Assessing the Role of Urban Agriculture in Addressing Poverty in South Africa

Geographical distribution of UA practitioners in South Africa, 2007

Assessing the Role of Urban Agriculture in Addressing Poverty in South Africa

By Phillippe Burger, JP Geldenhuys1, Jan Cloete, Lochner Marais and Alexander Thornton

GDN Working Paper Series
Working Paper No. 28
October 2009

Abstract

The overall aim of this report is to profile UA and to investigate what role urban agriculture plays in addressing poverty in South Africa. Methodologically, the paper is based on the annual South African household survey. Two approaches are followed. First, the profile of urban agriculturalists in 2007 was compared with the profile of urban agriculturalists in 2002. Second, a control group of urban agriculturalists with income of less than R10 000 has also been established in order to compare the results of agriculturalists and non-agriculturalists across a range of criteria. The paper is contextualized against the background of rising food prices in South Africa (also world-wide) and international literature on this topic.

Increases in the prices of food products were high in 2002, tapered off between 2003 and 2005, and again began to gain momentum from 2006 onwards. In 2007, the prices of food products increased by more than 10%. The profile of urban agriculturalists assessed in this report suggests that urban agriculture is more prominent in summer rainfall areas with good soils. It is more commonly practiced by females, black households, older heads of households, households with larger families, households with lower levels of education. It also received a lower rating with higher levels of food insecurity compared to the control group. Furthermore, the majority of urban agriculturalists are involved in field crops, but a larger percentage than the control group does not pay for their water. Only 7.5% of the urban practitioners suggested that they receive their main income from agriculture.

See the complete paper here.