Published by City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture

Harare Regulates Urban Agriculture

Sunday Mail, May 20, 2001

Urban agriculture is gaining momentum in Harare with the official launching of the conservation tillage project in the suburb of Buduiriro, by Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism, Cde. Chindori Chininga last week.

The programme's objective is to promote environmentally friendly cultivation methods such as zero tillage and is the first of its kind to be launched in any urban set-up in Zimbabwe.

The project, which is the brainchild of Mr. Zunde Musikavanhu, caters for scores of households who cultivate in the swampy areas of the suburb, which are not good for any construction.

The project is being sponsored by Monsanto Zimbabwe, a leading agriculture supplies and research company.

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World Cities Have to Plan Well

May 25, 2001

"Environmental problems are more and more urban," Canadian Federal Environment Minister David Anderson said in his scripted speech. "Today, almost half of the world's population live in urban areas. There are 17 cities with populations of over 10 million. There are 326 cities with populations of over one million."

Those numbers mean a high concentration of people are living in small spaces, which could be beneficial for the environment, Mr. Anderson said. The benefit, he said, comes from the ability to run massive recycling programs and other environmental services cheaply, by reaching a lot of people at the same time.

But the minister added that the opportunity to help the environment in urban centres isn't automatic - cities have to plan well to be able to exploit the concentration of people to the environment's advantage.

"Cities should be good for the environment. [But] water and air pollution are devastating when population size or growth outstrips the capacity to build and maintain the water, waste and transportation infrastructure," he said. "And the situation is worse when there is no shared will to solve the problems. The result is that more than one billion urban dwellers choke on air pollution."

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