"UrbanFoodPlus": A contribution to food security in West African cities

Due to a lack of soil fertility and low water availability, the food situation in Africa is more difficult than on any other continent. However, people meet these challenges with ingenuity and improvisation to make use of every available resource.

Neglected by policymakers and scientists for decades, intensive farming of urban and peri-urban areas contributes significantly to income and food security for poor populations, but also poses risks to health and the environment. Understanding, promoting and optimizing the various forms of urban agriculture is the goal of the "^{UrbanFoodPlus}" project, which is coordinated by the University of Kassel and the Ruhr University Bochum. Here, agricultural scientists and soil scientists are working with economists and wastewater engineers, as well as with ethnologists from Göttingen and geographers from Freiburg, to develop interdisciplinary approaches to fully exploit the potential in the cultivation of staple foods and vegetables, as well as in animal husbandry in agricultural niches of cities and urban peripheries. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the five-year project, which totals 7.5 million euros, with an initial 4.3 million euros over the first three years.

90 percent of the vegetables and up to one third of the total food requirements of African cities are already produced in the cities themselves, emphasizes Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert, who is coordinating the "^{UrbanFoodPlus}" project: "People use land next to arterial roads, between apartment blocks, in dry riverbeds or other fallow land. This is mostly illegal, but often more labor- and land-efficient than traditional rural production." The fields and pastures reach sizes of 500 square meters to ten hectares, are enormously important for the supply of the urban population, and yet are often threatened with destruction: "Because the legal basis is lacking, the authorities repeatedly send bulldozers and have field stands rolled down," Bürkert notes.

Often, the producers are migrants who bring the know-how for farming and livestock breeding from the countryside, Bürkert explains further. Unlike rural farmers, however, they are much closer to markets, so they can better match production and harvesting to demand and have no transportation losses. "For a long time, science has only looked at the hinterland, neglecting urban food production, which is efficient but still offers great opportunities to increase yields. We need to exploit this potential, also to keep pace with population growth," explains Bürkert. The UN expects Africa's population to roughly double from the current one billion people by 2050.

Together with 14 African partner institutions and two international agricultural research institutes, whose contributions are being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with an additional 400,000 euros, "^{UrbanFoodPlus}" will develop measures from June 2013 to increase food production in cities and peri-urban areas, improve resource efficiency, improve the nutritional situation and bring together consumer and producer demands for product quality through certification measures. Based on the data collected, the researchers hope to work with farmer organizations and local authorities to better understand the anti-poverty impact of this form of agriculture in order to bring it out of illegality.

Initial field research is taking place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and Tamale, Ghana, and will then be expanded to other cities in West Africa. The research includes smallholder cultivation trials, interviews with producers, traders and representatives of the administration, and extensive training on simple technological innovations. These include, for example, the use of charcoal filters for simultaneous water purification and organic fertilization.

The project is divided into several subprojects. A working group headed by Bürkert is investigating biodiversity, nutrient efficiency, material flows and certification measures in vegetable cultivation. Prof. Schlecht (University of Kassel and Georg-August University of Göttingen), heads a project group analyzing the efficiency of livestock farming systems; this includes the use of feed as well as the recycling of the manure produced. Other subprojects led by Prof. Marschner and Prof. Wichern (both Ruhr-Universität Bochum) determine the influence of natural fertilizers and process water on soil quality and product hygiene, aspects of food safety, sociopolitical framework conditions (Prof. Schareika, University of Göttingen) and possible economic gains from the proposed improvements (Prof. Löwenstein, University of Bochum). "We also want to consider sociological and economic policy consequences," Bürkert said, "How do these urban economic cycles reduce the risk of poverty? What participation do women find and how does their role in food security influence their role in society? What is the significance of this type of agriculture, especially for ethnic minorities in a society?" Prof. Drescher at the University of Freiburg is also working on this in particular.

The Exceed Center International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) at the University of Kassel is closely involved in the organization of the project.

Within the project "^{UrbanFoodPlus}", an international graduate school for young scientists from Germany, Europe and Africa will be established, with 15 doctoral scholarships and seven doctoral positions. This graduate school is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Bernd Marschner, Head of the Department of Soil Science and Soil Ecology at the University of Bochum. The college thus also serves the scientific exchange between Africa and Europe.

The UrbanFoodPlus project is part of the BMBF's "GlobE - Global Food Security" funding program.

Image of Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert (Photo: Bürkert) at:
www.uni-kassel.de/uni/fileadmin/datas/uni/presse/anhaenge/2013/Buerkert.JPG

Image of Prof. Dr. Bernd Marschner (Photo: Marschner) at:
www.uni-kassel.de/uni/fileadmin/datas/uni/presse/anhaenge/2013/Marschner.JPG

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert

University of Kassel

Section Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics

Phone: +49 5542 98 1228

E-mail: buerkert[at]uni-kassel[dot]de