Women in Urban Agriculture: Are the Policies Supportive? The Case of Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61538/huria.v11i0.503Abstract
This paper is based on a study which examined the practice of urban agriculture in the policy context in Morogoro Municipality. It studied how policies support urban agriculture as well as acknowledging its contribution to the household economy. It involved in-depth survey of women who cultivate vegetables in open spaces. Furthermore, it focuses on women’s experiences and attitudes towards practice of urban agriculture. Purposeful sampling was employed to select two wards, while random sampling was used to select respondents among the women vegetables cultivators from the two wards. Findings show a mismatch between the benefits of urban farming and existing policies which affects women’s participation. In addition, from the findings, women’s participation in urban agriculture contributes to food security, increases household income and reduces poverty. The paper concludes that policies are not supportive to urban farmers and women in particular. Thus women practise vegetable cultivation on a small scale and end up earning little income. It is recommended that urban farmers should be assisted in transforming the practice of traditional vegetable cultivation into modern, sustainable and environmental friendly which will increase productivity.References
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