Feeding Cities from Within: Mapping Africa’s Hidden Urban Harvest

Cities across Africa are already feeding themselves. From Dar es Salaam to Kampala and Accra, millions of households grow, sell, and consume food produced inside city limits. More than 70 percent of amaranth (mchicha, Amaranthus dubius) eaten in Dar es Salaam is cultivated within the city demonstrating how much of Africa’s freshest produce is urban. In Kampala, a recent study estimated 4,000 cattle, 9,000 pigs and nearly 250,000 poultry are reared within the capital’s five divisions, confirming cities are far more than consumption centres.

Urban agriculture delivers tangible benefits. Locally, urban agriculture strengthens resilience and food security, lowers transport and storage costs, reduces spoilage and keeps food affordable. The integration of livestock into city systems provides households with dietary protein; manure for gardens; steady income from eggs, milk and meat; and biogas. Urban agriculture is evolving as a livelihood that appeals not only to the urban poor, but increasingly to middle-income households providing food, employment opportunities and income diversification. The majority of these producers are women who use small plots and backyard livestock as practical pathways into local markets and value chains.

The invisible harvest

Despite its importance, most urban food production remains invisible in official statistics and land-use plans. Without the mapping of soils, water sources, drainage and pollution risks; farmers cannot ensure safety or claim secure tenure. When city planners cannot “see” farms, they cannot safeguard them. Invisibility leads to eviction, contamination or ad-hoc bans on livestock and vegetables, even when the sectors sustains thousands of families.

The Msimbazi River basin in Dar es Salaam illustrates the challenge. Hundreds of farmers grow leafy greens on floodplains irrigated by shallow wells, exposed to runoff from streets and industrial effluents. Water samples reveal high microbial loads and traces of heavy metals; proof of the need for spatial mapping and buffer zones. Kampala faces similar risks. The majority of livestock waste, comprising faeces and urine, is dumped into open drains that flow into Lake Victoria. Such unmanaged waste undermines ecosystem health and public trust exposing farmers to arbitrary crackdowns when sanitation concerns arise.

Insurance in times of shock

Urban agriculture has also proved to be an insurance policy during crises. When the Ebola outbreak hit West Africa in 2014, the threat of market closures in Monrovia and Freetown revealed how fragile city food systems can be.  Small urban plots can provide some relief in such situations.  During the COVID-19 Pandemic, households with gardens and small livestock maintained food access when transport and trade stalled. Local production shortened supply lines and built resilience. In an era of increasing floods, heat waves and disrupted logistics, proximity to production is not a luxury, but a lifeline.

Lessons from China

China provides an interesting glimpse of what visibility can achieve.  In Shanghai and Beijing, geospatial tools, including satellite imagery and GIS, are increasingly used to assess and plan urban and peri-urban agriculture. These tools can be utilized to track food output, water use, soil health and market flows turning agriculture into measurable infrastructure for food security and climate adaptation.

Research in Shanghai reveals spatial mapping has improved alignment between urban agriculture and municipal land-use policy.  Another study estimates that cultivating just 18 percent of available rooftops, urban open spaces and courtyards across China’s major cities could satisfy 30 percent of urban vegetable demand. Meanwhile, the country’s long-running “Vegetable Basket” programs use geographic information systems (GIS) to safeguard peri-urban farmland, monitor encroachment and optimize logistics.  These examples show how mapping and spatial governance elevate urban agriculture from informal survival to strategic green infrastructure.

Building confidence through data

Africa may not replicate China’s high-tech systems, but the principle is clear. Mapping and integration transform perception and policy. Producers can access cheaper loans and insurance, and buyers and investors can plan with higher degrees of confidence when data is transparent and risks are verified. Digital verification builds credibility with banks and insurers that often avoid unregistered enterprises.

Technology is already bridging gaps. The Climate Policy Initiative’s ACRE Africa uses remote sensing and weather data to trigger index-insurance pay-outs, enabling smallholders to recover from shocks. The AgResults initiative supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia demonstrated that verified outcomes and incentive-linked benchmarks motivate private actors to invest and scale. Applying similar third-party evaluation frameworks to urban agriculture mapping could provide quantifiable proof of impact, de-risk finance and attract public and private capital.

The missing link: making maps

The most urgent gap across Africa’s urban food landscape is the absence of comprehensive mapping. When farmers, planners and investors can see where crops and livestock exist, which soils are safe and how markets cluster, they can design smarter and safer systems. Plot mapping via GPS-enabled phones, mobile forms for soil and water testing and low-cost satellite imagery are all readily accessible and within reach today.

FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform demonstrates how spatial data underpins early-warning systems and food-security planning and the UN-Habitat World Cities Report 2022 identifies geospatial mapping as an essential tool for inclusive, climate-resilient urban governance.  Thousands of mapped plots and livestock households could generate “safe-to-plant/safe-to-rear” maps and link producers to markets, capital, soil testing and advisory services. Such evidence would turn scattered activities into a coherent food-system strategy that is quantifiable, defensible and investable.

Cities leading change

Progress is visible across Africa. Inner-city gardens and vegetable beds in Accra continue to feed households despite competition for land while pilot projects in Kampala empower female youth, optimize space and deliver fresh produce. Urban agriculture is increasing across Sub-Saharan Africa despite the challenges associated with urbanization governance and policy, knowledge and technology, access to land and water, financing and capacity building and environmental pollution.

Kampala is leading the way. The Urban Agriculture Ordinances introduced in 2006 formally recognized farming as a legitimate city activity.  Recent research shows that urban agriculture is attracting low and middle-income residents, diversifying diets and livelihoods.  Mapping the city’s gardens and livestock enterprises could demonstrate how data turns informal practice into strategic urban assets, while independent evaluation would build trust with financiers and insurers.

From invisible to indispensable

The abundance of leafy greens in Dar es Salaam and the quarter million birds and thousands of pigs raised within Kampala are not curiosities. They are provocations. They remind us to stop seeing urban fields and pens as marginal and start recognizing them as vital infrastructure. Digital mapping offers the bridge to transform unseen subsistence into climate-smart, resilient, and inclusive food systems. With transparent data and measurable results, urban agriculture can strengthen infrastructure, unlock capital, lower risk and deepen market participation.  Africa’s hidden harvest is already flourishing. The task now is simple but urgent. Make it visible, measurable and central to the continent’s urban future.

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Christopher Burke is the managing director of WMC Africa, a communications and advisory agency in Kampala, Uganda.  He has almost 30 years’ experience working on a broad range of issues in social, political and economic development focused on agriculture, land governance, communications and peace-building based in Asia and Africa.  

Also read: Insurance Revolution: Land Tenure Security Innovations for Agriculture in Africa

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