Livelihood Dependence on Urban Agriculture in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tewodros Firdissa Duressa M D N A E O S P R T A W E R R T E M G THESIS ENT O IAN UN 30 F IN IVE /6 T R 0 E S C RN IT R A Y E T O DIT ION F L S 20 AL E IFE 0 N S 7 V C IR IE O N C N E M S E N T A N D D E V E L O P M E N T S T U D I E S , N o r a g r ic Credits The Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric, is the international gateway for the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), comprising eight departments, associated research institutions and the Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine in Oslo. Established in 1986, Noragric’s contribution to international development lies in the interface between research, education (Bachelor, Master and PhD programmes) and assignments. The Noragric Master theses are the final theses submitted by students in order to fulfill the requirements under the Noragric Master programme “Management of Natural Resources and Sustainable Agriculture” (MNRSA), “Development Studies” and other Master programmes. The findings in this thesis do not necessarily reflect the views of Noragric. Extracts from this publication may only be reproduced after prior consultation with the author and on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation contact Noragric. © Tewodros Firdissa P.O.Box 2060, Code 1250 Addis Ababa Ethiopia e-mail: [email protected] Noragric Department of International Environment and Development Studies P.O. Box 5003 N-1432 Ås Norway Tel.: +47 64 96 52 00 Fax: +47 64 96 52 01 Internet: http://www.umb.no/noragric Photos in page iii: Bole vegetable farm (left), urban farmers (top and bottom right), and livestock at Akaki-Qality (middle right). Livelihood Dependence on Urban Agriculture in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by Tewodros Firdissa Major supervisor: Espen Sjaastad Local supervisor: Worku Tessema A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master in Management of Natural Resources and Sustainable Agriculture (M-MNRSA). Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Ås May 2007. Declaration I, Tewodros Firdissa Duressa, do hereby declare the originality of my work, and whole-heartedly acknowledge the use of all materials other than my own work. This work has not been submitted to any other university than Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) for any type of academic degree or publication. May 10, 2007 Ås, Norway Acknowledgement I would like to thank Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) for financing my master study and research. My warmest gratitude goes to my major supervisor, Espen Sjaastad for supporting me throughout the process of research preparation to the writing up phase. Your academic insight and constructive reflections have been encouraging and very helpful. I would like also to thank my local supervisor, Worku Tessema, for equally helping me during proposal writing, the field work and giving me comments on my final work. You were also very wonderful. I would also like to thank all of my research assistants for helping me during fieldwork and collect data in time, and special thanks goes to all the urban farmers and their associations in Addis Ababa for their kind interest to answer my questions and share a rewarding experience. Without your support this thesis would never have been possible. I would like also to thank the staffs of Addis Ababa City Council, Urban Agricultural offices and Statistical Authority for Ethiopia for their kind provision of secondary data and worthy helping during my field work. I would like to express my gratitude to NORAGRIC, International office staff members and all other organizations who in various ways contributed to completion of my study. I am indebted to my parents, Fidirssa Duressa and Zimam Tsegay, and siblings. Your encouragements have meant a lot to me. You have taught me a lot to believe in myself and never give up. Finally, I would like to thank all of my friends for their inspirations and supports to me. v Abstract Understanding the role that urban agriculture plays in the livelihoods of urban farmers in particular and the urban society at large helps to realize the relevance of the sector in urban poverty alleviation and to give due attention to it during urban development policy reforms. The objectives of the study were to find out the major urban agricultural production systems in Addis Ababa city, and their roles in livelihoods of urban farmer households and urban poverty alleviation, and to provide empirical evidences on socio-economic challenges related to the urban farming. Data were collected based on household survey using a structured questionnaire on 70 urban farmer households which were equivalently and randomly selected from four sub-cities in Addis Ababa. The findings revealed that cultivating vegetable crops and rearing large cattle are the most common agricultural activities by the urban crop producers and livestock owners, respectively. The former are the most dominant groups among all urban farmers in Addis Ababa. Many urban farmers (40 %) also experience mixed farming in the city. Urban farming in Addis Ababa has significant influence on the livelihoods of urban farmer households as compared to other livelihood options, where over 65 % of the households’ income is derived from farming. Besides this, it has equal importance in the livelihoods of both the poor and better-off urban farmers, and contributed to income inequality among the farmers. Vegetable production was found to narrow the income gap between the poor (lowest quintile) and the rich (top quintile) urban farmer households, where as large cattle production seems to widen the inequality. In addition, the livelihoods of poor urban farmer households are less diversified, and the strategies of the majority (80 %) are either principally crop farming or non-farm based livelihoods, where as the better-off households follow mostly combinations of farm and non-farm based livelihood strategies. Low land productivity, lack of education (especially for household heads), livestock and credit were the critical assets that distinguished the poor from better-off urban farmer households, and they seemed to limit the productivities of the poor even though the households have better adult work forces. Participations of women and uneducated people in the sector are also widely observed. Key words: urban agriculture, livelihood, farm income, urban farmers, Ethiopia vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract..........................................................................................................................................vii LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................................xi LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................................xii LIST OF BOXES.............................................................................................................................xii 1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................1 1.1. Problem statement............................................................................................................2 1.2. Significance of the study..................................................................................................4 1.3. Objectives of the study.....................................................................................................4 1.4. Research questions:..........................................................................................................4 2. Literature Review.....................................................................................................................6 2.1. Urban agriculture: Definition...........................................................................................6 2.2. Potentials and constraints of urban agriculture................................................................7 2.2.1. Potentials of urban agriculture.....................................................................................7 2.2.2. Constraints of urban agriculture...................................................................................9 2.3. Modes of urban farmers...................................................................................................9 2.4. Urban farmer livelihood perspectives............................................................................11 3. Methodology...........................................................................................................................13 3.1. Description of study area: Addis Ababa city..................................................................13 3.2. Sampling methods and Data collection..........................................................................14 3.2.1. Sampling methods......................................................................................................14 3.2.2. Data collection............................................................................................................16 3.3. Data analysis...................................................................................................................18 4. Results and discussion............................................................................................................22 4.1. Household characteristics of urban farmers...................................................................22 ix 4.2. Urban agricultural production systems in Addis Ababa................................................24 4.2.1. Types of agricultural production systems..................................................................24 4.2.2. Input use and technologies.........................................................................................26 4.3. Household income and livelihood strategies of urban farmers......................................29 4.3.1. Contribution and sources of urban agriculture...........................................................29 4.3.2. Level of dependence on urban agricultural income...................................................33 4.3.3. Household income distribution among cases.............................................................36 4.3.4. Livelihood strategies of urban farmers.......................................................................41 4.4. Household assets of urban farmers.................................................................................49 5. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................53 References......................................................................................................................................55 Appendix I. Assets-access-activities framework for livelihood analysis........................................59 Appendix II. Types and proportion of urban farmers interviewed, by sub-city.............................60 Appendix III. Correlations between incomes and assets, and ANOVA for farm income...............61 Appendix IV. SPSS output of income quintile*sub-city cross tabulation.......................................64 Appendix V: SPSS regression outputs for incomes and diversity index.........................................65 Appendix VI. Questionnaire and checklist.....................................................................................72 x