Contribution Of Urban Agriculture On Improving People’s Livelihood, In Urban Areas: A Case Of Dodoma Municipality, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the contribution of Urban Agriculture on the improvement of people‟s livelihood in Dodoma Municipality. The study focused on identifying the types of Urban Agriculture practiced in the study area, analyzing the characteristics of household involved in Urban Agriculture and ascertaining the contribution of Urban Agriculture on household food and income generation.

Four wards namely Kilimani, Kikuyu North, Kikuyu South and Mkonze were involved in the study. A sample of 123 urban farmers, 15 customers, 2 extension officers and 1 Capital Development Authority planner were involved in the study. Data collection methods included interviews, Focused Group Discussion, in–depth interviews and observations. Both primary and secondary data were collected and qualitatively analyzed using a content analysis and descriptive statistics such as means, percentages and frequencies.

The results indicated that Urban Agricultural activities are dominated by women who accounts for about 57.7% of the urban farmers. About 45% of urban farmers had primary school education levels. The results revealed that crop cultivation (96%) was the major type of Urban Agriculture practiced (96%) due to its contribution in improving food security. Also it was revealed that Urban Agriculture has a great contribution to the household poverty alleviation through income generation (15.6%) and food security (76.2%).

It is recommended that, the government should provide assistance in terms of extension services, training facilities, credits, soft loans and entrepreneur skills essential to the Urban Agriculture.