Africa: The appeal to farm in urban Lagos

This is beneficial not only in urban Lagos but in every city in Nigeria where most children have never seen practically how crops and livestock are raised.

By Tunji Ajibade
Punch
July 26, 2024

Excerpt:

When the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture made her appeal, it occurred to me that she made a needed call but which implications we needed to further call attention to. She wanted households to produce part of what they eat, appealing to Lagosians to “get into some kind of urban farming. Grow something in your home that you can eat.” Her appeal may well be a starting point and, with the kind of functions her newly named ministry has, I think she has made a call that amounts to kick-starting a process. It’s a process that extends beyond what she’s said. Her kind of call can’t be an end in itself.

This is because urban farming that she appeals to people to engage in has its own chain, a value chain maybe, for food production, for the environment, as well as the community. In the end, Lagos State with its high population and the attendant challenges benefits in more ways than just producing food for consumption. I shall explain. Urban farming is the practice of cultivating crops and livestock in an urban environment. Such farming may seem new but a closer look into the past shows it actually has a long history. City dwellers in ancient Mesopotamia set aside land for cultivation. After the WW2, what was called victory gardens became part of the cityscapes. Urban farming has now become a major focus for the purpose of agricultural sustainability. In fact, social justice advocates argue that it can provide avenues to positive change. These days more buildings are developed with the infrastructure needed to support community rooftop gardens. There is vertical farming which can transform existing urban spaces into dense centres of agricultural production.

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