Urban agriculture entails the cultivation of crops mostly vegetables and short cycled plants(maize, beans , groundnuts etc) and to some extent the rearing of animals by city dwellers. These activities thus help them in varied ways such as ;
- Production of these crops helps in sustaining the ever increasing population numbers in the cities.
- Reduces the cost of buying food especially vegetables among the average income earners and poor city dwellers.
- The activity helps in the face uplift of the town through beautification as they are mostly vegetables and short cycled crops. Enhanced crop rotation practices followed by planting of legumes which are nitrogen fixing plants further boots soil fertility.
- It equally re-directs the dumping of waste on these sites if they were not been put into use, thus forcing dwellers to thus dump their refuse in appropriate sites especially as in Cameroon.
- Also, it helps in raising income through the sale of food crops by these dwellers thus improving on their livelihoods. As such, uncultivated parcels of land around our cities should be encouraged to put them into use by either them cultivating or lease them out.
