URBAN AGRICULTURE AND ITS CONTRIBUTION FOR EMPLOYMENT: THE CASE OF HARAR TOWN, ETHIOPIA.

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1 African Journal of Science and Research,2015,(4)6:50-55 ISSN: Available Online: URBAN AGRICULTURE AND ITS CONTRIBUTION FOR EMPLOYMENT: THE CASE OF HARAR TOWN, ETHIOPIA. Sampath.S 1 *, Kassahun Mamo 1, Mohammednur Ahmed 1 and Tamilenthi.S 2. 1)College of Business and Economics, Haramaya University, Ethiopia. 2)St.Charles College of Education, Thirunagar, Madurai,Tamilnadu,India. drsampatheco@gmail.com Received:17,Nov,2015 Accepted:14,Dec,2015. Abstract Agriculture in towns, cities and the area surrounding them is the main phenomenon of most of developing countries. Likewise he residents of Harar has been involved in agricultural activities thus producing agricultural products in a small scale and it is this reliance of the town s population on urban agriculture as employment option that served as a basis for this study. The study has the main objective of examining the role that urban agriculture plays in creating employment opportunity, the problems it faces and the solutions for it. The study relied in the primary and secondary data. The primary data is collected from the respondents who are residents of the Harar town and which are 110 in number and used interview and questionnaire method for its collection. The major advantage of urban agriculture was seen as its potential to improve the socio-economic situation of the poor. The study found that urban agriculture has a high potential to serve as a source of employment for the unemployed ones but the income and the security of the job is not that significant enough for the majority to completely rely on it. The socioeconomic benefits of Urban Agriculture in the study area are wintry different from what it has in the city. It creates 110 employments for households heads and benefits 1133 members of their family. There are also some restraints such as Lower provision of working space and modern inputs, Lower and sometimes no supply of funds, lack of close support and communication with governm ent and private supporting institutions and other problems that limit the ability of urban agriculture in creating a dependable employment opportunity. Keywords: Urban, Peri-Urban, Agriculture, Land use, Employment. INTRODUCTION Africa is urbanizing fast. Its rate of urbanization soared from 15 percent in 1960 to 40 percent in 2010, and is projected to reach 60 percent in 2050 (UN Habitat 2010). Africa and Asia will be witnessing the most explosive urban growth. But these countries that are urbanizing the most rapidly, are the least prepared to satisfy their food needs and many precariously depend on food aid and imports (Peter Kingori, 2004). More than half the world's population is now living in cities. The locus of poverty has also shifted to urban areas making unemployment and food insecurity a chronic urban problem. The developing world's absolute poor living in urban areas has increased from 25% in 1988, to about 56% by These are only the few rationales why urban agriculture is increasingly being practiced around the world as a livelihood strategy for poor city dwellers. Urban agriculture can be defined as the growing of plants and the raising of animals for food and other uses within and around cities and towns, and related activities such as the production and delivery of inputs, processing and marketing of products (FAO 2007). Urban agriculture is a significant economic activity, central to the lives of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. Currently more than 800 million urban residents are involved in commercial or subsistence agriculture in or around cities. Despite limited support and heavy losses, UA is generating products valued in the tens of millions of USD, year in and year out, in major LDC urban centers. 200 million are market producers, employing 150 million people full-time (Smit et al. 1996). For African and developed countries, urban agriculture has become central to the livelihood of millions of people. estimate show that nearly 25 out of the 65 million people living in urban areas of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia currently obtain part of their food from UA and that, by 2020, at least million urban residents will depend on UA to feed themselves. Self-production represents anywhere from 18% (East Jakarta) to 60% (Kampala) of total food consumption in low-income households, with sample percentages depending solely on self-production reaching 50% (Nairobi). In Harare, savings accruing to low-income farmers are equivalent to as much as several months of earnings (Luc J.A. Mougeot, 1999). As in most Sub-Saharan African countries, more and more of the rapidly growing Ethiopian population is becoming concentrated in and around large towns and cities making the urban population grow at 4.3% so that it now covers 17% of the total population in the country. This rapid expansion of urbanization and growth of urban population has too often exceeded the capacity to provide essential services, such as, adequate water, shelter, and, in particular, employment and nutritious food. Thus the society s long existing habit of growing own food added to urban problems of overcrowding have forced the existing and the new migrating residents of cities to respond through an increased participation in urban agricu lture. Urban agricultural activities are now recognized as an important source of food, nutrition and income for the urban poor (Sabine Gundel, 2006). Urban agriculture is now a major phenomenon in the urban Ethiopia. In Eastern Ethiopia, Plan is helping local people to grow vegetables as a source of improved income and improved diet. In the capital Addis Ababa, urban agriculture supports more than 51,000 families farming on a total of 9,380 hectares which is 17.4% of the total area of the city. (Maria E et al. 2015). Urban agriculture in Harar is not a new concept to the residents, even though the official support of the government has been lower prior to 2008/09. The government, as part of its national policy of securing food self sufficiency, has given a higher consideration for it. In Harar urban agriculture these days constitute major activities such as urban vegetable raising and irrigation, animal husbandry and hides and skin marketing, forestry and such like activities. It is now a major source of living for lots of people both as a source of employment and income creation and food security options.

2 African Journal of Science and Research,2015,(4)6: Thus, this study helps in assessing the current trends and performances in the area, identify problems, and contribute to the solution of those identified problems. Back ground of the study area The foundation of Harar goes back to the foundations the first Muslim sultanate at the central and southern parts of Ethiopia in 896A.D. Harar become the most important trade center playing an intermediary role between the two trading companies the rich highlands of the interior and the Gulf of Aden. Today Harar is the smallest state in the federal democratic republic of Ethiopia located in the southeastern about 526k.m from Addis Ababa. It is situated between 9018N Latitude and 4207E longitude. It is situated on the plateau between 600 kilometers and 1900 meter square above sea level. Population based on 2007 census conducted by central statically agency of Ethiopia, Harar has total population of of whom where men and women. This region is the only one Ethiopia where the majority of its population lives in urban area or 54.18% of population are urban habitants. With an estimated area people square kilometer. There are 15 manufacturing industries 14 whole seller trade, 470 retail trade, 212 services trade 5 garages and 3 fuel station in the town. The capital of this firm was 25,090,244 Ethiopian birr and they total created job opportunities for 1666 people. There are 3 different financial institutions giving the financial service in the town. The average annual income municipality birr and the major source of revenue were takes, house rent,land rent, cad aster, provision for investment and constitution promotes the economic activity rate for both sex is 68.8% while unemployment opportunity in the town are hotel, recreation center, lodge, warehouse etc. minster of urban development and construction. Agriculture is not a new activity to residents of Harar. As in most towns and urban areas of Ethiopia, Harar used to rely on Agriculture though these days the dominance and vitality of it is being taken by the other sectors such as industry and service. Scope of the study Urban agriculture, especially for Ethiopians where the social tie with agriculture in both urban and rural areas is tight and its contribution to creation of employment opportunities, is an area which should be studied at a country level. The study also covered the time 2014/2015 for the sake of finding a relatively organized data when compared to the previous years. The data collected and analyzed were also confined to this time. The research is interested only on the contribution of urban agriculture as a source of employment creation. Objectives a)to study the socio economic and environmental conditions of the urban agricultural farmers in the selected area. b)to examine the role of urban agriculture in employment creation. c)to identify the problems that exist in the area this restrained its potential of employment opportunity creation. d)to contribute to the solutions of the problems in the selected area. METHODOLOGY There were two types of data that have been incorporated in this study. These are primary and secondary data. The present study based on the primary data collected through a field survey with structured pretested household interview schedule. On the other hand, secondary data were collected from different books, research papers and development agency publications. Sample and Sampling Techniques In the present study applied random sampling technique which has a higher degree of applicability of the law of statistical regularity (where a sample taken at random from the population is highly representative of the population on average). From the various options in the random sampling, the study used simple random sampling that has the benefit of avoiding subjectivity and personal bias error and allows an equal chance of selection of the units in the population. The population under consideration includes residents of Harar town who are engaged in activities of urban agriculture such as urban farming, animal fattening, and forest development, from which a total of 110 farmers, were randomly selected and used for the study. Primary data were collected using pre tested and structured questionnaire through interview and discussion with the sample units. DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS The primary data was collected through a field survey with a structured interview schedule and was processed with the help of computers. SPSS package was used in addition to MS Excel for data processing, analysis and tabulation. Simple statistical measures like averages, ratios, and ranks were used extensively for analysis. Statistical techniques such as mean, percentage, and coefficient of variation were used in the analysis of the data for this research. The strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables was analyzed using correlation coefficient. The Socio-Economic and Environmental Conditions of the Respondents The socio economic characteristics of the selected areas in the Harar Town. Table(1)Socio Economic Profile of the Respondents Characteristics Number Percent Gender Male % Female % Age % % % Level of Education Illiterate % Primary Education % Secondary Education % Higher Education % Other Education - - Gender, age and Education are the demographic characteristics discussed (see Table. No.1). The majority of the respondents was male(61.82%) and followed by female (38.18%). As far as the age group is concerned, the majority of the respondents belonged to the age group of years (43.64%) and followed by the age group of years (34.54%) and years (21.82%). As regards

3 52 Sampath.S et.al education, most of the respondents were Illiterate (41.82%), followed by Primary Education (32.73%), secondary Education (41.82%) and Higher Education (7.27%). Table( 2)Size of Family and Marital Status of the Respondents Marital Status Number Percent Single % Married % Divorced Widowed % Family Size < % % > % Marital Status of the respondents showed that a predominant majority of the respondents was married (76.36%) followed by widowed (12.73%) single (7.27%) and divorced (3.64%) respectively. As far as family size is concerned, the majority of family is 5-10 members (49.9%) in the household, followed by above 10 members (40%) and below 5 members (10.9%) respectively. The predominant of the family size 5-10 member needs to discuss. It is mainly due to the non-adoption of family planning in the older generation. As the table above indicates, most of the households engaged in urban agriculture have a medium sized family of 5 up to 10 which is partly explained by the access of this section of the society to the modern family planning techniques and to modern ways of living which may not allow large number of children. The fact that the majority of the respondents have a relatively larger family size goes hand in hand with the figures we observed above about the marital status and the age group of the society since a higher ages and a larger portion of marriages allow the respondents to have a larger family size. Involvement in Urban Agriculture There are 110 respondent asked about their involvement in the given type of urban agriculture, those who named it as that they involve in small scale crop production take the lead with their number which is 58 (52.73%) followed by those who are engaged in animal fattening/husbandry activities, 46 (41.82%), and those who conduct forest development (large or small scale seedling development), who are amounted to 6 (5.45%). Cooperatives in Urban Agriculture The history of urban agriculture as an activity, which is given the attention of the government as a source of employment and income, creation and attainment of food security, is short. It was in 2008/09 that the government started to organize the youth in micro and small scale cooperatives with in which included is urban agriculture. Since then urban agriculture has been playing its share in alleviating the unemployment problem of the town which has an unemployed labor force of (as of 2015) 9615 (3406 male and 6209 female). The below table shows the engagement of the youth in micro and small scale cooperatives organized under urban agriculture. In the above table indicates an increasing number of unemployed male and female were engaged in urban agriculture being organized under cooperatives. The number of cooperatives which starts at 13 in 2010/11 has increased through the years to rise to more than three folds as in the case of 2012/13 when it becomes 42. It is not only the number of the cooperatives that has been increasing but also the people who constitute them. The number of previously unemployed (or those employed in less sufficient income jobs) people who come to be involved in urban agriculture has increased from its level 281, when the organizing the micro and small scale enterprises began, to 519 in 2013/14. But the some of the enterprises weren t successful though to stay on track and their number has decreased from the 42 to 27 (between the years 2012/13 and 2013/14). The reason provided was the disagreement in between members of the enterprises. Table(3)Employment in Cooperatives Engaged in Urban Agriculture Year No of Male Female Total Cooperatives 2010/ / / / Total (Source: HRMSEO, 2014) As of 2005 data, multipurpose Farmers cooperatives which are 4 in number have been organized creating employment of a total 3341 (2948 male, 393 female). In the same year, two cooperatives engaged in animal fattening, has been organized and these cooperatives have employed a total of 68 (51 male and 17 female) members managing a total capital of 128,959br. Other two cooperatives who engage in producing and processing milk were also set to work with their total 60 members (16 male and 44 female). The cooperatives were managing a total capital of 110, birr showing how much these and the above mentioned cooperatives have helped in alleviating the unemployment problem in the town. Table (4)Type of Agricultural Activity in Sample Households Sl.No Types of Urban Number Percent Agriculture Activity 1 Vegetable Cultivation % 2 Animal Fattening % 3 Forest Development % The result of the above table shows that crop production is the dominant agricultural activity in Harar town as followed by animal fattening and forest development. The majority of farmers and others who are engaged in other types of agriculture depend on the traditional agricultural practices and areas and do not base their involvement on market demand and price considerations. The same works for the majority of the respondents who indicated that they engage in the traditional crop production. The respondents were also asked for how long they were in the activity. Most of them, 30 (54.55%) replied that they stayed in the activity for more than 10 years. Some others, 16 (29.09%) said that they stayed in the activity for 5-10 years while the remaining 9 (16.36%) stated that they come to be involved in the area after the past 5 years.

4 African Journal of Science and Research,2015,(4)6: Table (5)Reasons for being Unemployment Sl.No Type of Unemployment Number Percent 1 Temporary lay off 4 8.7% 2 Mismatch in job % requirements 3 Unavailability of job % opportunities Total % Most of the respondents, 32 (69.56%) who have been unemployed before engaging in urban agriculture specified their reason of being unemployed as unavailability of job opportunities. The second largest share of this group, 10 (21.74%) is taken by those who were unemployed due to mismatch in job requirements. The remaining respondents, 4 (8.7%), stated their reasons as temporary layoff from their jobs due to seasonality of works.thus one can understand that the major pushing factor for involvement of the unemployed people in the area is the cyclical typed unemployment, which is prevalent in most of the urban areas in general and Harar in particular, followed by the frictional and structural unemployment types. Thus given proper consideration and support urban agriculture can be a source of employment for whatever the unemployment type and especially for the cyclical typed one which is the dominant one in Harar. The respondents stated about their involvement type in urban agriculture, i.e. whether it is permanently, or temporarily or whether it is on their spare time. Their responses are presented as follows. generating activities. But this is not to forget the 22 of the respondents who are permanently engaged in urban agriculture as a task of generating income. For such section of the respondents, urban agriculture is their main job with which they raise income to cover their day to day and/or long term costs. This section of the respondents also has a better provision of resources (time, land, financial resources etc.) which can enable the production of a relatively larger output, rising of larger income and the possibility of a job on which to completely rely. Production and Employment in Urban Agriculture Even though most of the agricultural activity in urban areas is conducted in a relatively smaller plot of land which will not allow the production of larger output, it still requires the one involved in such an activity to employ not only his own but also the labor hours of others. Concerning this, the respondents were asked whether they employ family labor or hired labor. Table( 6)Type of Labors Employed The higher proportion of the respondents claimed to hire from their own family, 62 (43.64%), while the rest, 48 (43.64%) replied that they hire or use labor outside of the family labor. Those Sl.No Type of Labors Number Percent Employed 1 Family labor % 2 Hired labor % respondents who replied that they use family labor were further asked their reasons for choosing family labor over that of hired outside labor. Their responses are tabulated below: Table (7)Reason for Employing Family Labor Sl.No Reasons for Employing Number Percent Family Labour 1 Unavailability of cheap labor % Fig(1)Type of Involvement in Urban Agriculture (Source: Computed) In rural areas the major and the dominant area for the involvement or for the employment of the labor hour of a given person is the agricultural sector. Residents of a given rural area have a lower chance of spending part or the whole of their labor hour in alternative areas of employment. But the case is different when we come to the urban centers where the alternative areas for the involvement of labor increase in type and number. This is what one can observe from the above figure. Even though, those respondents who said that their involvement in urban agriculture is of a permanent nature have a high number, i.e. 22, those who are engaged temporarily are 9, but it is those who does it at their spare time and side by side with their other activities and jobs they are engaged (24) in that take the lion share from the total respondents. In the case of urban areas, residents who are engaged in agricultural activities with lower provision of land and other necessary production inputs; do not totally depend on it since the output level is not high enough to generate sufficient income to meet their needs. Thus, it will be necessary to diversify the income 2 Lack of capital for additional % hired labour 3 Lower trust worthiness of % hired labours Total % Lack of capital is provided in the above table (by those respondents who hired family labor) as a reason for not hiring an outside labor. These respondents are 16 in number and are more than half (51%) of the total 31 respondents. 9 (29.03%) of the respondents stated that their reason is unavailability of cheap labor. The rest 6 (19.35%) respondents replied that they didn t hire outsiders because they have lower trust on hired labors. This is explained by the fact that the small scale conduction of agricultural activities in urban areas does not generate enough funds for expenses of supervision of the hired labor. The respondents were asked questions related to their production. The respondents were asked for what purpose they use their products. As indicated in the figure below, more than half of the respondents, 31(56.36%) use their output from urban agriculture both for sale at market and home consumption while 18 (32.73%) provide it to the market and not for home consumption and the rest 6 (10.91%) use their production for home consumption only. The majority of farmers, growers and pastoralists (mainly engaged

5 54 Sampath.S et.al in animal fattening) in less developed countries base their production on home consumption and the rest that is left for market is sold on a much lower value as compared to the case when there is an efficient market system. On the above table, the majority of the respondents have replied that they use their agricultural products for both home consumption and market sale. One of the drives for the move towards urban agriculture in cities and towns is the need of urban dwellers for fresh and easily accessible food. It is this demand for locally grown, fresh and low transport requiring food that explains the respondents high interest in providing it to the local urban market. The reason for the other respondents who use their agricultural product solely for home consumption is that their production is too small to be used for both market and home needs. The study revealed that they use their product for both market and home consumption. Fig(2)The purpose for which they use agricultural product Major Findings 1) The result of the study indicates that the majority of urban farmer s household heads in the cooperative are male and married with large family size. 2) The socio-economic benefits of Urban Agriculture in the study area are wintry different from what it has in the city. It creates 110 employments for households heads and benefits 1133 members of their family. 3) The major reason for the majority of the respondents to participate in urban agriculture is their inability to find other alternative or potential source of income. Besides The majority of the respondents are also engaged in urban agriculture in their spare time thus doing it side by side with their other activities and jobs they are engaged in and those who are permanently and temporarily engaged in it have a higher number but not high enough to say that the engagement in urban agriculture is a dependable employment scheme. This shows that urban agriculture has a high potential to create source of employment for the unemployed ones but the income and the security of the job is not that significant enough for them to completely rely on it. 4) Coming to the type of the labor used, the higher proportion of the respondents claimed to hire from their own family. The major reason for this is the lack of capital. This restricts the capacity of urban agriculture in expanding output and employment since both the production level and the labor required are limited. 5) The majorities sell and consume both for home consumption and market sale. But the income they get from marketing their output is not high enough for them to support themselves and others who depend on them. The reason for the other respondents who use their agricultural product solely for home consumption is that their production is too small to leave them with surpluses which can be used for both market and home needs. This feature of urban agriculture in Harar, which is due to the small scale production of agricultural output makes it hard to enable sustainable income flow thus no sustainable employment. 6) Most of the respondents are not able to use modern inputs but rather lie in traditional and frequently used agricultural methods. They reasoned that this is due to the relatively higher cost of the input per unit of the output since the output they produce is not high enough to allow them exploit economies of scale from the available inputs. Other restraints those who engaged in urban agriculture face are lack of close support and communication with government and private supporting institutions, Lack of proper provision of information, Lower and sometimes no supply of funds, Lack of proper training on management of resources and Lower provision of working space can be named as reducing the sector s ability for expanding employment opportunity. The following ANOVA study reveals that there is no significant relationship in the group of the variables in the study. Table (8)ANOVA for the selected variables. Type of Employment Marital Status Gender Type of Labour employed Type of Urban Agriculture Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig Within Total Within Total Within Total Within Total Reasons for hired labour Size of Land Holding Within Total Within Total Within Total

6 African Journal of Science and Research,2015,(4)6: Recommendations Urban agriculture has a big potential for reducing the unemployment in the town and thus expand employment options. But there are some areas which ask for measures which should be taken to further strengthen the capacity of the sector in contributing to the employment creation of the town. Below listed are the measures that should be taken by the stakeholders of the urban agriculture if the area is to be of much significance. 1) Increased attention should be given to the young and female part of the society who has a higher unemployment share in urban areas. Thus organizing this section of the society under associations, providing them with training, capital, land and other necessities of production should be given primary concern. 2) The government should have to consider the sustainable provision of the modern inputs whose sources are outside the access of users. For the inputs with a high cost the government and private supporting institutions should consider some support in the form of subsidy. 3) The provision of land and financial services is the main constraint in the sector which not only limited the availability of capital for the large scale production but also restrained the possibility of expanded and secured employment. Thus the combined resource of government (in providing land and finance) and private institutions (in providing financial resources) should have will not restrain the potential of the sector. 4) The production system of the urban growers is characterized by the traditional hand to mouth and primarily for consumption system. This makes it hard for the growers to generate enough income from their production thus to make their engagement unsecured one. Thus to make a sustained employment in the urban agriculture those engaged in the sector should base their production on the market. CONCLUSION Urban agriculture is not an activity of a recent phenomenon rather an activity which was being practiced a long time before as employment creating area though the previous engagement were not characterized by organized and committed involvement of the government as a main motivator and the proper as a participant. The perception of urban agriculture as an urban activity of income generation and employment creation is of recent phenomenon. References 1)Bettina Baumgartner and Hasan Belevi(2001), A Systematic Overview of Urban Agriculture in Developing Countries, Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science & Technology and Dept. of Water & Sanitation in Developing Countries, September )Caleb Mireri, Aphonse Kyessi, Nimrod Mushi and Peter Atekyerez (2004), Urban Agriculture in East Africa: Practice, Challenges and Opportunities. 3)Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC)(2003), Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center to the Urban Fringe, )Country Position Paper (2010), Urbanization: Market Opportunities Ethiopia. 5)FAO (2007), Agricultural Management, Marketing and Finance Occasional Paper: Profitability and Sustainability of Urban and Peri- Urban Agriculture, Italy. 6)Kadmiel H. Wekwete(1993), Urban Agriculture Research in East and Southern Africa II: Record, Capacities and Opportunities, CFP Report 3 University of Zimbabwe. 7)Luci.A. Mougeot(1999), Urban Agriculture: Definition, Presence and Potentials and Risks Thematic Paper 1, 8)Maria E Freire, Somik Lall, and Danny Leipziger (2015), Africa s Urbanization: Challenges and opportunities, Washington.DC. 9)Paul Sommers and JacSmit (1994), CFP Report 9: Promoting Urban Agriculture: A Strategy Framework for Planners in North America, Europe and Asia, the Urban Agriculture Network. 10)Peter Kingori(2004), Assessment of Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Research in the Centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in Sub-Saharan Africa, Urban Harvest Working Paper Series, Peru, Paper No )Sabine Gündel (2006) A Synthesis of Urban and Peri-Urban Agricultural Research, RNRRS Programme, Edinburg. 12)Smit J, Ratta A & Bernstein J. (1996a), Urban agriculture: an opportunity for environmentally sustainable development in sub - saharan Africa. Building Blocks for Africa 2025 paper 11, Post - UNCED Series. Washington DC: Environmentally Sustainable Division, Africa Technical Department, World Bank. 13)UN Habitat(2010), The State of African Cities, Nairobi, Kenya.