleviation. In order to test the economic impact of metropolitan agriculture on households welfare (income and food security), the study applied probit model followed by PSM. The findings revealed that urban farmers differ in their social backgrounds such as age, occupation, and marital status, sex of the household head, level of education, farm size, and own housing, which might have also implication on their Livelihood strategies. Urban farming in Enugu metropolis and other Nigerian cities has a significant influence on the household level food security and income as compared to other livelihood options, where over 70% of the households’ income and food expenditure is derived from urban farming. However, metropolitan agriculture has constrained with limited access to land; limited farm extension services; lack of veterinary services; lack of access to farm credit; shortage of improved seed and animal breeds; lack of production technologies; limited access and high cost of fertilizers and quality animal feeds; coordination gap among government bodies for the sector are considered among the major factors that constrained urban agricultural development in the urban areas inNigeria.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Of Study
Today’s cities operate on a through put model, in which resources are imported and wastes are exported. Metropolitan agriculture can help to close the loop between inputs and outputs by converting what are traditionally viewed as waste product into food and fuel. For example, sewage sludge from treatment plants can be added to other organic by-products such as leaf litter, garden trimmings, and food scraps. When composted, this mixture yields rich mulch which can be used as fertilizers to nurture the growth of quality organic edibles in metropolitan agriculture gardens (Laurence, 1996). The convergence of producers and consumers which occurs with localized food production also reduces the need for the intakes from the larger resource stream, lowers the amount of pollution generated by long distance transportation, and conserves energy normally lost to system (Barrs, 1996).
Metropolitan agriculture (MA) can be defined as the production of food (for example, vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, milk, fish and non-food items such as fuel, herbs, ornamental plants, tree seedlings, flowers) within the metropolis and its periphery; for home consumption and/or for the metropolitan market, and related small scale processing and marketing activities (Hovorka, Zeeuw and Njenga, 2009). It is the practice of producing vegetables, food and fruits within the metropolitan environment for household consumption as well as sale to the rapidly growing metropolitan population (Dima et al., 2002). Metropolitan agriculture takes place on private, leased or rented land in peri-metropolitan areas, in backyards, on roof tops, on vacant public lands such as industrial parks, school grounds, roadsides, in prisons and other institutions as well as ponds, lakes, and rivers.
Metropolitan agriculture is food and fuel grown within the daily activities of the metropolis / town or city/ produced directly for the market and frequently processed and marketed by the farmers or their close associates. Metropolitan agriculture includes aquaculture, livestock raised in backyards, orchards, and vegetables.
The metropolitan agriculture referred to in this study is defined as an industry that produces food and fuel, largely in response to the daily demand of consumers within a metropolis, a town or city, on land or water disposal throughout the metropolitan and peril-metropolitan area, applying intensive production methods, using and reusing natural resources and metropolitan wastes, to yield a diversity of crops and livestock.
