Assessment On The Practice, Challenges, And Opportunities Of Urban Agriculture:The Of Ejere Town,West Shoa Zone, Ejere Woreda, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

In Ethiopia, urban agriculture is omnipresent as before. Very recently there has been a sizable expansion of it both in outskirts of the cities and in the backyards and vacant space of urban dwellers. The impact that urban agriculture plays in the socio-economic contribution to the urban dwellers helps to realize its relevance in urban poverty alleviation. Thus, the purpose of this research is to assess household practice, Challenges and Opportunities of urban agriculture in three kebeles of Ejere Town and their perception towards urban farming in improving urban livelihoods. Data were collected based on household survey using a structured questionnaire on 121 urban farmer households which were equivalently and randomly selected from three kebeles of Ejere Town. Both Primary and secondary data collection were employed when primary data included questionnaire, focus group discussions, key informant interview and field observation while secondary data collected from both published and unpublished written material. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis were employed to analyse the data to be collected. Statistical Package for social science (SPSS) and excel speared sheet function were used to analyze and summarize the data collected. The findings revealed that Cultivating vegetable crops and rearing cattle were the most common agricultural activities by the urban crop producers and livestock owners, respectively. Urban farmers in study area (69.4 %) also experience mixed farming. Participation of the youth is relatively low in the sector, leaving it for adults over 41 years old. Many urban farmers (90.1%) engaged in Cow’s milk and poultry production while 31.5% are involved in vegetable crop production. Limited access to land; limited farm extension services; lack of veterinary services; lack of access to farm credit; shortage of improved seed and animal breeds are some of the constraints of study area. Participations of women and uneducated people in the sector are also widely observed