EFFECTS OF URBAN AGRICULTURE ON RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBOURHOODS

Abstract

Agricultural activities that were previously predominant features of rural areas have become increasingly, urban features metamorphosizing to the term Urban Agriculture (UA). The growing trend of agricultural activities in cities is attributable to many factors; rural-urban migration, rapid urbanization without commensurate formal employment opportunities, increasing poverty and low purchasing power, food security, and improved technology especially in global North cities. Urban Agriculture is a peculiar trend because apart from being a predominantly rural activity; most planned urban areas have no designated zones for agricultural land use and so the existence of agricultural activities in cities require the conversion of an existing planned use to agricultural use—contravention. Based on the important outcomes of urban agriculture, it is expected that urban planning policy-makers should become proactive by consciously and deliberately including agricultural land use in city plans, however, this dynamic paradigm shift has only taken place in the developed global North; with the besieged global South cities slow about this necessary action. This research highlights the effects of urban agriculture on residential neighbourhoods in the global South using Enugu, Nigeria as an empirical study. Three neighbourhoods were selected for the study using stratified random sampling. The mixed research method was employed, while purposive and snow-balling sampling techniques were used for data collection. Data were collected through direct field observation, questionnaire administration and interview sessions as well as published and unpublished documents from reliable sources. The descriptive statistics were used to summarize participants’ characteristics, SPSS version 22 was used for the analysis, while, a thematic analysis was conducted using the latest NVivo version to analyze the transcripts from the qualitative data. The result of the analysis reveal that most environmental effects of UA are grouped into three major sectors; loss of biodiversity, air pollution and aesthetic distortion. The acknowledgement and integration of UA into future plans are recommended. The study is significant as it provides the requisite information for policy adjustment that will accommodate urban agriculture