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Urban planning must factor in food production

Friday February 10 2017
maiga

FAO country representative to Rwanda Attaher Maiga. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA

Stakeholders in the agriculture sector have underlined the need to incorporate food production in urban planning if the country is to meet its growing food demand in view of rising urbanisation.

Despite Rwanda and neighbouring East African capital cities growing at a fast rate, very few urban families grow their own food within the municipal boundaries.

Majority of urban dwellers rely on foodstuff grown and purchased from rural areas or imported. Experts say the current rate of urbanisation in Kigali will pile pressure on food security and natural resources, therefore there is a need to respond urgently.

Attaher Maiga, UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation representative in Rwanda said there is a need to assess innovative practices being applied in cities elsewhere to guide policy making locally.

“It is really important to incorporate food systems in urban planning and this has to be informed by policy,” he said, adding that the government needs to consider this in the on-going agriculture policy review process.

Mr Maiga was speaking at a panel discussion dubbed “Feeding Cities” held in Kigali last week. The discussions led by the European Union delegation to Rwanda brought together stakeholders in food production and government representatives.

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Rwanda has one of Africa’s fastest urbanisation rates due to a growing population on a small land area.

READ: Food security fears rise as urbanisation takes root in Rwanda

More than 35 per cent of the country’s population will be living in urban centres by 2020 up from 17 per cent today. Kigali could become one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities with a population of more than two million people, up from an estimated 1.3 million people today.

There are fears that an increasing demand for food in the expanding urban centres could starve the rural areas whose traditional farming practices are a hindrance to increased production.