Urban Agriculture Contribution In Reducing Poverty And Unemployment In Four Sub Cities Of Addis Ababa

Abstract

This study was undertaken in four purposely selected sub cities of Addis Ababa for identifying the contribution of urban agriculture in reducing poverty and unemployment. The life quality of 397 sampled agricultural households was assessed based on eight indicators of poverty (Food, health, Shelter, education, water, sanitation, information and monetary). The result shows, the mean meal frequency and dietary diversity was 2.95 and 5.07 respectively. The two groups of food that were relatively less consumed by participants of the study were fruits and animal products. The result of health related assessment shows most of the respondents were in better health status. With regard to housing status, the majority of households (75.5 %) had their own shelter. 85.3% of children under participants of the study were not late for school age and 154 (68.75%) of children aged 15-19 were found at elementary school complete and above which imply they were at expected level of school attendance. The two most common source of drinking water in the study area were piped in to dwelling/yard (44.58%) and Piped in to neighbor (42.57%). With regard to access to information, there was lower access to news paper and internet but better access to television. The mean monthly expenditure for food a month before interview was birr 5496.54. Based on the primary data obtained from participants of this study, urban agriculture is contributing significant role in reducing unemployment in the study areas. However, its contribution was under estimated either due to under counting the beneficiaries of urban agriculture or counting job created across value chain to other sectors. Vegetable, poultry and dairy cattle production were the first three leading sub sectors in reducing unemployment/ creating job opportunity in the study areas. I recommend that the city administration has to create conducive environment for residents to participate especially in urban agriculture sub sectors that relatively require less land. I also recommend strong cooperation between stake holders to implement the existing urban agriculture policy for successful development of the sector.