Urban Agriculture and Public Administration: Institutional Context and Local Response in Gauteng

Abstract

For public administrators, urban agriculture is a subject of critical policy debate across the developing world. This paper analyses the institutional context and recent public responses to the state of urban agriculture in Gauteng, South Africa's economic heartland. In policy terms, several supportive initiatives exist in urban areas of Gauteng. Mostly, these policy initiatives are driven by the provincial administration in partnership with other stakeholders, including the tier of local (metropolitan municipality) government. Nevertheless, sub-national initiatives are relatively weak and lack the impact that a national policy for urban agriculture might produce.

Beyond the food desert: finding ways to speak about urban food security in south africa

“…In South Africa at the national level, urban agriculture is included in the White Paper on Agriculture (1995), the White Paper on a National Water Policy for South Africa (1998) and the White Paper on Spatial Policy and Land Use Management (2001) (Thornton 2008). Urban agriculture has also been advocated and supported by Provincial governments, with the Western Cape's Department of Agriculture's Urban Renewal Programme (Provincial Government of the Western Cape 2005) and the Gauteng Agricultural Development Strategy (Rogerson 2011) both facilitating food production in urban areas. The City of Cape Town has an urban agriculture policy (City of Cape Town 2007) and other cities in the country actively supporting urban agriculture projects (Rogerson 2011).…”

Food gardening in Lavender Hill, Cape Town: using adoption rates to estimate the perceived benefit

“…Urban agriculture is said to have the potential to address the development goals of poverty alleviation and improved food security (Rogerson, 2003(Rogerson, , 2011Zezza, 2010). This is achieved through providing entrepreneurial opportunities for the unemployed (Rogerson, 2003) as well as improving dietary diversity (Ruysenaar, 2013) and micro nutrient intake (Rogerson, 2011).…”

“…This is achieved through providing entrepreneurial opportunities for the unemployed (Rogerson, 2003) as well as improving dietary diversity (Ruysenaar, 2013) and micro nutrient intake (Rogerson, 2011). It is conceded in the literature that the greatest benefit derived from agriculture is accrued to the poorest households and in areas where the formal food markets are inefficient and social grants are at a minimum (Thornton, 2008;Zezza, 2010;Rogerson, 2003Rogerson, ,2011Shisanya and Hendricks, 2011). The literature also documents a number of ways in which gardeners can achieve personal upliftment such as improved health and physical fitness, the development of knowledge and skills, a sense of pride and accomplishment and developing a feeling of independence and self-worth (Shisanya, 2011).…”

“…This helps to empower women in the community (Slater, 2001), and perhaps empowers family units to be more resilient to engaging in the social ills that are present in their communities. Ecological objectives are addressed too through urban agriculture in that it 'greens' the city visually, incentivises the recycling of organic waste and grey water as well as increasing biodiversity (Rogerson, 2011). Land that is used for agricultural purposes instead of urbanised construction is also seen to have a higher water absorption capacity and therefore acts as flood control (Lynch et al, 2001).…”

“…The negative outcomes are often due to the inability to properly account for qualitative non-monetisable benefits (Slater, 2001;Austen and Visser, 2002;Zezza, 2010;Rogerson, 2003Rogerson, , 2011Shisanya and Hendricks, 2011;Odendaal et al, 2013;Ruysenaar, 2013). As an alternative method of analysis, this paper follows the approach in Austen and Visser (2002) …”