Urban agriculture innovations: Kibera and the COVID-19 crisis

Sack gardening in Kibera, Nairobi

        Inspired by our discussion this week about urban poverty, sanitation & social innovation, I will be looking at urban agriculture innovations in Nairobi that stemmed out of the COVID-19 crisis (Sam Ikua). 

The COVID-19 crisis demonstrated the vulnerability of international supply chains, especially for food (Sam Ikua). On a regional scale, rural-urban linkages were difficult to sustain during the crisis, making people rely on food production and consumption within their own community (Sam Ikua). Since then, urban agriculture has gained popularity, especially in Kibera, the biggest informal settlement in Africa, situated on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya (Sam Ikua). The rise in urban agriculture during the pandemic demonstrated that “localized food systems and short food supply chains” are good for reducing vulnerability in households (Sam Ikua). Consumers are a walk away, inputs are sourced locally such as manure, and seeds are bought from local agro-vets (Sam Ikua). 

    The benefits of urban agriculture have been long recognized, especially in its power to alleviate poverty, increase food security, and create important social capital that allows people to turn to their neighbors during times of food shortages (Gallaher, et al., 2012). Urban areas, especially in densely populated informal settlements such as Kibera, are vulnerable to water insecurity, lack of space and arable land, and increasing populations living under the poverty line (Gallaher, et al., 2012). Gallaher, et al. (2012), specifically looks at the expansion of sack or vertical gardening as a form of urban livelihood strategy where farmers plant kale and Swiss chard in sacks of soil. In terms of water, sack farming has enabled greater social ties, in which inputs such as water are purchased between community members (Gallaher, et al., 2012). 

According to the FAO, informal settlements do not have proper water and sanitation services (FAO, 2018). While urban agriculture innovations provide hope in increasingly food, financially insecure times, the cost of water is one of the key inputs that determines whether the benefits of urban agriculture are fully realized (Gallaher, et al., 2012). Those that do not have the financial means to purchase water, get their water from streams or wells (Gallaher et al., 2015). 

In Kibera, there are two large water suppliers in the informal settlement, the Nairobi Water Company and Private Vendors, a Public-Private partnership (Ng’iela, 2022). The partnership has had water governance issues, which have impacted water access and distribution in the settlements (Ng’iela, 2022). The issue in water governance is that there is a lack of proper legal framework, specifically that existing legal frameworks do not take into account customary land tenure systems, which limit the information needed for water infrastructure implementation and disaggregation of the poor, and thus, water access (Ng’iela, 2022). The article emphasizes the need for higher participation and engagement of the community to increase water access (Ng’iela, 2022). 

With increasing climate change, the availability of water is highly vulnerable, broadly in Kenya (Dinko & Bahati, 2023). The ramifications of this increased water scarcity will have detrimental impacts on food security (Dinko & Bahati, 2023). In order to empower Kibera’s burgeoning urban agricultural sector, the main limitation is once again, the lack of water access. It seems that the issue is rooted in the lack of community engagement, and insufficient, rigid legal frameworks concerning water and land tenure, as well, the failures of the government to deliver on services that are a basic right.