242 T.C. DAVIES, M.M. IKIARA, A.M. KARANJA, C. FUREDY
taneous or deliberate fires contribute further to air pollution. Despite this, it is increas-
ingly being realised that this fraction of the waste stream is a resource, which if managed
properly could bring a number of socio-economic and environmental benefits to the
community. This chapter addresses farming practices and trends in the use of organic
waste in both urban and peri-urban areas of Nairobi. It examines the role of different
partnerships and contributions of emerging private stakeholders in fostering this
enlightenment in management of organic waste streams in the city of Nairobi.
Initiatives that have been taken by the formal and informal institutions, including local
authorities, NGOs and CBOs to convert organic waste into organic manure and
compost for marketing and reuse, are reviewed in chapter 4. The concept of an urban
farmer is discussed in the light of the development of new production systems that
have influenced spatial organisation with the introduction of appropriate crops to meet
a changing urban demand.
12.2. TRENDS IN MANAGEMENT OF URBAN ORGANIC SOLID WASTE
According to Peters (1996) organic wastes are not usually scavenged by waste pickers,
but are important to street children who often pick through bins to find their next meal.
Some of the larger hotels and restaurants in Nairobi also sell their food scraps to
farmers for use as pig feed. Organic wastes are also important to the urban agricultural
sector as all sorts of livestock, including goats, chickens and occasionally cows, feed
on top of waste heaps. This was particularly evident in the past year or two as a result
of protracted spells of drought. Pastoralists invaded the City of Nairobi and cattle were
feeding on whatever they could find, including wastes from food processing indus-
tries, from parks and street plantings, from racecourses, dairies, and so on.
Urban agriculture exists throughout the city on both private and public land. The
growing of crops in urban areas is an important survival strategy for the urban poor
(especially for those without land holdings) as it reduces the amount of income
expended on food (Kettle et al., 1995). Freeman (1991) estimated that one-third of
urban households in Nairobi grow crops. A study by Mazingira Institute (1987) esti-
mates that three-quarters of urban farmers consumed all that they produced. Urban
agriculture is therefore an important food source for many people, and it should be
encouraged. Both crop production, livestock rearing and poultry keeping are practiced
at different levels in Nairobi and in the peri-urban areas.
Our recent fieldwork indicates^2 that more than 80 percent of all farms in Nairobi use
some form of organic waste produced on site and about a third of the farmers use urban
- The fieldwork on organic wastes conducted under this project consisted of interviews, focus group
discussions and surveys of markets, institutions and urban and peri-urban farmers of Nairobi in 1999.
For further details, see footnote number 3.