1. Malawi Urban Agriculture Urban Agriculture
1
Malawi
Urban Agriculture
David D. Mkwambisi, PhD
GENERAL INFORMATION
Implementing Institution:
Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources
(LUANAR)
Head:
Prof. George Kanyama Phiri, PhD
Details of Institution:
Address: Bunda College
P. O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi
Tel.: (+265) 888 552 400/1 277 440
Fax: (+265) 1 277 364/361
E-mail: david.mkwambisi@bunda.luanar.mw
Website: www.luanar. bunda.unima.mw
Implementation Period:
Case Study A: September 2004-December 2005
Case Study B, Waste for Wealth: March 2010-December
2012
Costs and Explanation of Case Studies:
For Case Study A, $20,000 was provided by the International Development Research Council (IDRC) of Canada
for a PhD field research programme that was undertaken between September 2004 and December 2005.
In this period, the European Union Micro Project and
the British High Commission Self-Help Fund supported
two community-based case studies in Blantyre City and
27
28 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Lilongwe City, respectively, in the amount of $10,000 for each city. In this phase, groups of
women waste entrepreneurs were formed to manage solid waste from selected markets.
Solid waste was composted and marketed to city residents and the private sector involved
in landscaping.
Community-based Case Study B involved a project – Waste for Wealth – funded by
UNDP with over $3 million and implemented in Lilongwe City from 2009 to 2012 through
a public-private partnership. The Lilongwe City Council partnered with Bunda College of
Agriculture of the University of Malawi, two non-governmental organizations (the Centre
for Community Organization and Development and Sustainable Waste Management) and
Four Seasons Nurseries Limited. The College provided training and conducted research on
solid waste management alternatives, and the two NGOs were responsible for community
mobilization and capacity development and for identifying the local community waste
entrepreneurs, especially women’s groups, who would collect, sort and transfer solid waste.
The women had no formal employment and would benefit from the sales of the compost.
Four Seasons Nurseries Limited, a private company, purchased and marketed the compost
while the City Council provided the required policy and regulatory direction. UN-Habitat
also supported the project.
S UMMARY
Despite persistent economic growth around the world, food and social insecurity,
unemployment and poor housing remain pressing problems in many parts of Africa,
especially in and around the major urban centres. For example, urban statistics from
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimate that
approximately 800 million people are unable to obtain an adequate and secure supply
of food year round. In this context, urban agriculture offers the potential to address
both socioeconomic and environmental problems by providing alternative-livelihood
strategies that also create a potentially sustainable way of dealing with urban organic
waste. Both the nature of the problems and the role of urban agriculture as a solution
are common across all Africa, indeed much of the developing world. In this context,
Malawi is typical. Thus, there was justification for carrying out this research in Malawi, a country that is leading internationally in urbanization rates caused by rural-urban migration.
Urban poverty and environmental degradation are closely related problems that
plague the developing world. Compounding these problems, tools developed to aid
national and international development (such as rapid rural appraisal and sustainable
livelihoods) are not directly relevant to urban areas. The academic research through
Case Study A was undertaken to address this gap by proposing a framework through
which urban agriculture can be used to tackle urban poverty and subsequent envi-
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 29
ronmental problems. This empirical work gave rise to a conceptual framework (fig.
1) modelled on work by Parkes (Parkes 2003; Parkes et al., 2003) that defines the
boundaries of the system (prism) and conceptualizes urban poverty as being a function of social and ecosystem health as well as being influenced by socioeconomic and
institutional forces. Urban agriculture has the potential to sit at the centre of this system and can, theoretically, be a tool whereby social and institutional forces can improve socioeconomic and environmental health. The second component is the three
intersecting circles (a Venn diagram). These suggest that to target urban agricultural
activities, it is necessary to analyse all aspects of the conceptual space defined by the
prism. Specifically, this provides a way of framing the problems of urban poverty so
that policymakers can conceptualize key development activities.
Socioeconomic forces
Poverty, food security, trust,
social relations, urbanization
Urban
agriculture
Urban
poverty
Institutional forces
Environmental health
Better houses, clean air,
natural resource mgmt.
Policies, strategies,
organizations, funding
Environmental
problems
Institutional
weakness
Socioeconomic health
Employment, food security,
incomes, assets, better services
Figure 1. Venn-prism conceptual framework.
Researchers at the University of Malawi, in collaboration with experts from Leeds
University in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, argued that
urban agriculture based on the Venn-prism framework could create a link between the
community and its ecosystem while at the same time reducing poverty (thus improving
socioeconomic determinants) and potentially improving environmental determinants
if it were officially recognized by institutions and undertaken to achieve sustainability
(without exploiting or degrading the urban environment/ecology) at both the national
30 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
and community levels. For example, in Lilongwe, women are supported with financial
resources to construct ecosanitation (ecosan) toilets to access humanure for food production. This has not only improved soil quality but it has also reduced water-borne
related diseases, saved space for temporary toilets and improved community health and
sanitation. At the institutional level, the City Council is able to engage non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in disseminating awareness messages on waste management
and urban food systems.
B ACKGROUND
A N D J U S T I F I C AT I O N
The scale and scope of urban agriculture
were not well known owing to the lack
of a conceptual framework and rigorous
research. The understanding of urban
agriculture was so limited that policy
and programme design were often based
on speculation. Owing to a lack of tools
for understanding urban problems, Malawians and indeed many other developing countries do not know many details
about who the urban farmers actually are,
and this gap hinders the development of
an appropriate policy to promote urban
agriculture effectively.
Malawi is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa. Its annual urbanization rate of 6.3 per cent is three
times the global rate and nearly twice
the African rate of 3.5 per cent. A study
conducted by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS,
now UN-Habitat) indicated that Malawi had emerged as the most rapidly
urbanized country in the world, with
3 million people living in urban areas in
2005. According to Government figures,
the urbanization rate rose from 6 per
cent in 1966 (260,000 people) to 8 per
cent (539,000) in 1977 to 10.7 per cent
(853,390) in 1987 to 14 per cent in 1998
(1,435,436), a level projected to increase to
about 3.8 million in 2020.
In 2005, the Government of Malawi
reported that about 25.5 per cent of the
poor population lived in urban areas (cities and municipalities), of whom 22.3 per
cent were ultra poor. This urban poverty
has several social implications including
prostitution, child labour (fig. 2), insecurity and lack of basic amenities.
Figure 2. Children from poor communities
engaged in paid work (groundnut shelling)
in Lilongwe.
Rapid urbanization in Malawi is not
associated with the commensurate economic growth and effective redistributive
measures required to alleviate poverty.
Instead, the result is increasing urban
poverty whose most visible manifestation
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 31
is the slums that continue to develop in
and around cities. These settlements are
characterized by poor access to physical
infrastructure such as roads and electricity as well as to social services such as
health, education, water and sanitation
and by insecure tenure and poor housing conditions. This has resulted in high
poverty rates and severe environmental
problems such as inadequate waste disposal (fig. 3).
Figure 3. Poor waste disposal around a market in
Lilongwe.
(Photo: David Mkwambisi)
RESEARCH DESIGN
METHODS
AND
The research relating to Case Study A
was undertaken as part of a doctorate
degree in environment and development
at the University of Leeds, including
a dissertation titled “Urban agriculture
in Malawi: Poverty, waste management
and institutional barriers” (Mkwambisi,
2008). It involved developing a conceptual framework to promote understanding of urban poverty and environmental
issues in developing countries. After
developing data collection tools, information was collected from different
social groups in the two main Malawian
cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe with the
approval of the Ministry of Agriculture
and Food Security.
One local NGO, Africare-Malawi,
and all members of the two City Assemblies were involved in data collection
on the characteristics of urban farmers,
poverty rates, environmental problems,
soil nutrient budgets and institutional
constraints. When food security and
waste management were identified as
two main problems, case studies were
implemented to involve women from
poor communities in composting organic waste as an income-generating activity as well as a cheap source of fertilizer
for urban agriculture. Fifteen groups
were formed and legally constituted in
accordance with the urban regulations.
Bank accounts were opened for each
group and training was provided covering group dynamics, bookkeeping,
waste collection, sorting, recycling and
usage. Several training programmes
were also organized to inform the re-
32 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
source users of the significance of waste
recycling and reuse for urban sustainability (fig. 4). This training was provided by volunteer students from Bunda
College of Agriculture, a constituent
college of the University of Malawi.
(Photo: David Mkwambisi)
Figure 4. Women being trained in how to
make compost beds in Blantyre.
The research phase was divided
among three objectives, each with its
own methodology, which were integrated through the Venn-prism conceptual
framework (fig. 1). To assess the role of
urban agriculture in reducing poverty, four
data-collection activities were undertaken
in different households. First, a large number of questionnaires were administered at
a range of sites to 330 urban farmers from
various socioeconomic backgrounds and
both genders. Second, focus groups with
low-income residents provided an opportunity to elaborate qualitatively on results
from the questionnaire. Third, a community workshop was conducted for feedback and, lastly, meetings with experts
were held to provide additional insight
into issues covered in the questionnaire
and those discussed with communities.
The second phase tested the potential of urban agriculture to uptake
municipal solid waste using a participatory nutrient-budget analysis. This
phase aimed to determine the extent to
which urban agriculture may exacerbate/
solve urban environmental problems. It
was argued that urban agriculture has
the potential to reduce environmental
pollution and to promote more sustainable food security and nutrition. A
nutrient-budget analysis was used to
determine the soil nutrient balances of
the major nutrients for 27 households
and individual fields. It also included
an assessment of the potential of local
sources of municipal solid waste to act
as a source of the nutrients required by
urban agriculture.
The third phase involved investigating how an institution can help
or hinder urban agriculture in Malawi
using an institutional analysis. Expert
meetings were conducted with officials
from NGOs, City Assemblies and researchers as well as urban development
officials. A semi-structured checklist was
used to:
• develop an understanding of the
development policy framework
within which organizations implement activities;
• assess the type, amount and mode
of support that the organizations
give to poverty reduction and environmental programmes in general;
• determine what limitations and
constraints each organization
might face when presented with
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 33
the idea of supporting urban agriculture; and
• collect secondary data and information on the activities, location
of support, type(s) of beneficiaries,
proportion of financial support
and limitations faced when each
organization implemented its programmes.
The results and findings from both
the review of literature and field surveys
were then presented at a stakeholders’
meeting for policy consideration.
P ARTNERSH
CASE STUDIES
I P S
A N D
In Case Study A, the University of Malawi researchers collaborated closely
with Africare International (an NGO),
the Blantyre and Lilongwe City Councils and the University of Leeds. This
partnership was mainly to address theoretical issues developed as part of the
PhD field work. After the PhD field
study, the NGO was able to implement
some of the findings for its development
goals. Working with the partners and
the targeted communities has promoted
both vertical and horizontal partnerships such that information can be used
at both levels of authority. Horizontally,
women are able to work with market
vendors and market committees to
collect, sort and transport waste for recycling. Vertically, women are able to
obtain new information and techniques
from a centre of higher education that
is also able to provide relevant data and
information to NGOs, the City Council
and the Ministry of Local Government
for developing both short- and longterm development plans as well as data
for monitoring interventions.
The joint supervision of the PhD
work by the two universities (Leeds and
Malawi), subsequently supported by
a British Council Development Partnerships in Higher Education project,
has strengthened the partnership and
encouraged the two universities to share
experience and information. The policymakers’ workshop further encouraged
partnerships between different sectors
at different levels for individuals involved in urban agriculture and the environment. Throughout the fieldwork,
collaborations were maintained with
national agricultural research stations
for both technical and facility support.
The involvement of three major donors (the Department for International
Development, the European Union and
the United Nations Human Settlements
Programme, or UN-Habitat) has enabled
UNDP Malawi to mobilize resources for
a Malawi national urban forum. It has
also brought university students to work
closely with poor communities as part
of their training. Case Study B, which
involved the Waste for Wealth project,
has also resulted in two female undergraduate students being among African
women receiving the African Women in
Agricultural Research and Development
award in 2010 and 2011.
Case study B involved a three-year
project (2009-2012) to promote waste
management through urban farming.
34 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The project was implemented through
a public-private partnership among the
Bunda College of Agriculture of the
University of Malawi, the Lilongwe City
Council, the Centre for Community Organization and Development, Sustainable
Waste Management and Four Seasons
Nursery Limited, supported by UNDP
and UN-Habitat. In this partnership,
the Bunda College of Agriculture of the
University of Malawi was responsible for
research, information management and
training. The Lilongwe City Council provided policy guidance. The two NGOs
(the Centre for Community Organization
and Development and Sustainable Waste
Management) were responsible for mobilizing women waste entrepreneurs and
for working with communities to manage
waste for composting. The role of Four
Seasons Nurseries Limited was purchasing
and marketing compost produced by the
women’s groups.
Consultation with urban farmers revealed that products from ecosanitation
(ecosan) toilets have several uses (table
1). Over 80 per cent of the urban farmers
are using the manure for urban food production while 43 per cent are using the
products to earn income.
Table 1. Trends in the use of ecosanitation products (as a percentage).
Trend
Perception of use of ecosanitation products for
Agriculture
Sale
Exchange
Increase
Decrease
No change
Don't know
N/A
86
3
5
1
6
43
9
22
1
25
The results show that the integration of waste management and urban
agriculture further yields positive results
at the household level. Table 2 shows
results for the use of humanure. The
19
2
39
1
39
main crops on which these ecosanitation
products were applied were maize, green
vegetables, beans and tomatoes. It should
be noted that explicit advantages of
these products could be identified after a
Table 2. Responses for using humanure in crop production (as a percentage).
Reason for applying
humanure
Crop type
Maize
Green
vegetables
Flowers
Beans
Tomatoes
Supports proper growth and
healthy yield
40
13
2
3
7
Helps to produce big leaves
36
23
7
3
3
Supports growth and high
yield
4
6
1
1
2
N/A
20
58
90
93
88
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 35
good number of years of use. Therefore,
the respondents’ perceptions in table 2
should be looked at keeping in mind the
weakness that some respondents used the
products for only a season and in combination with inorganic fertilizers.
Urine was used mainly for maize
production (32 per cent) and green vegetable production (11 per cent). A small
proportion of respondents used it for
bean and tomato production.
REPLICABILITY
A field study as part of the academic research used a new, innovative and integrated framework that offers the potential
to combine sustainable livelihoods and
a nutrient-budget analysis to assess the
sustainability of urban agriculture as a
poverty reduction strategy in developing
countries. It followed a farmer-oriented
research model that uses simple, easy-tofollow methods throughout the research.
The aim of the participatory method is to
enable the resource user to identify and
understand the problem so that the results
can be easily accepted. The use of farmer indicators of problems should enable
technical and scientific methods to be
simplified so that communities can easily
identify degradation threats.
The results of both the field studies and case studies that are part of
Case Study A were incorporated into a
new project called Waste for Wealth,
promoting zero waste in Lilongwe.
Women are now using both municipal
solid waste and humanure to promote
food production and soil conservation.
NGOs such as the Centre for Community Organization and Development
and Sustainable Waste Management are
involved. The approach of this initiative
can be replicated on a local, national
and international scale if funds are available. The involvement of the private
sector shows not only that solid waste
can be marketed for cash but also that it
can be a source of nutrients for farmers
in rural and urban areas. The availability
of waste in all major cities in Malawi as
well as Africa shows that the concept
can be easily replicated as long as organic waste is available.
P O L I C Y I M P L I C AT I O N S
One implication of this research is that
there needs to be a policy framework that
recognizes urban poverty. This policy
tool should put in place mechanisms to
establish leadership structures that could
be used to link local communities with
those in control of resources. Establishing
effective leadership structures would not
only promote communication between
the formal and informal social institutions
but also enable aid and support to be
channelled to those in need of livelihood
strategies such as urban agriculture.
First, if policy goals were to maximize
the amount of food that a city produces,
then the Government could create incentives for these “elite” farmers to expand
operations. This could involve subsidies
to intensify agricultural production as well
as the provision of extension and ag-
36 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
ronomic advice. This sort of strategy
would likely help to make the (relatively) wealthy urban farmer commercially
oriented and would provide the opportunity for more locally produced food
to enter the market in urban and rural
Malawi. This strategy would have to go
hand in hand with food marketing and
distribution strategies to help to ensure
that this extra food ended up with those
who needed it the most.
The second policy strategy would
be to focus on pro-poor poverty reduction measures that target marginal
producers who use urban agriculture as
a source of income rather than as a supply of food. In this case, policy would
not necessarily emphasize increasing
yields but rather would start with capacity-building exercises among poorer
urban farmers, specifically those led by
women. This policy strategy should
target women who, from an economic
point of view, have shown that, given
the necessary support, women can improve their cattle and poultry production.
Third, in terms of employment
policy, the Government should consider
introducing vocational training to improve the skills of the poor and women,
specifically in terms of issues regarding
high value-added activities such as the
livestock industry, food marketing and
post-harvest technologies. Training
should not only empower the poor and
women but also create more job opportunities and improve product availability
at the local level. This strategy could reduce the need to import food products,
thereby saving much-required foreign
exchange and increasing the availability of fresh and nutritious food at the
household level.
Finally, the role of the private
sector and communities in promoting
urban agriculture, waste reduction,
household incomes and creation of
employment should be considered by
developing countries. Deliberate provision of incentives to the private sector
and communities, especially women and
youth, can help municipalities to reduce several costs associated with waste
management and reduce tremendously
greenhouse gas emissions associated
with poor waste management.
LESSONS LEARNED
Achievement of the goals of the project
required the willingness and participation of local communities, particularly
women in low-income communities.
The involvement of women from poor
communities in the cities of Blantyre
and Lilongwe proved to be an inexpensive and successful approach to reducing
waste-management problems faced by
the City Assemblies. Table 3 presents
characteristics of high- and low-income
urban farmers in Malawi.
First, there are the wealthy (and
usually male) farmers who dominate
agricultural activities and generate a
moderate proportion of their income
by selling produce from relatively large
plots of land. These farmers, however,
consume the majority of their crops
themselves and tend to employ people
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 37
Table 3. Summary of key characteristics of high- and low-income groups of urban farmers in
Malawi.
Characteristic
High-income farmers
Low-income farmers
Gender
Usually male
Usually female
Literacy and food production
Low levels of illiteracy, with
high crop production
High levels of illiteracy, with
low crop production
Plot size (ha)
Approximately 0.27
Approximately 0.06
Reasons for urban agriculture
Mainly as a hobby and for
personal consumption
As household insurance and
for income
Urban agriculture sector
supplying labour
Agricultural marketing
Agricultural production
Labour supplied
Mostly permanent and skilled
Mostly temporary and
unskilled
Type of labour hired
Mainly casual and unskilled
in crop sector
Mainly skilled labour in
livestock sector
Urban agriculture sector
where labour was hired
Agricultural production
Livestock production
Season supplying labour in
urban agriculture
All year round
All year round
Main constraints to urban
agriculture
Lack of institutional support
Agricultural land and inputs
Main livelihoods
Mainly in urban agriculture
Mainly in formal employment and informal incomegenerating businesses
Main average food crop
yield/ha
1,364 kg/ha
357.17 kg/ha
Harvests (expressed as kg of
cereal equivalent) per capita
306.93 kg/year per capita
92.31 kg/year per capita
Income per capita from urban
MK2,381.17
agriculture
to help with a range of tasks including
marketing whatever produce the family
does not need. These farmers are more
efficient in terms of yields (kg/ha). The
second group of urban farmers is poorer,
has much smaller plots and is often run
by female-headed households.
It was also found that of the 15 city
markets where the women were com-
MK1,509.00
posting solid waste for sale and use in
urban farming, the financial costs associated with delivering waste to dumping
sites were very greatly reduced. The
number of workers employed by the
city was also reduced since the women
worked hand in hand with vendors to
collect, sort and recycle the waste. By
linking the women through a legally
binding contract with one of the private
38 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
companies involved in horticulture,
most of the women had readily available
markets for their compost manure. This
increased their household disposable
incomes and improved the lives of their
household members. The projects also
increased their crop yield through the
use of inexpensive plant nutrients.
The project was also successful
because funding of the case studies by
the European Union (Malawi) and the
British High Commission (Malawi) was
timely and local City Assemblies participated. It is expected that the newly
launched urban forum will promote the
case studies in urban Malawi. Currently,
discussions are under way between the
University of Malawi, city authorities
and media houses to promote the approach and replicate it in other urban
centres.
The involvement of a local NGO
to work on poverty and environmental
issues was particularly important to the
success of the project. The fact that
urban residents are transitory and lack
traditional leadership structures means
that it is difficult for formal agencies,
such as government departments, to
develop meaningful urban agricultural
policy. Similarly, the fact that there are
more pressing urban issues than food security means that informal organizations
such as faith-based groups are unlikely
to promote urban agriculture. Since formal institutions work within the national
poverty-reduction framework that focuses on rural poverty, there is minimal
official support for urban-based activities
and this means that few NGOs actually
work at the local level in urban Malawi.
The fact that the plots of land used
for urban agriculture are small, fragmented and widely dispersed around
the city means that the characteristics of
urban agriculture itself are difficult for
institutions to support. In Malawi, the
lack of a clear urban policy focus means
that local communities do not have the
expected levels of NGO activity. It also
means that livelihood strategies such as
agriculture are not officially recognized,
supported or even assisted through civil
society. All these factors result in a situation where the poor, including those
undertaking agriculture for food insurance purposes, have no administrative
channels through which to access support such as agricultural inputs, technical
information and markets for the sale of
their products.
At the national level, government
policies have failed to empower city
authorities and communities through
necessary laws and regulations to punish
those involved in destroying the environment. Policies and laws included
in the environmental policy have not
been backed by funding despite a great
change in human demographic characteristics. Second, since national policies
have failed to promote urban sustainability, city authorities have failed to integrate urban agriculture as a tool to help
in reducing waste problems. This has
resulted in the wholesale delivery of important plant nutrients to dumping sites.
Third, strategies used to manage solid
wastes have direct impact on soil degradation at the farm level and on food
insecurity at the household level since
important plant nutrients and organic
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 39
matter are not incorporated into food
production.
The most significant problem is
that wholesale removal of organic waste
is directly linked to soil fertility problems and food insecurity as cities lose
essential plant nutrients to dumping sites
and through indiscriminate disposal of
waste. Other scholars have noted that
soil nutrient reserves are being depleted
because of continued nutrient mining
without adequate replenishment and
that the consequent downward spiral of
soil fertility has led to a corresponding
decline in crop yields, food insecurity
and environmental degradation.
The development part of the case
study was a success, with more waste
turned into manure for sale and crop
use. For example, table 4 shows results
on maize productivity in response to the
application of various manures including
ecosanitation manure (humanure).
Table 4. Yield comparison for organic manure and chemical fertilizer at Bunda College Farm (2011).
Treatment
no.
Description
Plant
Germination
height
(%)
(cm)
Leaf
width
(cm)
Leaf
Yield
length
(kg/ha)
(cm)
1
Control (No fertilizer)
94
120
18
145
1,498
2
Recommended rate for inorganic
fertilizers
91
154
19
158
2,118
3
60 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied a
week before planting)
79
181
19
175
1,884
4
75 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied a
week before planting)
79
143
16
143
1,609
5
90 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied a
week before planting)
79
170
23
189
1,835
6
(104 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
a week before planting)
82
186
20
172
1,960
7
60 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
during planting)
67
172
19
185
1,476
8
75 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
during planting)
82
184
21
175
1,734
9
90 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
during planting)
85
189
19
180
2,112
10
104 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
during planting)
73
166
18
168
1,770
11
60 kgNha-1 (30 kg of cattle manure
and 30 kg of goat manure)
48
156
16
153
1,655
12
75 kgNha-1 (37.5 kg of cattle manure
and 37.5 kg of goat manure)
100
165
19
167
1,642
13
90 kgNha-1 (45 kg of cattle manure
and 45 kg of goat manure)
88
186
26
166
2,259
14
104 kgN/ha-1 (52 kg of cattle manure
and 52 kg of goat manure)
91
212
18
182
2,348
40 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The results show that treatment 9
performed competitively with treatment
2, which was a government recommendation rate for inorganic fertilizers. This
shows that farmers can meet their food
entitlements by linking sanitation to
urban food production. Figure 5 shows
maize produced in Lilongwe using
ecosanitation manure. Apart from raising awareness about sanitation and urban food production, such interventions
act as demonstration plots for promoting urban agriculture, especially among
poor communities.
Figure 5. Women waste entrepreneurs/urban
farmers visiting a demonstration site as part
of the awareness and capacity-building strategy.
I M PAC T
The research has added to the debate
on urban agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa in general and for the first time has
generated fresh data and information
for Malawi. This has assisted the donor
agencies working on poverty reduction
programmes across the region to include
urban centres in their development pro-
grammes. Other researchers have used a
similar integrated socio-environmental
assessment framework for urban agriculture studies and have utilized primary
data for further research and reference.
Communities are now using the findings
by applying them in their daily ways of
coping with their agronomic changes.
They have been informed about how
best to conserve the natural resources
for better yields and about indicators
of potential soil degradation problems.
The findings have also assisted the land
users to explore other means of improving soil conditions that will include the
use of municipal solid waste.
Currently, City Assemblies in
Malawi are involving communities to
recycle organic waste. The incomes of
women involved in waste recycling have
increased. However, while research can
lead to conclusions about urban agriculture in general, results will be specific
to conditions in Malawi. There is a
need to expand the programme to other
countries and compare the outcomes.
If this innovation is fully recognized by
the local authorities, the Government
will reduce costs associated with waste
management since the strategy does not
involve high-investment technology and
human capacity. The experience has also
proved to be contributing directly to
household food security and incomes, especially among low-income households.
In addition, this programme has resulted
in improving the soil nutrient status and
soil properties, especially organic matter.
More organic waste will be diverted from
dumping sites and used for food production as well as income-generation.
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 41
FUTURE PLANS
This case study has shown that involvement of communities and the
private sector can address two pressing
problems faced by cities in developing
countries: food security and waste management. Future plans are to officially
register women waste entrepreneurs
with city councils and provide the required training such that they undertake
waste recycling as an income-generating activity that can create employment and promote urban agriculture.
A training centre will be established
within the University that will not only
provide waste management tools but
also information on how urban waste
management frameworks can reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and waste
management costs and promote monitoring and evaluation of such interventions.
In addition, there is a need to design a standard procedure for organic
fertilizer use and guidelines for different
crops in urban Malawi. This is because
the work described earlier has revealed
that the uptake of organic waste is limited owing to its form, time of availability and lack of technical information
for agricultural use. Organic use has
been restricted because wastes have not
been analysed in detail and their plant
nutrient content is not linked to plant
requirements at the local level. Current
organic manure lacks a detailed product
description, presentation and technical
information on rates, application methods, timing and storage for the wider
market. The logic is that without such
empirical evidence, it is unlikely that
urban food security and environmental
issues will ever be on the Malawi policy
agenda. Based on publications coming
from this work (Mkwambisi et al., 2011,
2012), strategies have been put in place
to develop a short course on urban agriculture in the short term and to offer
a full course on urban food production
in the long term. There are also plans to
publish more work on urban agriculture.
C ase S tudy P repared
by:
David D. Mkwambisi, PhD
Address: Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Bunda College
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
P. O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi
E-mail: david.mkwambisi@bunda.luanar.
mw
Academic Supervisors
Andrew Dougill, University of Leeds
E-mail: A.J.Dougill@leeds.ac.uk
Evan Fraser, University of Guelph
E-mail: frasere@uoguelph.ca
R EFERENCES
Mkwambisi, D.D. (2008). Urban agriculture and food security in Lilongwe
and Blantyre, Malawi. In Agriculture in
Urban Planning: Generating Livelihoods
and Food Security, M. Reedwood, ed.
42 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
London: Earthscan Publishing.
______ (2008). “Urban agriculture in
Malawi: Poverty reduction, waste management and institutional barriers”, PhD
dissertation, University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
Mkwambisi, D.D., E.D.G. Fraser and
A.J. Dougill (2012). Urban agriculture
and poverty reduction: Evaluating how
food production in cities contributes to
food security, employment and income
in Malawi. Journal of International Development, vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 181-203.
______ (2012). Urban agriculture,
institutions and development. In Development, the Environment and Food:
Towards Agricultural Change?, P. Jacquet, R. Pachauri and L. Tubiana, eds.
New Delhi: The Energy and Resources
Institute.
Parkes, M. (2003) Linking ecosystems and
social systems for health and sustainability.
Public Health Lessons from the Taeri
River Catchment Department of Public
Health and Department of Geography,
Dunedin, New Zealand, University of
Otago.
Parkes, M., Panelli, R. and Weinstein,
P. (2003). Converging paradigms for
environmental health theory and practice. Environmental Health Perspective,
vol.111, No. 5, pp. 669-675.
Malawi
Urban Agriculture
David D. Mkwambisi, PhD
GENERAL INFORMATION
Implementing Institution:
Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources
(LUANAR)
Head:
Prof. George Kanyama Phiri, PhD
Details of Institution:
Address: Bunda College
P. O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi
Tel.: (+265) 888 552 400/1 277 440
Fax: (+265) 1 277 364/361
E-mail: david.mkwambisi@bunda.luanar.mw
Website: www.luanar. bunda.unima.mw
Implementation Period:
Case Study A: September 2004-December 2005
Case Study B, Waste for Wealth: March 2010-December
2012
Costs and Explanation of Case Studies:
For Case Study A, $20,000 was provided by the International Development Research Council (IDRC) of Canada
for a PhD field research programme that was undertaken between September 2004 and December 2005.
In this period, the European Union Micro Project and
the British High Commission Self-Help Fund supported
two community-based case studies in Blantyre City and
27
28 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Lilongwe City, respectively, in the amount of $10,000 for each city. In this phase, groups of
women waste entrepreneurs were formed to manage solid waste from selected markets.
Solid waste was composted and marketed to city residents and the private sector involved
in landscaping.
Community-based Case Study B involved a project – Waste for Wealth – funded by
UNDP with over $3 million and implemented in Lilongwe City from 2009 to 2012 through
a public-private partnership. The Lilongwe City Council partnered with Bunda College of
Agriculture of the University of Malawi, two non-governmental organizations (the Centre
for Community Organization and Development and Sustainable Waste Management) and
Four Seasons Nurseries Limited. The College provided training and conducted research on
solid waste management alternatives, and the two NGOs were responsible for community
mobilization and capacity development and for identifying the local community waste
entrepreneurs, especially women’s groups, who would collect, sort and transfer solid waste.
The women had no formal employment and would benefit from the sales of the compost.
Four Seasons Nurseries Limited, a private company, purchased and marketed the compost
while the City Council provided the required policy and regulatory direction. UN-Habitat
also supported the project.
S UMMARY
Despite persistent economic growth around the world, food and social insecurity,
unemployment and poor housing remain pressing problems in many parts of Africa,
especially in and around the major urban centres. For example, urban statistics from
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimate that
approximately 800 million people are unable to obtain an adequate and secure supply
of food year round. In this context, urban agriculture offers the potential to address
both socioeconomic and environmental problems by providing alternative-livelihood
strategies that also create a potentially sustainable way of dealing with urban organic
waste. Both the nature of the problems and the role of urban agriculture as a solution
are common across all Africa, indeed much of the developing world. In this context,
Malawi is typical. Thus, there was justification for carrying out this research in Malawi, a country that is leading internationally in urbanization rates caused by rural-urban migration.
Urban poverty and environmental degradation are closely related problems that
plague the developing world. Compounding these problems, tools developed to aid
national and international development (such as rapid rural appraisal and sustainable
livelihoods) are not directly relevant to urban areas. The academic research through
Case Study A was undertaken to address this gap by proposing a framework through
which urban agriculture can be used to tackle urban poverty and subsequent envi-
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 29
ronmental problems. This empirical work gave rise to a conceptual framework (fig.
1) modelled on work by Parkes (Parkes 2003; Parkes et al., 2003) that defines the
boundaries of the system (prism) and conceptualizes urban poverty as being a function of social and ecosystem health as well as being influenced by socioeconomic and
institutional forces. Urban agriculture has the potential to sit at the centre of this system and can, theoretically, be a tool whereby social and institutional forces can improve socioeconomic and environmental health. The second component is the three
intersecting circles (a Venn diagram). These suggest that to target urban agricultural
activities, it is necessary to analyse all aspects of the conceptual space defined by the
prism. Specifically, this provides a way of framing the problems of urban poverty so
that policymakers can conceptualize key development activities.
Socioeconomic forces
Poverty, food security, trust,
social relations, urbanization
Urban
agriculture
Urban
poverty
Institutional forces
Environmental health
Better houses, clean air,
natural resource mgmt.
Policies, strategies,
organizations, funding
Environmental
problems
Institutional
weakness
Socioeconomic health
Employment, food security,
incomes, assets, better services
Figure 1. Venn-prism conceptual framework.
Researchers at the University of Malawi, in collaboration with experts from Leeds
University in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, argued that
urban agriculture based on the Venn-prism framework could create a link between the
community and its ecosystem while at the same time reducing poverty (thus improving
socioeconomic determinants) and potentially improving environmental determinants
if it were officially recognized by institutions and undertaken to achieve sustainability
(without exploiting or degrading the urban environment/ecology) at both the national
30 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
and community levels. For example, in Lilongwe, women are supported with financial
resources to construct ecosanitation (ecosan) toilets to access humanure for food production. This has not only improved soil quality but it has also reduced water-borne
related diseases, saved space for temporary toilets and improved community health and
sanitation. At the institutional level, the City Council is able to engage non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in disseminating awareness messages on waste management
and urban food systems.
B ACKGROUND
A N D J U S T I F I C AT I O N
The scale and scope of urban agriculture
were not well known owing to the lack
of a conceptual framework and rigorous
research. The understanding of urban
agriculture was so limited that policy
and programme design were often based
on speculation. Owing to a lack of tools
for understanding urban problems, Malawians and indeed many other developing countries do not know many details
about who the urban farmers actually are,
and this gap hinders the development of
an appropriate policy to promote urban
agriculture effectively.
Malawi is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa. Its annual urbanization rate of 6.3 per cent is three
times the global rate and nearly twice
the African rate of 3.5 per cent. A study
conducted by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS,
now UN-Habitat) indicated that Malawi had emerged as the most rapidly
urbanized country in the world, with
3 million people living in urban areas in
2005. According to Government figures,
the urbanization rate rose from 6 per
cent in 1966 (260,000 people) to 8 per
cent (539,000) in 1977 to 10.7 per cent
(853,390) in 1987 to 14 per cent in 1998
(1,435,436), a level projected to increase to
about 3.8 million in 2020.
In 2005, the Government of Malawi
reported that about 25.5 per cent of the
poor population lived in urban areas (cities and municipalities), of whom 22.3 per
cent were ultra poor. This urban poverty
has several social implications including
prostitution, child labour (fig. 2), insecurity and lack of basic amenities.
Figure 2. Children from poor communities
engaged in paid work (groundnut shelling)
in Lilongwe.
Rapid urbanization in Malawi is not
associated with the commensurate economic growth and effective redistributive
measures required to alleviate poverty.
Instead, the result is increasing urban
poverty whose most visible manifestation
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 31
is the slums that continue to develop in
and around cities. These settlements are
characterized by poor access to physical
infrastructure such as roads and electricity as well as to social services such as
health, education, water and sanitation
and by insecure tenure and poor housing conditions. This has resulted in high
poverty rates and severe environmental
problems such as inadequate waste disposal (fig. 3).
Figure 3. Poor waste disposal around a market in
Lilongwe.
(Photo: David Mkwambisi)
RESEARCH DESIGN
METHODS
AND
The research relating to Case Study A
was undertaken as part of a doctorate
degree in environment and development
at the University of Leeds, including
a dissertation titled “Urban agriculture
in Malawi: Poverty, waste management
and institutional barriers” (Mkwambisi,
2008). It involved developing a conceptual framework to promote understanding of urban poverty and environmental
issues in developing countries. After
developing data collection tools, information was collected from different
social groups in the two main Malawian
cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe with the
approval of the Ministry of Agriculture
and Food Security.
One local NGO, Africare-Malawi,
and all members of the two City Assemblies were involved in data collection
on the characteristics of urban farmers,
poverty rates, environmental problems,
soil nutrient budgets and institutional
constraints. When food security and
waste management were identified as
two main problems, case studies were
implemented to involve women from
poor communities in composting organic waste as an income-generating activity as well as a cheap source of fertilizer
for urban agriculture. Fifteen groups
were formed and legally constituted in
accordance with the urban regulations.
Bank accounts were opened for each
group and training was provided covering group dynamics, bookkeeping,
waste collection, sorting, recycling and
usage. Several training programmes
were also organized to inform the re-
32 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
source users of the significance of waste
recycling and reuse for urban sustainability (fig. 4). This training was provided by volunteer students from Bunda
College of Agriculture, a constituent
college of the University of Malawi.
(Photo: David Mkwambisi)
Figure 4. Women being trained in how to
make compost beds in Blantyre.
The research phase was divided
among three objectives, each with its
own methodology, which were integrated through the Venn-prism conceptual
framework (fig. 1). To assess the role of
urban agriculture in reducing poverty, four
data-collection activities were undertaken
in different households. First, a large number of questionnaires were administered at
a range of sites to 330 urban farmers from
various socioeconomic backgrounds and
both genders. Second, focus groups with
low-income residents provided an opportunity to elaborate qualitatively on results
from the questionnaire. Third, a community workshop was conducted for feedback and, lastly, meetings with experts
were held to provide additional insight
into issues covered in the questionnaire
and those discussed with communities.
The second phase tested the potential of urban agriculture to uptake
municipal solid waste using a participatory nutrient-budget analysis. This
phase aimed to determine the extent to
which urban agriculture may exacerbate/
solve urban environmental problems. It
was argued that urban agriculture has
the potential to reduce environmental
pollution and to promote more sustainable food security and nutrition. A
nutrient-budget analysis was used to
determine the soil nutrient balances of
the major nutrients for 27 households
and individual fields. It also included
an assessment of the potential of local
sources of municipal solid waste to act
as a source of the nutrients required by
urban agriculture.
The third phase involved investigating how an institution can help
or hinder urban agriculture in Malawi
using an institutional analysis. Expert
meetings were conducted with officials
from NGOs, City Assemblies and researchers as well as urban development
officials. A semi-structured checklist was
used to:
• develop an understanding of the
development policy framework
within which organizations implement activities;
• assess the type, amount and mode
of support that the organizations
give to poverty reduction and environmental programmes in general;
• determine what limitations and
constraints each organization
might face when presented with
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 33
the idea of supporting urban agriculture; and
• collect secondary data and information on the activities, location
of support, type(s) of beneficiaries,
proportion of financial support
and limitations faced when each
organization implemented its programmes.
The results and findings from both
the review of literature and field surveys
were then presented at a stakeholders’
meeting for policy consideration.
P ARTNERSH
CASE STUDIES
I P S
A N D
In Case Study A, the University of Malawi researchers collaborated closely
with Africare International (an NGO),
the Blantyre and Lilongwe City Councils and the University of Leeds. This
partnership was mainly to address theoretical issues developed as part of the
PhD field work. After the PhD field
study, the NGO was able to implement
some of the findings for its development
goals. Working with the partners and
the targeted communities has promoted
both vertical and horizontal partnerships such that information can be used
at both levels of authority. Horizontally,
women are able to work with market
vendors and market committees to
collect, sort and transport waste for recycling. Vertically, women are able to
obtain new information and techniques
from a centre of higher education that
is also able to provide relevant data and
information to NGOs, the City Council
and the Ministry of Local Government
for developing both short- and longterm development plans as well as data
for monitoring interventions.
The joint supervision of the PhD
work by the two universities (Leeds and
Malawi), subsequently supported by
a British Council Development Partnerships in Higher Education project,
has strengthened the partnership and
encouraged the two universities to share
experience and information. The policymakers’ workshop further encouraged
partnerships between different sectors
at different levels for individuals involved in urban agriculture and the environment. Throughout the fieldwork,
collaborations were maintained with
national agricultural research stations
for both technical and facility support.
The involvement of three major donors (the Department for International
Development, the European Union and
the United Nations Human Settlements
Programme, or UN-Habitat) has enabled
UNDP Malawi to mobilize resources for
a Malawi national urban forum. It has
also brought university students to work
closely with poor communities as part
of their training. Case Study B, which
involved the Waste for Wealth project,
has also resulted in two female undergraduate students being among African
women receiving the African Women in
Agricultural Research and Development
award in 2010 and 2011.
Case study B involved a three-year
project (2009-2012) to promote waste
management through urban farming.
34 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The project was implemented through
a public-private partnership among the
Bunda College of Agriculture of the
University of Malawi, the Lilongwe City
Council, the Centre for Community Organization and Development, Sustainable
Waste Management and Four Seasons
Nursery Limited, supported by UNDP
and UN-Habitat. In this partnership,
the Bunda College of Agriculture of the
University of Malawi was responsible for
research, information management and
training. The Lilongwe City Council provided policy guidance. The two NGOs
(the Centre for Community Organization
and Development and Sustainable Waste
Management) were responsible for mobilizing women waste entrepreneurs and
for working with communities to manage
waste for composting. The role of Four
Seasons Nurseries Limited was purchasing
and marketing compost produced by the
women’s groups.
Consultation with urban farmers revealed that products from ecosanitation
(ecosan) toilets have several uses (table
1). Over 80 per cent of the urban farmers
are using the manure for urban food production while 43 per cent are using the
products to earn income.
Table 1. Trends in the use of ecosanitation products (as a percentage).
Trend
Perception of use of ecosanitation products for
Agriculture
Sale
Exchange
Increase
Decrease
No change
Don't know
N/A
86
3
5
1
6
43
9
22
1
25
The results show that the integration of waste management and urban
agriculture further yields positive results
at the household level. Table 2 shows
results for the use of humanure. The
19
2
39
1
39
main crops on which these ecosanitation
products were applied were maize, green
vegetables, beans and tomatoes. It should
be noted that explicit advantages of
these products could be identified after a
Table 2. Responses for using humanure in crop production (as a percentage).
Reason for applying
humanure
Crop type
Maize
Green
vegetables
Flowers
Beans
Tomatoes
Supports proper growth and
healthy yield
40
13
2
3
7
Helps to produce big leaves
36
23
7
3
3
Supports growth and high
yield
4
6
1
1
2
N/A
20
58
90
93
88
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 35
good number of years of use. Therefore,
the respondents’ perceptions in table 2
should be looked at keeping in mind the
weakness that some respondents used the
products for only a season and in combination with inorganic fertilizers.
Urine was used mainly for maize
production (32 per cent) and green vegetable production (11 per cent). A small
proportion of respondents used it for
bean and tomato production.
REPLICABILITY
A field study as part of the academic research used a new, innovative and integrated framework that offers the potential
to combine sustainable livelihoods and
a nutrient-budget analysis to assess the
sustainability of urban agriculture as a
poverty reduction strategy in developing
countries. It followed a farmer-oriented
research model that uses simple, easy-tofollow methods throughout the research.
The aim of the participatory method is to
enable the resource user to identify and
understand the problem so that the results
can be easily accepted. The use of farmer indicators of problems should enable
technical and scientific methods to be
simplified so that communities can easily
identify degradation threats.
The results of both the field studies and case studies that are part of
Case Study A were incorporated into a
new project called Waste for Wealth,
promoting zero waste in Lilongwe.
Women are now using both municipal
solid waste and humanure to promote
food production and soil conservation.
NGOs such as the Centre for Community Organization and Development
and Sustainable Waste Management are
involved. The approach of this initiative
can be replicated on a local, national
and international scale if funds are available. The involvement of the private
sector shows not only that solid waste
can be marketed for cash but also that it
can be a source of nutrients for farmers
in rural and urban areas. The availability
of waste in all major cities in Malawi as
well as Africa shows that the concept
can be easily replicated as long as organic waste is available.
P O L I C Y I M P L I C AT I O N S
One implication of this research is that
there needs to be a policy framework that
recognizes urban poverty. This policy
tool should put in place mechanisms to
establish leadership structures that could
be used to link local communities with
those in control of resources. Establishing
effective leadership structures would not
only promote communication between
the formal and informal social institutions
but also enable aid and support to be
channelled to those in need of livelihood
strategies such as urban agriculture.
First, if policy goals were to maximize
the amount of food that a city produces,
then the Government could create incentives for these “elite” farmers to expand
operations. This could involve subsidies
to intensify agricultural production as well
as the provision of extension and ag-
36 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
ronomic advice. This sort of strategy
would likely help to make the (relatively) wealthy urban farmer commercially
oriented and would provide the opportunity for more locally produced food
to enter the market in urban and rural
Malawi. This strategy would have to go
hand in hand with food marketing and
distribution strategies to help to ensure
that this extra food ended up with those
who needed it the most.
The second policy strategy would
be to focus on pro-poor poverty reduction measures that target marginal
producers who use urban agriculture as
a source of income rather than as a supply of food. In this case, policy would
not necessarily emphasize increasing
yields but rather would start with capacity-building exercises among poorer
urban farmers, specifically those led by
women. This policy strategy should
target women who, from an economic
point of view, have shown that, given
the necessary support, women can improve their cattle and poultry production.
Third, in terms of employment
policy, the Government should consider
introducing vocational training to improve the skills of the poor and women,
specifically in terms of issues regarding
high value-added activities such as the
livestock industry, food marketing and
post-harvest technologies. Training
should not only empower the poor and
women but also create more job opportunities and improve product availability
at the local level. This strategy could reduce the need to import food products,
thereby saving much-required foreign
exchange and increasing the availability of fresh and nutritious food at the
household level.
Finally, the role of the private
sector and communities in promoting
urban agriculture, waste reduction,
household incomes and creation of
employment should be considered by
developing countries. Deliberate provision of incentives to the private sector
and communities, especially women and
youth, can help municipalities to reduce several costs associated with waste
management and reduce tremendously
greenhouse gas emissions associated
with poor waste management.
LESSONS LEARNED
Achievement of the goals of the project
required the willingness and participation of local communities, particularly
women in low-income communities.
The involvement of women from poor
communities in the cities of Blantyre
and Lilongwe proved to be an inexpensive and successful approach to reducing
waste-management problems faced by
the City Assemblies. Table 3 presents
characteristics of high- and low-income
urban farmers in Malawi.
First, there are the wealthy (and
usually male) farmers who dominate
agricultural activities and generate a
moderate proportion of their income
by selling produce from relatively large
plots of land. These farmers, however,
consume the majority of their crops
themselves and tend to employ people
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 37
Table 3. Summary of key characteristics of high- and low-income groups of urban farmers in
Malawi.
Characteristic
High-income farmers
Low-income farmers
Gender
Usually male
Usually female
Literacy and food production
Low levels of illiteracy, with
high crop production
High levels of illiteracy, with
low crop production
Plot size (ha)
Approximately 0.27
Approximately 0.06
Reasons for urban agriculture
Mainly as a hobby and for
personal consumption
As household insurance and
for income
Urban agriculture sector
supplying labour
Agricultural marketing
Agricultural production
Labour supplied
Mostly permanent and skilled
Mostly temporary and
unskilled
Type of labour hired
Mainly casual and unskilled
in crop sector
Mainly skilled labour in
livestock sector
Urban agriculture sector
where labour was hired
Agricultural production
Livestock production
Season supplying labour in
urban agriculture
All year round
All year round
Main constraints to urban
agriculture
Lack of institutional support
Agricultural land and inputs
Main livelihoods
Mainly in urban agriculture
Mainly in formal employment and informal incomegenerating businesses
Main average food crop
yield/ha
1,364 kg/ha
357.17 kg/ha
Harvests (expressed as kg of
cereal equivalent) per capita
306.93 kg/year per capita
92.31 kg/year per capita
Income per capita from urban
MK2,381.17
agriculture
to help with a range of tasks including
marketing whatever produce the family
does not need. These farmers are more
efficient in terms of yields (kg/ha). The
second group of urban farmers is poorer,
has much smaller plots and is often run
by female-headed households.
It was also found that of the 15 city
markets where the women were com-
MK1,509.00
posting solid waste for sale and use in
urban farming, the financial costs associated with delivering waste to dumping
sites were very greatly reduced. The
number of workers employed by the
city was also reduced since the women
worked hand in hand with vendors to
collect, sort and recycle the waste. By
linking the women through a legally
binding contract with one of the private
38 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
companies involved in horticulture,
most of the women had readily available
markets for their compost manure. This
increased their household disposable
incomes and improved the lives of their
household members. The projects also
increased their crop yield through the
use of inexpensive plant nutrients.
The project was also successful
because funding of the case studies by
the European Union (Malawi) and the
British High Commission (Malawi) was
timely and local City Assemblies participated. It is expected that the newly
launched urban forum will promote the
case studies in urban Malawi. Currently,
discussions are under way between the
University of Malawi, city authorities
and media houses to promote the approach and replicate it in other urban
centres.
The involvement of a local NGO
to work on poverty and environmental
issues was particularly important to the
success of the project. The fact that
urban residents are transitory and lack
traditional leadership structures means
that it is difficult for formal agencies,
such as government departments, to
develop meaningful urban agricultural
policy. Similarly, the fact that there are
more pressing urban issues than food security means that informal organizations
such as faith-based groups are unlikely
to promote urban agriculture. Since formal institutions work within the national
poverty-reduction framework that focuses on rural poverty, there is minimal
official support for urban-based activities
and this means that few NGOs actually
work at the local level in urban Malawi.
The fact that the plots of land used
for urban agriculture are small, fragmented and widely dispersed around
the city means that the characteristics of
urban agriculture itself are difficult for
institutions to support. In Malawi, the
lack of a clear urban policy focus means
that local communities do not have the
expected levels of NGO activity. It also
means that livelihood strategies such as
agriculture are not officially recognized,
supported or even assisted through civil
society. All these factors result in a situation where the poor, including those
undertaking agriculture for food insurance purposes, have no administrative
channels through which to access support such as agricultural inputs, technical
information and markets for the sale of
their products.
At the national level, government
policies have failed to empower city
authorities and communities through
necessary laws and regulations to punish
those involved in destroying the environment. Policies and laws included
in the environmental policy have not
been backed by funding despite a great
change in human demographic characteristics. Second, since national policies
have failed to promote urban sustainability, city authorities have failed to integrate urban agriculture as a tool to help
in reducing waste problems. This has
resulted in the wholesale delivery of important plant nutrients to dumping sites.
Third, strategies used to manage solid
wastes have direct impact on soil degradation at the farm level and on food
insecurity at the household level since
important plant nutrients and organic
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 39
matter are not incorporated into food
production.
The most significant problem is
that wholesale removal of organic waste
is directly linked to soil fertility problems and food insecurity as cities lose
essential plant nutrients to dumping sites
and through indiscriminate disposal of
waste. Other scholars have noted that
soil nutrient reserves are being depleted
because of continued nutrient mining
without adequate replenishment and
that the consequent downward spiral of
soil fertility has led to a corresponding
decline in crop yields, food insecurity
and environmental degradation.
The development part of the case
study was a success, with more waste
turned into manure for sale and crop
use. For example, table 4 shows results
on maize productivity in response to the
application of various manures including
ecosanitation manure (humanure).
Table 4. Yield comparison for organic manure and chemical fertilizer at Bunda College Farm (2011).
Treatment
no.
Description
Plant
Germination
height
(%)
(cm)
Leaf
width
(cm)
Leaf
Yield
length
(kg/ha)
(cm)
1
Control (No fertilizer)
94
120
18
145
1,498
2
Recommended rate for inorganic
fertilizers
91
154
19
158
2,118
3
60 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied a
week before planting)
79
181
19
175
1,884
4
75 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied a
week before planting)
79
143
16
143
1,609
5
90 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied a
week before planting)
79
170
23
189
1,835
6
(104 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
a week before planting)
82
186
20
172
1,960
7
60 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
during planting)
67
172
19
185
1,476
8
75 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
during planting)
82
184
21
175
1,734
9
90 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
during planting)
85
189
19
180
2,112
10
104 kgNha-1 (Ecosan manure applied
during planting)
73
166
18
168
1,770
11
60 kgNha-1 (30 kg of cattle manure
and 30 kg of goat manure)
48
156
16
153
1,655
12
75 kgNha-1 (37.5 kg of cattle manure
and 37.5 kg of goat manure)
100
165
19
167
1,642
13
90 kgNha-1 (45 kg of cattle manure
and 45 kg of goat manure)
88
186
26
166
2,259
14
104 kgN/ha-1 (52 kg of cattle manure
and 52 kg of goat manure)
91
212
18
182
2,348
40 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The results show that treatment 9
performed competitively with treatment
2, which was a government recommendation rate for inorganic fertilizers. This
shows that farmers can meet their food
entitlements by linking sanitation to
urban food production. Figure 5 shows
maize produced in Lilongwe using
ecosanitation manure. Apart from raising awareness about sanitation and urban food production, such interventions
act as demonstration plots for promoting urban agriculture, especially among
poor communities.
Figure 5. Women waste entrepreneurs/urban
farmers visiting a demonstration site as part
of the awareness and capacity-building strategy.
I M PAC T
The research has added to the debate
on urban agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa in general and for the first time has
generated fresh data and information
for Malawi. This has assisted the donor
agencies working on poverty reduction
programmes across the region to include
urban centres in their development pro-
grammes. Other researchers have used a
similar integrated socio-environmental
assessment framework for urban agriculture studies and have utilized primary
data for further research and reference.
Communities are now using the findings
by applying them in their daily ways of
coping with their agronomic changes.
They have been informed about how
best to conserve the natural resources
for better yields and about indicators
of potential soil degradation problems.
The findings have also assisted the land
users to explore other means of improving soil conditions that will include the
use of municipal solid waste.
Currently, City Assemblies in
Malawi are involving communities to
recycle organic waste. The incomes of
women involved in waste recycling have
increased. However, while research can
lead to conclusions about urban agriculture in general, results will be specific
to conditions in Malawi. There is a
need to expand the programme to other
countries and compare the outcomes.
If this innovation is fully recognized by
the local authorities, the Government
will reduce costs associated with waste
management since the strategy does not
involve high-investment technology and
human capacity. The experience has also
proved to be contributing directly to
household food security and incomes, especially among low-income households.
In addition, this programme has resulted
in improving the soil nutrient status and
soil properties, especially organic matter.
More organic waste will be diverted from
dumping sites and used for food production as well as income-generation.
Malawi Urban Agriculture | 41
FUTURE PLANS
This case study has shown that involvement of communities and the
private sector can address two pressing
problems faced by cities in developing
countries: food security and waste management. Future plans are to officially
register women waste entrepreneurs
with city councils and provide the required training such that they undertake
waste recycling as an income-generating activity that can create employment and promote urban agriculture.
A training centre will be established
within the University that will not only
provide waste management tools but
also information on how urban waste
management frameworks can reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and waste
management costs and promote monitoring and evaluation of such interventions.
In addition, there is a need to design a standard procedure for organic
fertilizer use and guidelines for different
crops in urban Malawi. This is because
the work described earlier has revealed
that the uptake of organic waste is limited owing to its form, time of availability and lack of technical information
for agricultural use. Organic use has
been restricted because wastes have not
been analysed in detail and their plant
nutrient content is not linked to plant
requirements at the local level. Current
organic manure lacks a detailed product
description, presentation and technical
information on rates, application methods, timing and storage for the wider
market. The logic is that without such
empirical evidence, it is unlikely that
urban food security and environmental
issues will ever be on the Malawi policy
agenda. Based on publications coming
from this work (Mkwambisi et al., 2011,
2012), strategies have been put in place
to develop a short course on urban agriculture in the short term and to offer
a full course on urban food production
in the long term. There are also plans to
publish more work on urban agriculture.
C ase S tudy P repared
by:
David D. Mkwambisi, PhD
Address: Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Bunda College
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
P. O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi
E-mail: david.mkwambisi@bunda.luanar.
mw
Academic Supervisors
Andrew Dougill, University of Leeds
E-mail: A.J.Dougill@leeds.ac.uk
Evan Fraser, University of Guelph
E-mail: frasere@uoguelph.ca
R EFERENCES
Mkwambisi, D.D. (2008). Urban agriculture and food security in Lilongwe
and Blantyre, Malawi. In Agriculture in
Urban Planning: Generating Livelihoods
and Food Security, M. Reedwood, ed.
42 | VOLUME 20: SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
London: Earthscan Publishing.
______ (2008). “Urban agriculture in
Malawi: Poverty reduction, waste management and institutional barriers”, PhD
dissertation, University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
Mkwambisi, D.D., E.D.G. Fraser and
A.J. Dougill (2012). Urban agriculture
and poverty reduction: Evaluating how
food production in cities contributes to
food security, employment and income
in Malawi. Journal of International Development, vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 181-203.
______ (2012). Urban agriculture,
institutions and development. In Development, the Environment and Food:
Towards Agricultural Change?, P. Jacquet, R. Pachauri and L. Tubiana, eds.
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Parkes, M. (2003) Linking ecosystems and
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Parkes, M., Panelli, R. and Weinstein,
P. (2003). Converging paradigms for
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