Urban Agriculture And Its Impact On Food Security: The Case Of Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

Abstract

The understands the impact that urban agriculture plays in the food security contribution to the urban dwellers helps to realize its relevance in urban poverty alleviation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to analyze the contribution of urban agriculture and its impact of food security in Addis Ababa city. The specific objectives of the research is to find out the socio-economic characteristics of urban farmers, and its impact on household, level food security and income; and to provide empirical evidences on socio-economic challenges related to the urban farming in Ethiopian cities, taking Addis Ababa as a case study. The study was conducted in Akaki kality and Kolfe karenio sub-cities selected woreda participant and non-participant urban agriculture on 192 sampled households. Both primary and secondary data were used. Primary data were collected through household surveys using structured questionnaire and focus group discussion and key informants’ interviews. Secondary data were collected from published and unpublished sources to supplement the primary data. Both descriptive statistics and econometric models were used for data analysis. The study were adopted a cross-sectional survey method that combines both qualitative and quantitative research method and used a mix of probability and non probability sampling. In order to test the economic impact of UA on households welfare (income and food security), the study applied probit model followed by PSM. The findings revealed that urban farmers differ in their social backgrounds such as age, occupation, and marital status, sex of the household head, level of education, farm size, and own housing, which might have also implication on their Livelihood strategies. The majorities of farmers have primary education and consider urban farming as their major occupations. Participation of the youth is relatively low in the sector, leaving it for adults over 45 years old and women who support large families. Participations of women and uneducated people in the sector are also widely observed. Insufficient earnings from non-farm sector and food insecurity were major reasons for adapting urban agriculture as survival strategy in the city, that is, to fulfill daily food and other essentials. Many urban farmers (51%) engaged in Cow’s milk and poultry production while 24% are involved in vegetable crop production. However, based on the finding of the study, both short term and long term urban agriculture development intervention schemes, strategies and policy issues have been recommended urban agricultural development in the urban areas in Ethiopia.