Harare to Host 5-Day Urban Agriculture Forum
Source: The Herald (Harare)
Date: 11 November 2005
Author: Anon
Countries from East and Southern Africa will meet in Harare next week for a training of trainers high-level forum on sustainable urban agriculture.
The five-day regional forum - which is expected to draw participants from South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Botswana - seeks, among other things, to develop and enhance capacity in training in various aspects of urban agriculture.
"The forum will go a long way in finding ways to improve urban agriculture projects so that they become more profitable business ventures that would also enhance food security in the region's cities," Urban Agriculture Co-ordinator for East and Southern Africa for the Municipal Development Partnership, Mr Shingirayi Mushamba, said yesterday.
He said the training forum would cover a wide range of issues, including the integration of urban agriculture into urban planning and development, how to mitigate the negative impacts of urban agriculture, pro-urban agriculture policy development, local economic development through urban agriculture and waste water and solid waste management in relation to urban farming.
Mr Mushamba added that his organisation was addressing the lack of competent professionals to support the development of a viable urban agriculture sector in the region.
"There is need to have a critical mass of competent trainers who can train professionals in the field of urban agriculture," he said.
He said the participants, who will benefit from the intensive training session and other issues pertaining to urban agriculture, are expected to play a critical role in implementing training activities at both national and regional levels.
The forum will also allow various countries to present their experiences in urban agriculture and discuss the role of clearcut policy frameworks on the development of the sector.
Representatives of local authorities, among them Bindura, Bulawayo, Harare and Marondera, are also expected to attend.
Some of the representatives this week expressed hope that policy-level solutions to the perennial problems of urban agriculture, among them the silting up of dams and rivers, land degradation due to poor farming methods would be discussed.
"Zimbabwe is taking a lead in implementing urban agriculture programmes, but we expect to benefit from sharing experiences from other African countries that have integrated urban agriculture into their developmental policies," a Harare City Council official said yesterday.
In recent years, local authorities have been at loggerheads with residents engaging in streambank cultivation, which is illegal in terms of city by-laws.
The Government, however, took cognisance of the fact that urban agriculture is an essential facet of many livelihoods and allocated small plots in the peri-urban areas of Marlborough, Westgate and Ruwa for the purposes of boosting urban agriculture and market gardening.