Urban farms empower Africa
Aid providers in Congo and elsewhere are discovering that lessons in farming can succeed where food handouts have not.
from the May 9, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
From the backyard to the market
A drive through Kinshasa today shows some of these lasting results. Leafy green beds sit plush between cinder-block homes and shacks, on median strips, and along roads crowded with pollution-spitting taxi vans. According to Inge Sthreshley, many successful home gardeners eventually become market gardeners, offering their produce for sale.
Some people, such as Mulopo Wally, have even turned urban gardening into a full-fledged business. Mr. Wally gardens along one of Kinshasa's main arteries, in what used to be a vast, abandoned swath of weeds. Today, he has 300 beds of spinach, manioc, and other greens. A middleman who exports vegetables to Europe regularly buys up a dozen or more beds' worth of produce.
There are unique considerations when it comes to urban farming, Wally says: He can't grow crops that will get too tall, or else they will absorb too much pollution. Also, bandits might hide in the foliage. Better to keep the vegetables low and leafy.
When asked about the success of his business, he gives the half-defeated shrug characteristic of farmers across the world, and grumbles about the weather.
"We're OK," he says. "We do not get rich, but we're OK."
How a garden helped a child
After two years of positive results, larger aid organizations decided to get involved with the Presbyterian garden project. In 1997, the European Union started funding the project. Today, the UN's World Food Program is also partnering with the Kinshasa project.
The program was well established, when, in 1999, Lipepele rushed her severely malnourished 1-year-old to the local health clinic. There, volunteers with the gardens program evaluated Lipepele and her family's diet. They asked what sort of food the family could purchase. And then they began teaching Lipepele how to farm.
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