Author(s)

H. S. Mkwela

Abstract

The paper focuses on the policy issues concerning urban agriculture (UA) in Dar es Salaam city. It argues that the process of formalisation and/or including UA in the city master plan takes longer than expected despite efforts by local and international stakeholders including the UN Habitat and United National Environmental Program (UNEP). The two agents jointly launched the Sustainable Dar es Salaam City Project (SDCP) in 1992 which became operational in 1993. The project idea was to make Dar es Salaam one of exemplary sustainable cities in Africa. Urban agriculture was identified as one of the priority for the Project; because a sustainable city should be able to feed its residents by using local resources. By the time the project was completed in 2003, still, there was no clear UA policy in the country. In support of UN Habitat and UNEP initiatives for a Sustainable Dar es Salaam City Project, national and international funded UA development projects have been implemented at different times and scales. One of these programmes is the on-going Sustainable Cities International Network-Africa Programme (SCINAP) which is aimed at promoting legitimization of UA in the city. These projects have had a number of proposals concerning inclusion of UA in the city’s master plan which are yet to be implemented by the authorities. These delays have left the hapless urban farmers with no alternative but to invade institutional and hazardous land leading to insecurity of tenure and environmental degradation. The paper is aimed at identifying and analysing the sources of delay in formalisation and inclusion of UA in the master plan. It is based on the in-depth literature and analysis of the published works, policies related to UA and official reports from the government of Tanzania. It would appear from the gathered evidence that among other barriers for the timely formalisation and inclusion of UA in the master plan in Dar es Salaam city is related to urban authorities’ perceptions of the activity.

Keywords

urban agriculture (UA), sustainable city, Sustainable Dar es Salaam Project, UA policy, UA dream, UA reality