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How some other African countries are faring with horticulture

 In Mozambique, Maputo’s green zones provide livelihoods for 13 000 market gardeners. By 1990, Mozambique’s urban population had grown from 1.6 million to 2.9 million. Almost a quarter of the Maputo city area was under agriculture, and 12 000 of its green zone female farmers had joined a General Union of Cooperatives (UGC) that was producing some 200 000 chickens and 5 000 tonnes of vegetables annually. Food price inflation and unemployment have made food production a common practice in urban Mozambique, particularly in smaller cities and towns in the north and centre of the country. In backyards and on vacant lots, residents grow vegetables, fruit, maize, cassava and beans on small plots, known as machambas, mainly for home consumption.

The daily income of a commercial vegetable grower in Maputo is around US$4, well above the national poverty line of US$0.50. Since less than 20 percent of growers’ households have a member in formal employment, market gardening is critically important to family survival, representing almost half of average household earnings.

 In Rwanda, sustainable development of horticulture in Kigali faces familiar constraints: growers’ limited access to inputs, insecurity of land tenure, rudimentary farming methods and low producer prices. The 2001 planning study noted that since half of the city’s farmers had no title to their land, they preferred crops, such as sweet potatoes, which require only small investments of time and money. To diversify production

away from traditional staples to higher value vegetables, growers will need secure title to land and access to production loans. There are also concerns about the quality of produce.

It is clear from the findings here that urban agribusiness in Nigeria as well as a number of African countries is begging for support. Clearly, there is the problem of access to land and the legal issue related to this. There is also the problem of capacity. The farmers operate solo. Their cooperatives are only cooperatives in name and not in action. There is need for he smallholders to come together to press in their case and do business as a team. Individually for instance, these horticulturists cannot explore cooperative export window which is begging for exploration. It is time for a rethink.

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