South Africa: The future of urban agriculture in Johannesburg and the role of Bertrams Farm
Urban agriculture can feed cities if at least 30% of city lands are devoted to farming. In South Africa, Nkosi City may become such a place.
By Naudé Malan
Daily Maverick
June 5, 2022
Excerpt:
From research, we know that access to land for urban agriculture in Johannesburg is often governed by informal arrangements, although formal provision is made in the by-laws to lease land for farming in this city. This informality of tenure may lie at the heart of the debate about this piece of land, and clearly the City of Johannesburg, through various administrations, has been sitting on its hands.
This specific by-law could give rise to a larger urban agricultural programme so many people can benefit. Greater opportunities to engage in such leases could stimulate food production much more than this one farm would do. This could give economic security to urban farmers occupying publicly available and open lands, like those in the backyards of clinics and schools. Clarity here can make a big difference.
Informal arrangements may be deeply conservative and reinforce the deeper injustices — outside the urban areas — of the South African food system as they also hold the potential to delink food production from the conventional farming system and create a sustainable urban agriculture. We need to design the systems for urban agriculture to achieve the social benefits we need.
There is no comprehensive and systematic process to plan for urban agriculture in Johannesburg. The Eikenhof Farm is not in the city limits, but has lots of good soils, has access to water, sits among highly productive farms and is certainly open to regenerative production.
