Agriculture and urban development in sub-Saharan Africa

This presentation focuses on results obtained from the international workshop "Agricultures et développement urbain en Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre" [Types of urban agriculture and development in Central and West Africa] hosted in Yaoundé in 2005 in Cameroon. The main partners in this workshop were Senegal, Benin and Cameroon, with the participation of several other countries from sub-Saharan Africa. Four main topics were investigated: urbanization and governance; urbanization and city supplies; urbanization and the environment; and urbanization and sanitary issues. Several main areas of research emerged, among which: 1) How can areas in cities for which it is impossible to obtain building permits be rezoned and promoted for agriculture? 2) How can the marketed surplus from urban and peri-urban areas be promoted? and 3) How can agrochemical inputs be better monitored? Among the participants at the workshop there was consensus on the highly heterogeneous situations confronted by urban and peri-urban agriculture. There was also consensus for a wide variety of policies to implement or pursue in order to improve livelihoods and environmental standards for urban and peri-urban agriculture (training, reliable data, etc.). Today, however, despite some case studies, there is still a lack of systematic research concerning institutional urban-rural interconnections. Moreover, little research has focused on the very nature of the currently ongoing transition between the rural and urban worlds. From a transition perspective, future research could thus begin to study the dynamics of agricultural practices; the migration of people in or out of agriculture; or the question of whether or not to adopt intensive systems. In this sense, a complementary area for research from a transition perspective would be the study of substitution factor between inputs (labour, technology, land, credit): for example, the economic and agronomic consequences that would result from recycling municipal solid wastes instead of using agrochemical inputs. (Texte intégral

The determinants of organic fertilizers used in urban and peri-urban agriculture: an econometric analysis

Urban poverty, increases in food demand, land pressures, pollution resulting from solid waste generation and from mineral fertilizers uses in urban and peri-urban agriculture, are becoming real issues in agriculture in Cameroon, and there is a growing need for organic fertilizers that result from solid waste recycling. Urban and peri-urban agriculture are potential regular users of large quantities of household wastes and compost; but these organic fertilizers are indeed scarcely used. This study proposes using a binomial Logit model on the one hand, to identify factors to encourage using compost in the urban and peri-urban lowlands in Cameroon, and on the other hand, to highlight the effects of these factors on different levels of fertilization using an ordered Logit model. Using a representative sample of 288 farmers, it was found that 41% of farmers use mixed compost and mineral fertilizer, 22% of them use mineral fertilizers exclusively, and 15% use compost exclusively. However, 23% of the farmers in Cameroon do not use any fertilizers. The binomial Logit model estimations show that variables like membership in farmers' cooperatives, land property rights, food cultivation, low levels of farm income and the distance between farmers' dwellings and their farms have an effect on whether compost is used in urban and peri-urban areas in Cameroon. In addition, the ordered Logit model estimation shows that the variables like land-property rights, food cultivation, the available chemical input budget and the distance between dwellings and farms explains fertilization at all levels. In light of these results, a participative solid waste management plan that encourages local composting in the lowlands would help to reduce pollution resulting from solid wastes while promoting the development of the urban and peri-urban urban agriculture.(Texte intégral

Horticulture and city supply in Africa: evidence from south-west Cameroon

URBAN growth in the West African coastal growth poles provides economies of scale and the urbanization process leads to agricultural transformation, especially in terms of agricultural intensification. In this context, horticulture is particularly well suited for an urban environment and for city supplies. Horticulture benefits from intensification techniques on small areas of land and it provides good revenues for small scale farming systems. (Résumé d'auteur

Le défi des pratiques d’intervention interculturelle dans le champ de la santé sexuelle

Un quart des 10 millions de personnes qui habitent en Ontario sont des membres d’uneminorité raciale, des immigrantes et immigrants récents ou des personnes réfugiées. Cela veutdire que parmi ces personnes, il y a plus d’un million de jeunes filles et de femmes qui ont unproblème commun : elles ne reçoivent pas les services de santé qu’elles méritent. (ministère dela Santé de l’Ontario 1993)

A democratização e os militares russos

As relações civis-militares na Rússia pautaram-se por uma especificidade que as distancia das experiências argentina e espanhola no que respeita à transição para a democracia. Na era soviética o controlo exercido pelas forças de segurança interna diminuiu as possibilidades dos militares intervirem na política nacional, pelo que as forças armadas não foram um pólo de resistência ao processo democrático. A Rússia pós comunista herdou uma tradição de subordinação das forças armadas às autoridades civis. Actualmente, a presença de cisões internas, cortes orçamentais e redução do número de conscritos afectou seriamente a capacidade de intervenção dos militares na política interna russa

Horticulture, livelihoods and pesticides in Africa : Evidence from south-West Cameroun

This paper documents change in agro-chemical input use in horticulture using repeat surveys in 1995 and 2004 of about 300 households around Muea, Cameroon. Agro-chemical input use increased from about one agro-chemical input in 1995, to two or more agro-chemical inputs in 2004. Total expenditures for agro-chemical inputs in Muea, as well as the number of farmers using them, doubled between 1995 and 2004. The average number of agro chemical inputs used among farmers doubled between 1995 and 2004. The use of some chemicals increased from four to five times as it is the case for salt, pesticides and herbicides. (Résumé d'auteur