A city of farmers : informal urban agriculture in the open spaces of Nairobi, Kenya / Donald B. Freeman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Freeman, Donald B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban agriculture--Kenya--Nairobi.

Urban agriculture.

Urban agriculture--Kenya--Nairobi--Statistics.

Physical Description:

xv, 159 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., maps.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Buffalo : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In an insightful new study, Donald Freeman examines the development and significance of urban agriculture in Nairobi, Kenya, overturning a number of common assumptions about the inhabitants and economy of African cities. He addresses the ways in which urban agriculture fits into a broader picture of Kenyan social and economic development and discusses the implications of his findings for development theory in general. Freeman begins by exploring the context of urban agriculture, tracing its development in the colonial and post-colonial city. He then provides a detailed description of urban farmers, their land use practices, and their crops. Freeman gathered this rich body of information through on-site surveys of 618 small-scale cultivators in ten different parts of Nairobi. He concludes by considering the implications of the burgeoning practice of urban agriculture for the cultivators themselves, for the city, and for the developing economy of Kenya. Although the empirical work is focused on Nairobi and its informal sector, the scope and implications of the study are broader and the conclusions relevant to other parts of the Third World. "Urban" productive activities in the Third World, Freeman suggests, need redefining to take account of basic food production in the city and its interrelationships with other informal and formal sectors. A City of Farmers will interest not only economic geographers and students and scholars of development studies and African history but anyone concerned with economic and social conditions in the Third World.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Maps

Acknowledgments

Preface

The Context of Urban Agriculture

The Lure of the City

Promises Unfulfilled: Life in the Urban Informal Sector

Open Spaces and Colonial Views: The Early Years in Nairobi

Open Space in the “City Beautiful”: Nairobi as a Modern, Planned Capital

Kenya’s Urban Farmers and their Gardens

Urban Food Production and Consumption in Six Kenyan Municipalities

City Dwellers with Farming Backgrounds: Nairobi’s Urban Cultivators

Inner City Farmers and Suburban Cultivators: A Comparison

Urban Farmland: Questions of Ownership

The Role of Women Cultivators

Maize, Beans, and What Else? Cultivation Practices of Nairobi’s Urban Farmers

Harsh Realities: Impediments and Problems of Urban Agriculture

The Significance of Urban Agriculture

The Importance of Open Space Farming to Urban Families

The Importance of Urban Agriculture to the Community and the Nation

The 1987 York-Kenyatta University Survey of Cultivation in the Open Spaces of Nairobi

Tables

Glossary of Kiswahili Terms

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [149]-153) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85192-6

9786612851926

0-7735-6280-X

OCLC:

929121112