A study carried out in August 2009, titled Commercial Horticultural Practice in Nigeria: Its Sociospatial Effects in Lagos City by Albert Ayorinde Abegunde, Emmanuel Olufemi Omisore, Olufunmilayo ‘Fumbi Oluodo of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Rufus Giwa Polytechnics, Owo, Ondo State, and Daniel Olaleye of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Obafemi Awolowo Univeristy, Ile Ife, help to throw light on the characteristics of horticulturists in Lagos and some of their findings corroborates the findings of this writer.
They carried out a study of street-by-street distribution of urban horticultural garden in Eti-Osa local government area of Lagos State, with a view to understanding their socio-spatial effects on urban land use and development. The local government has two residential communities (Ikoyi and Victoria Island). A total number of 75 gardens were identified and the study purposively selected all of them for questionnaire administration. The area focused on by this writer was the stretch of land between Festac/Lagos International Trade Fair Complex – the land along the Lagos Badagry Expressway (Fin Niger, Abule-Ado, and Oluti axis).
Aesthetic value
For the dons, 24 percent of the horticulturists get into the practice with the primary aim of improving the aesthetic value of the urban space. The study showed that only one fifth of these horticulturists aimed at providing aesthetics to the environment in the course of practising horticultural gardening in the study area. The rest of them were either using their horticulture to make money or practice farming to feed their family. For the dons, “there is the need for the government to critically examine the socio economic implications of their informal activities and the contributions they can make to urban green”.
The study evidently showed that it becomes imperative for urban planners to educate these horticulturists to rate urban aesthetics above economic gain accrued from the practice of horticulture in the built environment. The Festac interviewees will hear none of this because they are in it for survival, for commercial interest, nothing short of it. Garden, green space, socio-spatial, urban planning interest is none of their business.
According to the report, in Lagos, many growers use vacant land earmarked for industrial development. Since they could be evicted without notice, the growers are reluctant to invest in permanent structures, such as fencing, and do not qualify for bank loans. In Port Harcourt, vegetable growers have been fined for cultivating public land, and even successful floriculturists operate on land owned by investors with an eye to future development. Kano State’s Land Use Act of 1979 makes no provision for urban crop production, considering agriculture a rural land use. As a result, over the past decade, two extensive sites used for horticulture at the edge of the city of Kano have been reduced by half, owing to evictions or compulsory acquisitions of land for construction.
In Minna, too, most growers have no secure title to their plots, and urban development is described as “a major threat” to their livelihoods. Since urban planners do not consider UPH’s water needs, most production is rainfed or depends on wells, boreholes, streams and – increasingly – urban wastewater. In Kano, most water is sourced from drainage channels, which are often highly polluted with household and industrial effluent. A study of heavy metal loads in amaranth, lettuce, carrots and parsley found that while contamination was within international recommended limits for vegetables, increasing use of wastewater posed a health risk to consumers. In Jos, peri-urban lettuce crops contained “very large concentrations” of heavy metals.
Joshua Samaila, Haruna Musa and Kande Penuel interviewed by this writer told pitiable stories of land tenure. The Lagos-Badagry Motorway 10-lane under construction has taken over their farms which as highlighted by the university dons above are situated very close to roads.
A study of Nigeria’s urban agriculture pointed out 10 years ago the urgent need to integrate the sector into town planning, and to introduce leasing agreements to secure growers’ access to land and water. Even in Lagos, there is no shortage of natural resources for horticulture. A 2010 inventory of areas within Lagos metropolis suitable for market gardening identified 675 hectares (ha)of prime arable land along natural drainage channels, 3 300 ha of highway railway and power line corridors, 250 ha on military estates, 100 ha in residential buffer zones, and 75 ha of vacant residential lots.
However, many prime sites were threatened by land speculation, illegal settlements and garbage dumping. The study called on the Lagos State ministries of justice, agriculture, environment, planning and urban development to collaborate in drawing up guidelines and legislation for an effective urban agriculture policy for the state and the metropolis. Other Nigerian states are urged to take similar action.
