నైరూప్య

Sustainability of Urban Community Gardens in Gweru - Zimbabwe: The Case of Senga Area

 Henry Mabika

The paper examines the community gardens of Senga with the guidance of literature on urban agriculture in a bid to expose the sustainability of an urban agricultural project that has been approached from a participatory approach. The residents are involved as beneficiaries and the council is involved as the land owner, Care International comes in with technical and resource assistance. The enthusiasm with which the three parties are approaching the project has made it sustainable in a country where other urban agricultural projects are creating controversy. Apart from employment creation, food security, compatibility of the project with household work and a ready market for fresh farm produce are some of the factors that have made the community gardens in Senga a sustainable project. To come up with relevant data for this paper a convenient sample of the residents was drawn and handed questionnaires whilst in the gardens and the management of both Care and Gweru city council were purposively sampled and interviewed.