Responsiveness of town planning to urban agriculture: Kwa-Mashu, SA

Abstract

Even-though urban agriculture has been historically labelled as an illegal activity; current evidence shows that it is now commonly practiced by many poor households in developing countries. There is growing evidence that most countries are gradually seeing the value of urban agriculture among poor households and they are beginning to realize the importance of incorporating it in their urban policy package. Despite this recognition and acceptance of urban agriculture as a food security strategy among the urban poor, little attention is paid to urban agriculture visa-vis urban planning. Researchers have pointed that official views often put more emphasis on environmental and health risks of urban agriculture in violation of town planning zoning rather than on the role of improving food security amongst the poor. This has put a very narrow focus of town planning on the practice of urban agriculture. This book investigates the responsiveness of the town planning system to the challenges of urban agriculture in Kwa-Mashu Township in South Africa, it concludes by suggestion recommendations.