URBAN ORGANIC SOLID WASTE:PRACTICES IN NAIROBI 245
structure and public services causing a rise in land prices (Losada et al., 1998). The most
important characteristic of the urban concept is its foundation on two fundamental
premises: first, the availability of vegetable wastes from the city’s large markets and
from other food-handling institutions as feed and fodder, as well as for composting; and
second, the sustained demand from the local population for the resulting agricultural
products. A further consideration is the additional pressure of producing within an urban
environment that does not exist within the rural environment.
The peri-urban space
The other agricultural space identified here is the peri-urban, which, according to
Losada et al. (1998), consists of the last remaining rural spaces in the metropolitan
zone and, although there are an urban infrastructure and clear indications of an urban
influence, there remains a predominant rural ambiance. It is clear that the influence of
the city has affected the manner of agricultural production. In this milieu, a commer-
cial form of farming is practised. The western and northern outskirts of Nairobi,
having good agricultural potential as a result of well-drained and fertile soils, support
a number of crops such as maize, beans, Irish potatoes, a variety of vegetables,
bananas, flowers, fodder and cash crops. Livestock keeping is also practised on both
large and small-scales (Mazingira Institute, 1994).
To the north of Nairobi are small subsistence farms and large export oriented horticul-
tural and coffee farms. Cattle ranching is also a common activity and a number of
farms rear pigs and poultry. In the western part one finds a mixture of both large and
small farms where crops are grown mainly for local markets. Small parts of Kibera
Division, such as Karen, have large farms of up to 10 hectares where dairy cattle are
raised and fodder crops and other high value horticultural crops are grown.
12.5. FARMERS^3
As noted above, the great majority of urban (and peri-urban farmers) in Nairobi gener-
ally do not use organic waste from the dumpsites, though some composting groups do.
However, they use compost and fresh wastes from markets, schools, hotels and other
sources. The average farm size in our surveys is 1.2 acres. Farmers applying urban
organic solid waste tend to have much smaller holdings (averaging 0.82 acres),
compared to conventional farmers, which suggests that farmers with larger holdings
are able to generate enough organic waste on their farms, thus obviating the need for
- Information on farmers was gathered through a survey on the use and application of organic waste,
with respondents from 195 family farms selected using a grid sampling design to cover urban and
peri-urban Nairobi (including Dandora, Eastleigh, Huruma, Kibera, Kikuyu, Kileleshwa, Langata,
Maringo, Mathare, Pumwani and Upper Kabete). For details of the survey design, as well as content
and structure of the questionnaires, see Mutoro and Karanja (1998) and Koster (1999).