Role of Urban Gardening in Zimbabwe

By: Jussa Kudherezera
​
Political and security disorders are undeniable. Zimbabwe is experiencing a high population growth rate, environmental degradation and rural-urban migration that aggravate the sustainability of the current food production.

Cities are experiencing great difficulties in creating sufficient employment opportunities and this has led to high unemployment and very poor living conditions in the slum areas. Population growth in Zimbabwe is combined with a gradual shift in the focus area of poverty from rural to urban locations.

Large numbers of rural residents migrate to cities with the hope of finding a more promising future through employment opportunities. This is despite the fact that our cities are encountering difficulties in creating employment opportunities and fail to provide adequate basic services for the rapidly growing urban population.

​This has led to high unemployment and very poor living conditions. The urban poor are left with no option but to tap from the environment thus relying on the informal sector and unstable intermittent jobs for their survival. As a result, urban agriculture becomes one of the survival strategies. More importantly it enables us to use the traditional attachment to the land to help us in the transition. 
Urban gardening is strategic for urban dwellers as it gives them the opportunity to find food for their families at a smaller scale. In some cities it has been used as a source of greening the cities. In other cities, many families grow vegetables in apartments and are able to contribute to greening of the cities. However, as of late, it has been a source of conflict to most families as they fight for land occupation notably in Sakubva, Dangamvura, Chikanga and Zimta Park in Mutare. Urban gardening in Zimbabwe is critical to supporting urban dwellers but there is a great concern that most of these farmers do not observe the required meters to stream bank cultivation. Stream cultivation requires farmers to maintain 30 meters from the rivers. There is a danger of causing soil erosion and resulting in heavy siltation.
To some people, urban farming might sound like a contradiction in terms. Farming is often seen as a rural occupation and cities as consumers of rural foodstuffs. But the truth can be rather different. Many cities simply could not feed themselves without the produce of their backyards, roadside verges, riverbanks, parks and allotments. Hectare for hectare, urban gardening is often among the most efficient and intensive forms of agriculture anywhere. In addition, it can be a vital source of vegetables for many poor and even middle-income households.
The process of planning and decision-making about urban space has to take into account people's needs for areas in which they can grow crops. Urban gardening is an integral, but often unacknowledged, part of the economic activity of most of the world's urban areas. Planners must plan for successful farming in and around urban areas, and ensure that the poor and vulnerable in the community can use it to improve their livelihoods.