City dwellers try urban farming to fill gaps in the foodbasket

As Zimbabwe's urban population struggles to cope with the high cost of living, residents in the country's second largest city, Bulawayo, have embarked on subsistence farming to alleviate economic pressure. Several hundred urban dwellers, especially those living in high-density areas, have already cleared small patches of land as the planting season approaches. Dingilizwe Siziba, a resident of Sizinda, one of the Bulawayo's oldest suburbs, said supporting his family had become increasingly difficult over the past few years as food prices continued to climb. Although inflation in Zimbabwe has declined in recent months, at Zim $1.4 million (about US $250) the average food basket remains out of reach for many households. "Subsistence farming has largely been practiced in rural areas where there is enough land and labour - but things have changed. I don't know whether it's just a liking of farming that has gripped the urban populace, but personally I'm doing it so that I may harvest some maize to supplement my earnings," said Siziba, a truck driver who earns Zim $700,000 (about US $124) per month. "Maize-meal is so expensive these days; sugar and bread have become pure luxuries. So if one gets a few pumpkins from his 'fields' and some cobs, you may breath a sigh of relief for some time," Siziba remarked. Last year urban residents clashed with municipal authorities over tilling undesignated land and their crops were destroyed. Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, the mayor of Bulawayo, told IRIN: "Urban agriculture is indeed allowed, but there are certain council by-laws that have to be strictly adhered to. For instance, we don't allow people to clear land haphazardly, as this may impact negatively on our town planning. We also don't allow a situation whereby people cultivate crops near streams, as this may cause soil erosion." According to a recent report by Habakkuk Trust, a local NGO, most households in Bulawayo faced food shortages mainly because they could not afford the price of goods at the stores. Low-income earnings were continuously eroded by soaring inflation, the report added. Habakkuk Trust director Dumisani Nkomo said the interest in urban farming revealed the economic hardships households were facing. "Many urbanites are now trying their hands at urban farming," Nkomo noted, "but the problem is that their land is just too small to yield any reasonable harvests, and they don't even have land rights."