RUAF update 15 – urban agriculture news from around the world

Abalimi Bezekhaya – Harvest of the Hope. Cape Town (South Africa), the business “Harvest of Hope” is selling 170-200 boxes of mixed vegetables a week. Urban Producer Field Schools emphasize the identified weaknesses of production planning, quality control, and pack shed management. This project won the Impumelelo Sustainability Award for 2010

RUAF Update 15 – July 2010

Excerpt:

RUAF from Seed to Table programme

In the past months, the producers who participate in the urban agricultural businesses that are supported by RUAF in 17 cities, have started to harvest and market their first products. Please find some of the experiences described below. All groups have analysed the results from the first production cycle(s) and identified on the improvements to be made in the second production and marketing cycle, which lessons are included in the second round of Urban Producer Field School sessions. New sessions will give for example more attention to Integrated Pest Management, post-harvest technologies and negotiations with buyers.

Middle East and North Africa

In Amman (Jordan), the business involves 82 families, of which 75% are women. The first spring onion harvest was an astounding success. Producers were able to fetch JD1.2 to 1.5 (JD1=€1) per bunch of onions (around 1 kg), while predictions made in the business plan were for JD0.7 to 1.0. With the onset of Ramadan in August, when green vegetable consumption is at its peak, this price level will probably be sustained, but it should settle to lower levels from the third season onwards. In Sana’a (Yemen), the project currently involves 50 families, raising a semi-wild breed of local chickens. Supplementary feeding and disease management will receive specific attention in the coming months.

Latin America

Some of the urban producer groups in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) have started selling their harvest (a mix of vegetables and herbs) to municipal schools. The use of low-space, no-space (and vertical growing) technologies will be further explored as to increase production per unit area. In Villa El Salvador (Lima, Peru), the urban farmers are preparing for a second round of sales of piglets and pigs at a local market and a slaughterhouse. A cost-benefit analysis of both forms of commercialisation will be made. In Bogota (Colombia), the first harvest of baby potatoes failed due to extreme high temperatures and lack of adequate fertilisation (as participatory tests have shown). A second cycle with improved management already resulted in a better harvest, reaching 90% of the projections made in the business plan.

See the rest of the newsletter and urban agriculture news from around the world here.

See Harvest of Hope web site here.

See Abalimi website here.