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Irrigated Urban Agriculture in Ghana and Togo

Irrigated Urban Agriculture in Ghana and Togo. Olufunke Cofie International Water Management Institute (IWMI) West Africa Sub-regional Office, Accra, Ghana Contribution to the international Conference on Small Scale Irrigation Experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Irrigated Urban Agriculture in Ghana and Togo

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  1. Irrigated Urban Agriculture in Ghana and Togo Olufunke Cofie International Water Management Institute (IWMI) West Africa Sub-regional Office, Accra, Ghana Contribution to the international Conference on Small Scale Irrigation Experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa 10-14 November, 2003. Ouagadougou

  2. INTRODUCTION • The Urban Millennium • Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing one of the fastest rates of urbanization • Already, more people live in the coastal cities than in the rural areas. • By 2020half of the population of Africa will live in urban and peri-urban areas • Ensuring food security for the urban poor is a challenge • Increase in urban food demand opens door to urban and peri-urban agriculture(UPA)

  3. UPA • Growing of plants and raising of animals for food within and on the fringe of a town • Facilitated by market proximity and urban infrastructures • 800 million people involved worldwide, 150 million people fully employed by UA • Contributed 15% of world food production in 1993 and expected to grow to 30% by 2005 • Compliments rural agriculture increasing the efficiency of national food system

  4. IWMI Research on UPA • Since year 2000, IWMI has been studying various aspects of UPA in West Africa: Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal • Questionnaire surveys, interviews, focus group discussions, literature survey, study visit etc

  5. Urban Agriculture Types • Backyard farming • Open space farming • Roof top/balcony gardening, inland valley cropping etc

  6. Urban agriculture in Kumasi, Ghana 500 open space farmers 85,000 backyards

  7. Special features of UPA • facilitated by the availability of water: streams, drains, shallow wells, wastewater • Enhanced by market proximity

  8. Informal irrigation • Major expression of open-space UPA (e.g 12,000 ha in PU Kumasi vs. 8,600 ha of formal irrigation in Ghana)

  9. Enhances better livelihood of the poor, household food security, recycling of nutrients • Involve health and environmental risk that should be minimized in a holistic manner

  10. Contribution of rural, peri-urban and urban agriculture to urban food supply in Kumasi, Ghana

  11. Water source, farm type and monthly net income from mixed vegetable farming in W.Africa • UA farmers on intensive irrigated vegetable production generate more income than rural colleagues (poverty alleviation)

  12. Irrigation Methods and practices in Ghana and Togo • Watering cans : predominant informal irrigation method used in vegetable farms. • one watering has a volume of about 15 litres. Mainly men • Bucketsare used to fetch and carry water from the source to the fields. • Mostly involves women and children and common in the PU Kumasi. • Treadle pump (TP) is considered a ‘new technology’ in Ghana, • Motorized pumps are being used in some farming sites, often where farmers are wealthier and the water table is deep. Common in PU Kumasi, and the pipes could be as far as 300 m away. • Electric pumps are used in Lome, to fill reservoirs or a connected chain of reservoirs, or connected straight to water hoses

  13. Input requirement of different irrigation technologies used in Lome

  14. Financial comparison showed that the profit margins of open space vegetable farmers in both countries are similar • Higher figures are more frequent in Lome where also export crops are produced. • Moreover in lome, the city accepts the farmers, and field sizes usually larger than in Accra, which favours investments and also labour saving technologies. • In addition, there are differences in the availability and promotion of pumps and hoses between Francophone Togo and Anglophone Ghana.

  15. Conclusions • Irrigated UPA has a significant share in urban food supply, and nutritional status of urban dwellers • It compensates in particular for lack of (functional) cooling chains • Enhances employment, income generation and better livelihood. • Contributes to environmental management • Allows recycling of urban water

  16. Conclusions • In selection of technology, consideration of site specific biophysical and socio-economic factors are critical • Policy makers should support measures at all possible points of intervention (water source, farms, markets, households,..) to reduce health risks without threatening UPA livelihoods.

  17. Thank you

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