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Applied Geography 36 (2013) 31e39

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Applied Geography

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Meeting the urban challenge? Urban agriculture and food security in post-conflictFreetown, Sierra Leone

Kenneth Lynch a,*, Roy Maconachie b, Tony Binns c, Paul Tengbe d, Kabba Bangura d

a School of Natural and Social Sciences, Frances Close Hall, Swindon Road, Cheltenham, GL50 4AZ, UKbDepartment of Social and Policy Studies, University of Bath, Bath, UKcDepartment of Geography, University of Otago, Dunedin, New ZealanddDepartment of Geography, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Keywords:

Urban agricultureSierra LeonePost-conflictUrban food security

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ44 1242 714779E-mail addresses: klynch@glos.ac.uk (K.

(R. Maconachie), jab@geography.otago.ac.nz (T. Binn(P. Tengbe), ksbangura@yahoo.com (K. Bangura).

0143-6228/$ e see front matter � 2012 Elsevier Ltd.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2012.06.007

a b s t r a c t

Sierra Leone has recently emerged from a long period of political instability and is ranked among theworld’s poorest countries. During the decade-long civil war of the 1990s, widespread forced out-migration left much of the countryside abandoned, as rural residents fled to the safety of the capital city,Freetown. Consequently, food production became severely dislocated and, in the post-conflict era, thestate of the agricultural sector has become a major concern to governmental and non-governmentaldevelopment agencies. Focussing on the question of urban food security in Freetown, this paperexamines the incidence, dynamics and significance of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) amonghouseholds, at a crucial point in Sierra Leone’s post-conflict reconstruction phase. Drawing on recentfield-based data, the paper contributes to the growing debate concerning how urban planning anddevelopment might be reconciled with the promotion of an ‘enabling environment’ in which UPA isencouraged and supported. It is argued that in the case of Freetown, a detailed evaluation of UPA isurgently needed to determine how agricultural activities can fit in with urban structure, urban problemsand the livelihoods of a wide range of actors in and around the city. The paper concludes that not only isUPA a vital element in ensuring household food security, but it could potentially play a fundamental rolein safeguarding the urban food continuum and promoting sustainable urbanization in the post-conflictperiod and beyond.

� 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction

This paper focuses on a dual challenge facing a number of citiesacross theworld. On one hand, many cities, both in the global Northand South, are wrestling with the challenge of how to most effec-tively plan and manage their environments to obtain the resourcesneeded tomeet the livelihood demands of their populations. On theother hand, there are a number of cities where these difficultieshave been amplified because they are emerging from periods ofconflict and civil disruption. High profile examples include Belfast(Northern Ireland), Baghdad (Iraq), Maputo (Mozambique) andFreetown (Sierra Leone), but others are located near to the locationof civil disruption, such as Nairobi (Kenya) and Amman (Jordan),and they have been affected by among other things, the migrationof refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The city uponwhich the primary research for this paper was carried out,

, þ44 7740 627703 (mobile).Lynch), rm334@bath.ac.uks), dr.paultengbe@yahoo.com

All rights reserved.

Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, is facing both an emergencefrom a period of prolonged conflict and an economy that is chal-lenged by limited infrastructure. Combined with the effects of theconflict and post-conflict processes such as rebuilding the infra-structure and systems of law and order, Freetown, like many othercities in the developing world, is also struggling to cope withpressures associated with its bourgeoning urban population.

One important aspect of this urban growth is the challenge offeeding the population in towns and cities and achieving foodsecurity for urban households. The aim of this paper is to establisha baseline understanding of urban and peri-urban agriculture inpost-conflict Freetown, and to examine the challenges for thegrowers, the institutions supporting cultivation, and the range ofways in which UPA links to other aspects of Freetown’s movetowards a more sustainable future.

Background

‘The 21st century is the Century of the City. Half of the world’spopulation already lives in urban areas and by the middle of this

K. Lynch et al. / Applied Geography 36 (2013) 31e3932

century most regions of the developing world will be predom-inantly urban.’ (UN Habitat, 2008, p. x)

As the above quote illustrates, the scale of contemporary changethat has taken place in the demographic balance between urbanand rural areas is phenomenal. One of the key challenges is toprovide the opportunities for residents of these cities to meet theirbasic needs, such as food, water and shelter. To give an indication ofthe scale of the challenge facing African and other developingcountries, the Worldwatch Institute (2011) recently published thefollowing estimates:

� 33% of Africa’s population live in cities� By 2050 this will be 60% (68% for the West African region).

With regard to the issue of food procurement, the WorldwatchInstitute reported the UNDP’s (1996) estimates that:

� Globally 800 million people are engaged in urban agriculture.� These producers account for an average of 15e20 per cent ofthe world’s food production

� More are employed in processing, marketing, transportingurban produced food

The UN High Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis (2010)explicitly recommends that:

“A paradigm shift in design and urban planning is needed that aimsat . Reducing the distance for transporting food by encouraginglocal food production, where feasible, within city boundaries andespecially in immediate surroundings” (UN, 2010, p. 65).

Although most global food production has, and will continue totake place in rural areas, it is clear that for various reasons urbansolutions to the challenges facing Africa in the medium term, suchas food security, will have to be found. Reducing the distance thatfood is transported, providing fresh food and a rapid market supplywhere food is highly perishable, essentially means growing foodcloser to the markets. Indeed, many urban residents rely on urbancultivation as an important strategy to keep their costs down (DeZeeuw, Van Veenhuizen, & Dubbeling, 2011).

Previous research on urban and peri-urban agriculture suggeststhat there are a number of key challenges facing urban cultivatorsand those who wish to promote city-based cultivation:

� Land tenure security can be problematic (Binns & Lynch, 1998;Thornton, 2009)

� Extension support is necessary, but often lacking (Dubbeling &Pasquini, 2010)

� Intermediate technology innovations are often unavailable(Dubbeling & Pasquini, 2010)

� Relations with buyers can be defined by unequal power rela-tionships (Porter, Lyon, & Potts, 2007; Porter, Lyon, Potts, &Bowyer-Bower, 2004)

Where urban cultivators are producing for income generationrather than for subsistence, it is important to consider their rela-tionship with markets:

� A large proportion of producers rely on buyers for marketinformation

� Access to market information needs to be wide & transparent� Contractual relations are vital for building trust� Food storage and transportation are important to reduce wastee Worldwatch Institute (2011): 40 per cent of food worldwideis lost to waste

� Maintaining a range of urban food supply sources will be thekey to urban resilience

The West Africa Long Term Perspective Study (WALTPS) (Cour &Snrech, 1998) modelled urban and population growth in WestAfrica over the period from 1960 to 1990, and made projections intothe future, concluding that there was cause for some considerableoptimism. It seems that while the population in the region in 1960was 87 per cent dependent on rural agriculture, this proportiondeclinedmarkedly over the period up to 1990 as farmers increasinglyoriented their production towards urban and export markets. Forexample, farmers have moved closer to urban markets and havemodified their production practices to meet increasing urbandemand. As a result, the WALTPS estimated that during the 1990sfood production in the region almost kept pace with overall pop-ulation growth, lagging only three years behind urban populationgrowth. This has implications for the region in terms of food security,production and consumption. The urban food system also interactswith thewiderurbansystem, and is shapedbyanumberofkey factorssuch as land tenure, levels of employment, and environmentalsystems such as water, land andwider environmental management;

‘. although a significant portion of humanity’s impact on theglobal environment originates in urban areas, there are alsoopportunities to mitigate and adapt to global environmentalchange through urban processes. We are just beginning tounravel the complexities of these relationships. One thing isclear: urbanization is central to global environmental changeand as such will necessarily be integral to a transition towardssustainability. (Seto & Satterthwaite, 2010, p. 128)

There are implications here for both Freetown and Sierra Leone,and what can be learned from Freetown could provide usefulinsights for other cities.

Agriculture in post-conflict scenarios

The transition from a conflict to post-conflict environment isa particularly delicate and challenging situation where society andeconomy move from a period of complete breakdown, wherepublic and international institutions are attempting to providesocial protection, to a situation where the society and economy arebeing reconfigured. This transition represents a change from anobjective of social protection to one of improving livelihoods.However, a growing body of research suggests that moves toreducing vulnerability and increasing resilience in communitiesaffected by conflict and disaster may be a more appropriate andeffective approach than many that have been attempted before.This requires an understanding of vulnerability and powerlessnessin this context. Longley, Christopoulos, and Slaymaker (2006) arguethat such transition periods should focus on:

supporting interventions that not only allow people to copewith adverse circumstances, but that also promote livelihoods,both in economic and social terms. (Longley et al., 2006, p. 1)

Although Longley et al. explicitly focus on rural agriculturalinterventions, there is much that can be applied in a context ofurban cultivation. In particular, they argue for a greater emphasison capacity and institution building to address vulnerability andmake communities more resilient and able to respond to theirneeds and opportunities. This is in contrast to approaches that haveemphasised production-led initiatives e so-called ‘seeds and tools’programmes. An approach that focuses on strengthening resilienceamong the population has the effect of building cooperation andinformal institutions in the society which can strengthen theestablishment of peaceful development.

Another factor in the study of post-conflict agriculture that hasa bearing on urban and peri-urban cultivation is the tendency in

K. Lynch et al. / Applied Geography 36 (2013) 31e39 33

post-conflict societies for displaced people to settle in urban areas.According to Longley et al. (2006), this net rural-to-urbanmigrationresults from a number of explanatory factors;

� loss of land and other assets that make rural livelihoodsunviable;

� preference for continuing urban lifestyles among returningrefugees;

� increased exposure to urban livelihoods, including skillsdevelopment;

� shortage of off-farm employment in isolated rural areas thatrules out a gradual re-accumulation of assets through rurallivelihoods alone; and

� a perceived need to build up assets necessary to make rurallivelihoods viable e in this case urban settlement is initiallyregarded as a temporary, interim measure before an eventualreturn to rural areas.

Additionally, the evidence tells us that while the world’s totalpopulation is now more urban than rural, globally (UNFPA, 2007),large numbers of refugees are nowmore likely to be found in urbanareas. This contrasts with the more common image of rural ‘tentedvillages’ which actually accounts for less than a third of refugeesglobally (Pavanello, Samir Elhawary, & Pantuliano, 2010; UNHCR,2009). For example, UN Habitat (2011) reported that arounda quarter of Amman’s 2 million residents are refugees. Longley et al.(2006) found evidence in Sierra Leone ematched in Afghanistan e

that post-conflict agricultural production recovers relativelyquickly.

Conflict and post-conflict in Sierra Leone

In the last two decades, Sierra Leone has become synonymouswith poverty, poor governance and ‘blood diamonds’ as a result ofthe brutal civil war which lasted from 1991 to 2001. The war led tosome 50,000 deaths, and an estimated displacement of one to threemillion people from towns and villages across the country (IDMC,2004). During the conflict, many rural communities were destabi-lised and traumatised by rebel insurgents, who burned crops andhouses, leading to widespread forced out-migration (Maconachie,Binns, Tengbe, & Johnson, 2006). Sierra Leone’s economy sufferedfrom severe dislocation, whilst the state of the country’s infra-structure deteriorated rapidly during the conflict. During the yearsof conflict, the poor became even poorer, with GNI per capita fallingby 35 per cent between 1990 and 2000, and in 2011 standing at justUS$ 731 per capita, compared with US$ 33,296 and US$ 43,017 inthe UK and USA, respectively. It is estimated that some 62 per centof the population are existing on less than US$ 1.25 a day (UNDP,2011). After a decade of peace and reconstruction, Sierra Leonestill remains well down the United Nations Development Pro-gramme’s rankings for Human Development Index, occupying theposition of 180 out of 187 countries (UNDP, 2011). Life expectancy atbirth in 2011 was just 47.8 years, whilst adult literacy rates for thepopulation over the age of 15 was only 40.9 per cent. Meanwhile,Sierra Leone’s under-5 mortality rate of 192 deaths per thousandlive births continues to be one of the highest in the world (UNDP,2011).

During the war, Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown, receiveda large proportion of the estimated 2 million internally displacedpersons (IDPs) who moved to the city in search of protection andassistance (IDMC, 2004; Maconachie, Binns, & Tengbe, 2012; UN/OCHA, 2000). An estimated 600,000 refugees fled to neighbour-ing Liberia. The population of greater Freetown has grownmassively in recent years, and particularly during the civil war. In1974, the capital city had an estimated population of 276,247, but by

2004 this had increased to 772,873 (Statistics Sierra Leone, 2011).The latter figure is likely to be an underestimate, and it is thoughtthat the present population may well be over 1 million, possiblyeven approaching 2 million. Largely as a result of the civil war, theproportion of people living in extreme poverty in Sierra Leoneincreased from 57 per cent in 1990, just before the war, to anestimated 89 per cent at the time of the peace settlement in 2002(EURODAD, 2005), and a strong link was evident between povertyand malnutrition (IMF, 2005) There was a significant increase inpoverty in Freetown during this period, and the first PovertyReduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) published in June 2005, reportedthat due to overcrowding and poor sanitation, ‘.a pattern ofseverity is piling up in the big city (Freetown). The severity ofpoverty is higher than expected’ (IMF, 2005).

Freetown’s recent history is dominated by the effects of the civilwar which ended in January 2002 when a final cease-fire wasdeclared, followed by democratic elections in May of that year.Around half of the period of the war was focused in the southernand eastern regions of the country, but after 1997, the RUF (Revo-lutionary United Front) rebels gradually extended their controlacross the rest of the country, and on 6 January 1999 the rebelsactually managed to seize the eastern and central districts ofFreetown. A UN peacekeeping force arrived in the country aftera ceasefire agreement in July 1999, and although the ceasefire didnot hold, peacekeepers and the civil authorities gradually regainedcontrol of the country between 1999 and January 2002 (IDMC,2004).

Freetown is a coastal city located on the northern edge ofa peninsula of relatively steeply sloping hills, known as thePeninsular Mountains. This has restricted the outward develop-ment of the city because to the north and west is the Atlantic Oceanand the estuary of the Sierra Leone River, while to the south are therising hills of the Freetown Peninsula. In response to the localtopography, the city has been forced to grow along the western andparticularly the eastern shore-lines and to infill and densify theexisting urban settlement. The city experiences high rainfallamounts during the rainy season fromMay to October, which oftenresults in seasonal flooding of low-lying areas in the city andaround the outlets of small streams. This has resulted in some low-lying areas of the city being unsuitable for urban development, butseasonal flooding brings a raised water table and sediment thatensures annual replenishment of soil fertility, making these areassuitable for cultivation. The city is dissected by seasonally floodedstreams flowing down from the highlands, which provide cultiva-tors with land and water for agriculture. In the peri-urban moun-tain areas above Freetown are small villages, such as Leicester,Gloucester and Regent, that are highly fertile and have long beenrenowned for their market gardening using intensive valley-bottom and terrace cultivation methods. However, there areproblems with the quality of the run-off water, particularly in built-up areas, whilst in the lower coastal locations salination fromseawater ingress can be a problem.

During the war in the late 1990s, when Freetown’s surroundingrural areas were under siege by the RUF, the city was effectively cutoff from its rural supply hinterlands. Consequently, urban foodproduction flourished, as it was one of the only options available tocity residents. The result has been that there is a strong tradition ofurban cultivation in the city, in particular in the land areas that arenot suitable for development.

As indicated above (Longley et al., 2006), one of the mainconsequences of the conflict period was that people fled from therural to the urban areas and, although there has been some re-settlement in rural communities, many displaced people haveactually remained in the greater Freetown area rather thanreturning to their rural origins. This has exacerbated the rapid

K. Lynch et al. / Applied Geography 36 (2013) 31e3934

urban growth during a period when the government and cityauthorities have been unable to manage the expansion of servicesto cope with the growth in population. A sizeable proportion ofurban migrants have had significant social needs, physical injuriesand have suffered considerable psychological trauma in beingseparated from their families and normal social networks thatmight otherwise have provided the social support needed.

The result is that Freetown is a city that has rapidly outgrown itsability to provide for its inhabitants and the current nationalgovernment and city authorities are now desperately trying tocatch up. In addition to inadequate drinking water supplies andsanitation, the city suffers from chronic traffic problems as a resultof the physical restrictions of the site. There are only two or threemain roads cutting across the city from east to west, and as a resultcongestion on these roads is considerable.

Methods

The research project upon which this paper is based set out todevelop a procedure for collecting baseline data on urban and peri-urban agriculture in post conflict Freetown. Given the recenthistory of the country, little attention has been given to mappingand assembling databases of information about the various landuses within the city. Understandably, in the immediate aftermath ofthe conflict, the priority has been to establish peace and reconcil-iation. However, as post-conflict reconstruction proceeds, thenational concerns now turn to longer term goals of achieving foodsecurity and improving livelihood opportunities for the population.This project therefore aimed to achieve two key things;

1. First, to establish a baseline understanding of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Freetown.

2. Secondly, to engage geography academics and students atFourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone), in field-basedresearch in order to build capacity within the higher educa-tion sector.

In the absence of any useful baseline data, the project set out tomap the many urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) sites thatcould be identified around the city. This was seen as important tounderstanding the spatial extent of the activities and to provide theproject with basic geographical data for the next phases of theproject. Since there was limited available spatial data, the projectused Google Earth images of the city to acquire some location dataand to identify UPA sites. These data were then combined with1:50,000 scale topographic map data and basic shape-files ofpolitical and physical data, including boundaries, settlements andhydrology from the Development Assistant Coordinating Office.The project team then geo-located the sites using a handheld GPSduring on-site visits to UPA sites and markets. Site visits includedthe collection of additional data relating to crop types, altitude andphysical and land ownership details, if known. More detaileddiscussion of the methods and analysis of the results of themapping element of the project is available elsewhere (Thornton,Momoh, & Tengbe, 2012). Discussion in this paper will focus onthe relations with the other datasets and the overall project.

Overview of the key data

This paper examines some of the challenges facing post-conflictFreetown and, in particular, aspects that can be addressed by urbanand peri-urban based cultivation. This analysis is based upon theoutcomes of a major project focused on gathering evidence inFreetown’s urban and peri-urban areas. This project was a collabo-rative undertaking between geographers at Fourah Bay College,

University of Sierra Leone and international collaborators from UKand New Zealand. The data collection deliberately drew upona wide range of methods, using questionnaire surveys, in-depthinterviews, key informant interviews and the application ofmapping science and GIS techniques. This wide-ranging method-ologywas in part intended to triangulate the data, but also in part togive the Fourah Bay College staff and students opportunities todevelop their expertise in both quantitative and qualitative datacollection methods and techniques. The mixed methods approachto the research project has provided comprehensive information onthe breadth and the depth of the issues facing the city, its residentsand, in particular, its cultivators. In achieving this, the research hasbroken new ground, and has provided the sort of data which havebeen hitherto unavailable in Freetown. This paper provides anoverview of the key results, and more detailed analysis on differentaspects of the research that have been published elsewhere(Maconachie et al., 2012; Thornton et al., 2012).

Key findings from the mapping project

The mapping process explained earlier resulted in the identifi-cation and mapping of 59 UPA sites in and around the city ofFreetown. The project also located 17 major market sites, including7 supermarkets, selling mainly ‘exotic’ vegetables, such as lettuceand cabbage, and 10 local markets, where locally-consumed vege-tables are available, such as potato leaves, cassava leaves, okra,sweet potato and spinach. These are illustrated in Fig.1. Many of thesites identified in Fig. 1 are in areas that are annually flooded andalso benefit from the raised water tables in valleys and depressionsaround the city. However, as land pressure for urban developmentincreases, this adds to the pressure for urban cultivators.

Key findings from the data collection

The project surveyed 340 respondents across Freetown, focus-sing on the locations of the cultivation sites. The majority of therespondents were low-income producers (See Table 1). It wasobserved during the interviews that none of the farmers evernetted an income of over Le 10millionwhich was a reflection of thelevel of poverty among such urban and peri-urban farmers. (At thetime of the survey (2010), the exchange rates were as follows:Leones 6200 ¼ £1.00, Leones 4000 ¼ US$ 1.00. The exchange ratewas approximately Le 3000 to a Dollar (US$) during the war period(1991e2001).) Only exceptional cases netted the medium incomelevel, none earned above the high income while majority were lowincome earners. For this reason, the three categories of incomelevels were used which reflected or qualified the farmers’ level ofpoverty. Urban cultivation in a number of other Africa cities hasbeen found to have a range of income categories involved, where itis considered to be a more mature form of urban activity. Thesurvey undertaken in this study shows that in Freetown, for most ofthe respondents cultivation may be their main occupation, withonly 19.7 per cent of them regarding themselves as being employedin other activities. The survey also found that the majority ofrespondents who were employed, were in the informal sector,accounting for 87.7 per cent. Most forms of informal sectoremployment were reported as being insecure and piecemeal, soengagement in cultivation is an important livelihood strategy. Thesurvey also found that the majority of respondents had relativelysmall plots of land available to them, with those with access to lessthan 1 acre accounting for 52.7 per cent (see Fig. 2). These resultsindicate that in Freetown, urban and peri-urban cultivation is a veryimportant source of livelihood for the lowest income categories.

The interaction between urban and peri-urban cultivationactivities and other income sources is presented in Fig. 3, which

Fig. 1. Map of key urban and peri-urban agriculture sites in Freetown, Sierra Leone. (Source: data collected as part of Authors’ survey).

K. Lynch et al. / Applied Geography 36 (2013) 31e39 35

illustrates the reasons that respondents reported for gettinginvolved in farming activities. As can be seen from these data, 64.6per cent of respondents indicate that farming is their main sourceof income, while 24.5 per cent indicate that it is an extra source ofincome. 8.5 per cent use their farmed produce as food supple-mentation; in other words, it supplements their household foodsupply, thus aiding household level food security and reducinghousehold costs, while allowing vital household income to beallocated to other necessities.

As an important income source, the survey also asked respon-dents to estimate the amount of income generated from their salesof agricultural produce. Table 2 provides grouped responses,

Table 1Reported annual income category of the respondents during the period of therebel war 1991e2001 (Source: Authors’ survey).

Income Percent

Low (Le 20,000eLe 5,000,000) 96.9Medium (Le 5,000,000eLe 10,000,000) 3.1High (above Le 10,000,000) 0.0

showing that most respondents earn less then Le 100,000, which atthe time of the survey was equivalent to UK £16.13.

Return on investment is an important motivator for farmingenterprise. However, an enabling condition is that the cultivator

Fig. 2. Percentage distribution of land available per cultivator (Source: Authors’survey).

Fig. 3. Reasons for farming (Source: Authors’ survey).

Fig. 4. Land tenure by category (Source: Authors’ survey).

K. Lynch et al. / Applied Geography 36 (2013) 31e3936

has access to land. Fig. 4 shows the responses of the farmerssurveyed to the issue of land tenure. This indicates the relativelylow level of land ownership and the relatively precarious positionin which many of the urban and peri-urban farmers find them-selves. The high percentage of government owned land may be anindication of the high level of use of wetland for urban and peri-urban cultivation in and around Freetown and of the growingrecognition that low-lying wetland is officially state owned land. InSierra Leone, the government has asserted ownership over landunder laws set up during the colonial administration, though thehistory of tenure and of management of leasing in Sierra Leone ispoor in both the colonial period and the independence period(Unruh & Turray, 2006).

The different categories of land tenure suggest that this may bea challenge to urban and peri-urban agriculture. This is confirmedby the data collected on respondents’ views of the main challengesfacing them, and is presented in Fig. 5. 31.2 per cent, the largestproportion, indicate that land issues are a key challenge. Othercategories indicate difficulties in acquiring inputs, such as seedlings(24.8 per cent), fertiliser (24 per cent) and water (15 per cent).Members of the research team attended a recent meeting of theFreetown Urban and Peri-urban Action Platform (FUPAP) (29/1/12)at which the issue of access to land was seen as a significantchallenge. FUPAP is a multi-stakeholder team aiming to coordinatethe activities of a range of institutions supporting urban cultivationin the greater Freetown area. This organisation includes represen-tatives of Njala University, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry andFood Security, Ministry of Lands and Country Planning, Ministry ofHealth and Sanitation, Freetown City Council, National farmersAssociation of Sierra Leone, Institute of Agricultural Research andFourah Bay College (cf Kanu, Tengbe, Winnebah, & Konneh, 2009).With support from the Network of Resource Centres on UrbanAgriculture and Food Security (RUAL) and donors, COOPI andConcern Worldwide, FUPAP, is tackling the challenge of access toland with a pilot clarification and enforcement of the policy of landtenure in relation to wetlands. This policy states that all wetland

Table 2Indication of monthly receipts from sales of food from urban cultivationduring the rebel war period (1991e2001) (Source: Authors’ survey).

Average income generated by sales Percent

Le 1000eLe 100,000 80.4Le 101,000eLe 200,000 10.2Le 201,000eLe 300,000 3.0Le 301,000eLe 400,000 1.8Le 401,000eLe 500,000 1.5More than Le 500,000 3.1

comes under state ownership and one of the designated land usesof wetland is agriculture. This is potentially a very powerful policymeasure protecting urban and peri-urban agriculture sincea significant proportion of it takes place on seasonally floodedwetlands. However, FUPAP surveys are finding the followingproblems;

� Poor understanding of the wetlands land tenure policy amongfarmers and others

� Some farmers are being charged rent for wetlands that shouldin fact be state land, while others are being threatened witheviction by ‘owners’ who are claiming ownership overwetlands

� Due to limited resources, enforcement of the wetlands landtenure policy has been limited

FUPAP is therefore undergoing a process of protection of UPAtenure arrangements in wetland areas of Freetown. This processinvolves identification of wetlands, demarcation of the sites withconcrete pillars, sensitisation of the stakeholders e in particularfarmers and those claiming landlord rights e and finally, allocationof five-year leasehold land titles to farmers with agreementsspecifying proscribed land use on the site. Allocation is onlyallowed under the FUPAP strategy to claimants who have joined orformed a farmer association to ensure that there are wider socialbenefits and supports for urban farmers.

The authors’ survey found a range of responses to the challengesindicated above. One key strategy was the formation of ‘cultivationassociations’. The establishment of such cultivation associations isalso encouraged by FUPAP through its land allocation activities.Table 3 shows that the most frequent response to the question ofwhy farmer associations have been formed was that such associa-tions allowed farmers to pool their labour, accounting for 71 per

Fig. 5. Constraints and problems in agricultural activities (Source: Authors’ survey).

Table 3Respondents’ perceptions of the impact of the war on theirurban and peri-urban farming business (Source: Authors’survey).

Impact on production PercentIncrease in production 20.4Decrease in production 79.6Impact on marketing PercentIncrease in sales 28.7Decrease in sales 71.3Impact of war on land PercentLack of adequate land 79.6Loss of land 20.4

income to sustain ourselves through the help of a local chief

at Kulanda town who assisted us with 1.5 acres of land.

Crops cultivated on the swamp allocated to us included

garden eggs, crain crain, okra, pepper, greens, corn, potato

and cassava leaves. Proceeds from our garden work helped

to sustain us throughout the dry and rainy seasons. Only the

swamp was cultivated during the dry season. Rice is culti-

vated during the rainy season and vegetable gardening is

also done on the upland during the rainy season. Vegetable

retailers often come to our farm to buy the harvested crops

and they sell them to household consumers. My family

moved to Freetown in 2002 when the war was declared over,

and secured a 0.5 acre plot of land at Calabar Town with part

of the income we raised in Bo from market gardening. My

husband now works for a security firm called Mount Everest

Security Agency and only helps with the gardening in the

evening or when not on duty”.

K. Lynch et al. / Applied Geography 36 (2013) 31e39 37

cent. The respondents also indicated that associations have beenhelpful in enabling farmers to manage not only their own labourresources, but also to establish a standing fund to leverage externalfunding, to combine their lobbying resources and seek supportfrom donor organisations and government agencies, some of whichmay include the land allocation process mentioned above. Thelasting effects of the war are evident in the fact that 48 per cent ofrespondents indicated that associations have been important forre-socialising youth, some of whom may have been combatantsand others may have been separated from their family for longperiods as a result of the war.

Box 1. Case studies of individual farmers (Source: Authors’

survey).

Respondent 010

“I have been cultivating this land for over twenty five years,

since I migrated to this area from Bo (Southern Province).

Farming has been both the source of livelihood formy family

and for me. I am also a security guard, but the salary I get

frommy security job is not enough to meet my family needs

like schooling my children, feeding and medical expenses. I

receive additional income from the farming work that I do

with the help of my family. I cultivate my crops on a piece of

land that I began been leasing in the early 1990s. This land

now belongs to me since I have had a very strong relation-

ship with the landowner. In fact, I bought the land at a very

low cost.”

Respondent 013

“Mymother was an urban vegetable farmer and I was selling

for her when I was a young girl. She died after the war, but I

started farming before her death and since then it has been

my only means of livelihood. Before the war, I was a busi-

ness woman selling palm oil on a wholesale basis e buying

drums of palm oil in the provinces and supplying market

palm oil retailers in Freetown. I lost all the capital I had in the

palm oil business during the war, and now that I do not have

enough money, urban farming has been able to sustain me

and my children. I love farming and will also encourage any

of my five children that will show love for it to succeed me.

Urban agriculture has proved to be a secure means of live-

lihood and even if a loan is given to me, I will still continue to

grow my crops for commercial purposes.”

Respondent 015

“At the height of the civil conflict in 1998, my family

(husband, three children and myself) were forced to

abandon our village and we migrated to Bo (Southern

Province). During our stay in Bo, we embarked on vegetable

production or market gardening as a source of earning

Box 1 provides some illustrative case studies of individualfarmers. These have been extracted from the data received duringthe in-depth interviews. They have been selected because theyillustrate awide range of farmers’ experiences, and demonstrate thesorts of cultivation businesses in which they are engaged, the linkswith other livelihood sources and the impact of the war. The impactof the war was also examined in the survey, which asked respon-dents what the impact of the war was on their farming activities.Table 3 indicates respondents’ perceptions of the impacts of thewaron three aspects of their farming activities, focussing on land,marketing and on production. The data indicate that there weresomewho felt that the impact of thewarwas positive and somewhofelt that it was negative. However, most respondents, not surpris-ingly perhaps, suggest that the impact was negative. For most theyreported a resultant decrease in production, but for some (20.4 percent) there was actually an increase. Similarly, there was a decreasein sales formost, but for some an increase. Thismaybe a result of thecity being cut off from the interior of the country for long periodsduring the civil war, resulting in a high demand for locally producedvegetables. The perceived benefits of UPA were unequal during thewar becauseof several factors. Some farmers felt that the impactwasnegative because of the threat of rebel attacks in their areas ofoperation especially those living in theperi-urban areas. As the rebelthreats spread towards the urban centre, it was perceived asaffecting their production andmarketing. Regards the impact of thewar on land, those in the peri-urban areas saw rebel threats orinvasion, however temporary it was, as loss of or hindering access toland and negatively affecting their production and marketing. Thedifferential response about the impact of thewarmay also be due toparticular family circumstances, and possibly the level of supportreceived from local ‘big men’ or family diaspora.

One of the main consequences of the war was the resettlementof large numbers of the rural population in towns, who were insearch of protection from the RUF. This resulted in high levels ofrural-to-urban migration. Despite considerable efforts to relocatepeople back to their rural villages, many internally displaced peoplehave stayed in Freetown. It is notoriously difficult to accuratelyestimate the population size and demographic changes in Africancities, but the Freetown City Council is working on the assumptionthat rural-to-urban migration has continued after the end ofhostilities, albeit at a slower pace. This has meant that the growthand development of Freetown has continued, with the footprint ofthe city extending outwards wherever the terrain allows. Oneinnovative response of urban cultivators in and around the city hasbeen to establish producer groups across the city. Our survey offarmers asked respondents to indicate their reasons for formingassociations, and the results are presented in Table 4. These data

Table 4Freetown respondents reasons for forming cultivation associations(Source: Authors’survey).

Reason for forming association %

Pooling labour makes it easier to generate income(employment through vegetable sales)

71

With weekly contributions in the association wehave been able to start a standing fund

66

The association has opened up opportunities tosolicit financial support from donors/government

62

As a group it is easier to deal with labour constraints 57As an association, land access/tenure is more secure 52The association serves as an umbrella for other social

activities, which are important for re-socialising youths48

The association helps us to access tools/inputs fromagricultural extension agents

43

As a group we can more effectively deal withmarketing and transportation constraints

38

Association serves as a good mechanism to diversifyour income generating activities

38

As a group we can produce more food for householdconsumption

33

As an association we have more bargaining powerwith local authorities

33

The association helps us to access knowledge transferfrom extension agents

29

We can work together to address environmental issues 24

K. Lynch et al. / Applied Geography 36 (2013) 31e3938

suggest that a major motivation for the formation of producergroups in Freetown has been to meet the challenges of managingproduction resources, such as labour, land and other inputs.

In addition, since the completion of the field survey, FUPAP havebegun a process of land allocation. This involves the followingmulti-stage process:

1. The identification of wetland areas in the city that under laware state-owned.

2. Once these are identified, they are demarcated, using GPS torecord the location of low lying wetland areas, and thenmarked with 8 feet high white concrete pillars.

3. The final stage is to then allocate the land to leasehold farmers.This process involves working with community cultivationgroups of around 25e39 farmers. These individuals are allo-cated a five year lease on a plot of land with a managementagreement which strictly stipulates that the land is only to beused for agriculture.

During February 2012, the pilot phase of this process was beingrolled out at three UPA sites across Freetown e Potto Levuma in thewest of the city, Congo Valley near the National Stadium in thecentre of the city, and Sululu in the east of the city near Waterloo.This is a complex and challenging process involving, often pro-tracted negotiation, clarification and sensitisation of all peopleusing the land. The mapping of the low-lying wetlands has resultedin the identification of a number of locally controversial situationswhere farmers are paying rent to ‘owners’, or where developmentof the lowland has already taken place. Some house owners have‘official’ documents and legal judgements as a result of legal cases,which provide evidence that they have ownership. In some cases,however, there is an erroneous assumption that ownership of thedryland on the edge of thewetland allows the title holder to extendhis or her claim over the wetland. In other cases, the situation is farless clear with some documents indicating that land users hold thetitle, in spite of the law allocating low-lying wetlands to the state.The FUPAP team have entered into negotiations in such situations,and have found that they have had to concede some small areas ofland in order to achieve the longer term objective of demarcatingentire lowland areas for the state and for urban cultivation. Each

concrete pillar erected had to be carefully negotiated with localstakeholders, in cooperation with the local authorities, cultivationgroups and other local institutions.

The third stage in the process requires that urban farmers in thisscheme are members of a cultivation group, before they are allo-cated their own individual plot of wetland. This provides additionalmotivation for the establishment of consumer associations and forindividual farmers to join. The aim is to ensure that all cultivatorshave local support networks, so that they can maintain the site forthe good of the whole group. However, at the time of writing, thisprocess is only in its pilot phase. But even as the process is beingpiloted, there is encroachment onto sites as private ‘owners’ try toestablish permanent structures in order to exert their claim overthe lower lying land. Some developers have even accelerated thisprocess, as they have become aware of the FUPAP process.

Conclusion

The main aim of this paper has been to assemble a baseline dataset on the extent of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the city ofFreetown in Sierra Leone. The discussion here has been informed bya project which set out to develop a methodology involvinga detailed mapping exercise, quantitative survey and in-depthinterviews of producers. This multi-method approach hasprovided valuable information on both the character and challengesfacing urban cultivation in the city, and has provided evidence of theextent of cultivation in the city, thus confirming the importance ofurban agriculture as a source of food security and a generator ofemployment. But perhaps even more importantly, as cultivationgroups have become established, our study has highlighted animportant dimension to the rebuilding of communities and civilsociety in theareas around themainproduction sites. This appears tohave been particularly important withmarginalised groups, such asyouth and women (for more on this see Maconachie et al., 2012).

A second key achievement of this project has been to develop-ment and test a dynamic mixed-method approach to the datacollection on urban agriculture in a rapidly expandingWest Africancity. Whilst urban agriculture sites are found across the city, theproject has for the first time assembled an inventory of 59 mainsites around the city, in addition to undertaking a detailed survey ofproducers. These data are important and break new ground; theyare already being fed into the 2012 revision and updating of theFUPAP Action Strategy (Konneh, 2012, Pers. Comm.). The mappingexercise and the application of GIS and use of global positioningsystems (GPS) to map the city represents an innovative and usefulcontribution to knowledge about this sector (for more see Thorntonet al., 2012). Themixture of methods has allowed for a triangulationof data collection which has enabled the cross-referencing of thedata with the analysis. This has added an important humancapacity building dimension to the project, ensuring that youngacademics and students at Fourah Bay College have had theopportunity to engage with an international team of researchers, toshare findings from comparable locations and to develop their skillsin data collection and analysis. This has been particularly importantduring a difficult time following the end of the war.

Finally, this paper has identified some key areas for under-standing the significance of urban agriculture in urban householdlivelihoods that are important for policy-making processes.Wherever possible, the findings of this study have been madeavailable to the appropriate institutions in Freetown, includinga well-attended international workshop (January 2011) involvingcultivation associations and institutions, including FUPAP, and itsmembers; Freetown City Council; the Ministry of Agriculture,Forestry and Food Security; Fourah Bay College; and NGOs inter-ested in urban cultivation.

K. Lynch et al. / Applied Geography 36 (2013) 31e39 39

Now that this study is complete, there is still much work to bedone and twokeyareas of future focus havebeen identified. Thefirstarea is that the findings presented here should be disseminatedfurther toall stakeholders across the city, so that theycan informandstrengthen the FUPAPAction Strategy. TheAction Strategy is pilotingthe land tenure inventory process in three sites, but the evidencefrom this study showed that there were 59 sites at the time of themapping survey in 2010. The second area is to utilise thewell-testedmethodology, and to apply it to similar urban agriculture surveys inSierra Leone’s secondary cities, notably, Bo, Makeni, Koidu andKenema. The international literature on urban agriculture is over-whelmingly dominated by studies of either capital or large cities,and relatively little attention has been directed towards medium-sized cities. Statistics from across Africa indicate that the bulk ofnew urban growth is taking place in smaller cities (Lynch, 2012),suggesting that further studies into UPA are more important thanever before. There is also a need to convince urban authorities thaturban agriculture really does have a role to play in achievingsustainable human settlements. Freetown City Council seems to begradually recognising this, but there are many example of urbanauthorities elsewhere in Africa where there persists a longstandinghostility to the practice of growing food crops within urban areas.

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