IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/buogeo/v17y2012i17p87-97n9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Operational pattern and contribution of urban farming in an emerging megacity: evidence from Lagos, Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Lawal Mohamed
  • Aliu Ibrahim

    (Ojo, Department of Geography and Planning, Lagos State University, PMB 1087 Apapa Lagos, Nigeria)

Abstract

Urban farming is rapidly growing in many cities in Nigeria including a leading African megacity Lagos, although urban stakeholders have paid little attention to the trend over time. The rate of growth of urban farming and its contributions to Lagos state's food supply strategy is worthy of note. In Lagos farming activities are practiced and performed by some able bodied migrants from all parts of the country, who for many reasons could hardly have been absolved by the aggressive urban economy of the city. A close watch on the practitioners reveals a pattern of operation which requires deeper inquiry. A total of 202 urban vegetable farmers were interviewed in four areas of Lagos state to provide primary data for this study. Results from the study showed that an average farmer owns a farm plot of below 120 m by 60 m usually linear and along the expressway, the green vegetable (Celosia argientes) alone constitutes about 97% of what is grown, beds are arranged in sizes of about 1.8 m long by 0.9 m wide and 0.3 m high with furrows in between. The farmers use the simplest local tools, chemical fertilizers, and strategically located irrigation wells. It was also found that the farmers use some part of the vegetables for household consumption, sell others to the local marketers, and contribute their own quota to stem the rising prices of vegetable produce in the local markets. It is therefore imperative on the stakeholders to re-examine the relevance of urban farming in the city and provide support for its growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawal Mohamed & Aliu Ibrahim, 2012. "Operational pattern and contribution of urban farming in an emerging megacity: evidence from Lagos, Nigeria," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 17(17), pages 87-97, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:vrs:buogeo:v:17:y:2012:i:17:p:87-97:n:9
    DOI: 10.2478/v10089-012-0009-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10089-012-0009-1
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/v10089-012-0009-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tony Binns & Kenneth Lynch, 1998. "Feeding Africa's growing cities into the 21st century: the potential of urban agriculture," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(6), pages 777-793.
    2. Erik Bryld, 2003. "Potentials, problems, and policy implications for urban agriculture in developing countries," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 20(1), pages 79-86, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leslie Gray & Laureen Elgert & Antoinette WinklerPrins, 2020. "Theorizing urban agriculture: north–south convergence," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 869-883, September.
    2. Devi Buehler & Ranka Junge, 2016. "Global Trends and Current Status of Commercial Urban Rooftop Farming," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Jessica Ann Diehl, 2020. "Growing for Sydney: Exploring the Urban Food System through Farmers’ Social Networks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-21, April.
    4. Bangura, Kabba. S. & Lynch, Kenneth & Binns, Tony & Gbanie, Solomon, 2023. "Facing post-crisis livelihood challenges? Insights from young farmers in Kenema city, Eastern Province, Sierra Leone," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    5. Luiza Vigne Bennedetti & Paulo Antônio de Almeida Sinisgalli & Maurício Lamano Ferreira & Fabiano Lemes de Oliveira, 2023. "Challenges to Promote Sustainability in Urban Agriculture Models: A Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-14, January.
    6. Suchá, Lenka & Dušková, Lenka, 2022. "Land access mechanisms of Soweto farmers: Moving beyond legal land tenure for urban agriculture," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    7. Kathrin Specht & Rosemarie Siebert & Susanne Thomaier, 2016. "Perception and acceptance of agricultural production in and on urban buildings (ZFarming): a qualitative study from Berlin, Germany," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 753-769, December.
    8. Hotte, Louis & McFerrin, Randy & Wills, Douglas, 2013. "On the dual nature of weak property rights," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 659-678.
    9. Oh, Joo-seok & Kim, Sei-yong, 2017. "Enhancing urban agriculture through participants’ satisfaction: The case of Seoul, Korea," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 123-133.
    10. Sarvenaz Pakravan & Shahin Keynoush & Ehsan Daneshyar, 2022. "Proposing a Pedagogical Framework for Integrating Urban Agriculture as a Tool to Achieve Social Sustainability within the Interior Design Studio," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-32, June.
    11. Allen, James E., 2018. "Are agricultural markets more developed around cities? Testing for urban heterogeneity in separability in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 199-212.
    12. Bouchakour, Radhia & Saad, Mohammed, 2020. "Farm and farmer characteristics and off-farm work: evidence from Algeria," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(2), April.
    13. Beacon Mbiba & Marie Huchzermeyer, 2002. "Contentious development: peri-urban studies in sub-Saharan Africa," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 2(2), pages 113-131, April.
    14. Davies, Julia & Hannah, Corrie & Guido, Zack & Zimmer, Andrew & McCann, Laura & Battersby, Jane & Evans, Tom, 2021. "Barriers to urban agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Mohan Kumar Rai & Basanta Paudel & Yili Zhang & Narendra Raj Khanal & Pashupati Nepal & Hriday Lal Koirala, 2019. "Vegetable Farming and Farmers’ Livelihood: Insights from Kathmandu Valley, Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-17, February.
    16. Jessica Cook & Kate Oviatt & Deborah Main & Harpreet Kaur & John Brett, 2015. "Re-conceptualizing urban agriculture: an exploration of farming along the banks of the Yamuna River in Delhi, India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(2), pages 265-279, June.
    17. Ada Górna & Krzysztof Górny, 2021. "Singapore vs. the ‘Singapore of Africa’—Different Approaches to Managing Urban Agriculture," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-28, September.
    18. Pablo Torres-Lima & Luis Rodríguez-Sánchez, 2008. "Farming dynamics and social capital: A case study in the urban fringe of Mexico City," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 193-208, April.
    19. Lya Cynthia Porto Oliveira & Emmanuel Raufflet & Mário Aquino Alves, 2022. "Urban agriculture in São Paulo: an analysis from the sociology of public action," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(6), pages 1537-1552, December.
    20. Hayford Mensah Ayerakwa & Fred Mawunyo Dzanku & Daniel Bruce Sarpong, 2020. "The geography of agriculture participation and food security in a small and a medium-sized city in Ghana," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-21, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:buogeo:v:17:y:2012:i:17:p:87-97:n:9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.