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| Title: | 'Instead of begging, I farm to feed my children': urban agriculture - an alternative to copper and cobalt in Lubumbashi |
| Authors: | Tambwe, Nyumbaiza Rudolph, Michael Greenstein, Ran |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute (ISSN 0001-9720) |
| Volume: | 81 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 391-412 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Congo (Democratic Republic of) |
| Subjects: | urban agriculture food security households |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/41484995 |
| Abstract: | The collapse of the mining company La Générale des Carrières et des Mines (GECAMINES) in the 1990s forced many unemployed workers in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to look at alternative means of survival. The post-GECAMINES era was characterized by acute economic crisis at a time of rapid population growth and increasing urban poverty. The object of this article is threefold: to demonstrate how Lubumbashi residents resorted to agricultural activities within and around the city; to identify reasons for success and failure from three case studies; and to categorize the types of agriculture that emerge. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews, in-depth questions and observation. One hundred farming households were selected and interviewed between November 2004 and March 2005. The case studies concerned households from three different categories of farmers: those who practised urban agriculture primarily for food production; those for whom agriculture was a secondary activity (the majority); and the rare households engaged in commercial farming. Though the living conditions of 75 percent of urban farmers declined despite the practice of urban agriculture, these conditions might have worsened without it. However, 20 percent of the households in the sample succeeded in stabilizing their living conditions, even though they were unable to alleviate poverty completely. A few farmers (5 percent) became food-secure through the practice of urban agriculture. Bibliogr., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |
