Food Security Contributions of Urban Agriculture: The Case among Households in Akaki Kaliti Sub-City, Addis Ababa.
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Date
2011-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Urban agriculture in Addis Ababa city is being implemented by the small holder individual
farmers, micro and small enterprises, and the large scale cooperatives for different reasons.
Urban agriculture is among those socio economic sectors that are interrelated with food security
but undermined and misconceived for long. A thorough understanding and analysis of food
security contributions of urban agriculture is the central theme of this research.
The combination of both quantitative and qualitative research method was employed in this
study where the data in both types were used as an input for analyzing. In the courses of
quantitative methods of analysis, the statistical tools such as linear coefficient of relation using
the Pearson correlation coefficient, the coefficient of determination, and the linear regression
were used to examine the interrelations between different variables.
Urban agriculture does appear to be associated with greater dietary diversity and the increased
number of eating occasions that are the measures of an improved diet at household level. The
household food supply from the own production can considerably satisfY the food demand of
urban dwellers. The UA production can also fosters the market availability of agriculture
products where the urban poor can access UA products in the vicinity. Also, urban agriculture
contributes to household's access to food by virtue of increased income of those people engaged
in the production, processing and marketing of urban agriculture. It widely utilizes as one of the
income generating activities in the city due to that it contributes for employment opportunity and
improves the purchasing power of households. Urban agriculture due to its proximity to the huge
and potential markets, those nutritionally high food products are easily and timely available for
the consumer. Moreover, urban agriculture can be used as an alternative food security through
coping mechanism or survival strategy in times of family and social crisis; can complement the
low income obtained from the basic livelihood sources; and to cope with the soaring prices of
food products in the city. Despite its role for food security urban agriculture faces the problems
such as institutional and policy related, socio-economic, and research and technological
constraints that are exogenous to the system.
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Keywords
Contributions of Urban Agriculture