254 T.C. DAVIES, M.M. IKIARA, A.M. KARANJA, C. FUREDY
tant functions in society. Through their self-employment initiatives, they absorb part
of the otherwise state covered social costs of ‘modernisation’ such as unemployment
and under-employment. Second, they shoulder part of the environmental costs of
development by processing waste, which the state would otherwise have to spend
money on in terms of organic solid waste transport and disposal.
The various relationships cited give rise to opportunities to find alternative forms of
agricultural development for the urban environment, switching from mechanised
forms of production that endanger the environment to traditional urban systems of
agriculture characterized by ‘self-conserving’ technologies. Such transition is thought
to have the potential of minimising pollution and ecosystem degradation, and of
allowing increased income generation, thereby benefiting large sections of the popu-
lation who have scarce economic resources. An additional objective concerns animal
welfare and the search for a method of production which respects the well being of the
livestock, whilst maintaining a reasonable standard of living for the producers
Despite some enlightened attitudes relating to sustainable development, the large
urban centres are generally regarded as generators of contaminants, destroyers of
natural ecosystems and high consumers of external inputs. But this is shown to be too
narrow a vision of the urban situation. The growth and development of the urban
centre has led to the establishment of new markets, directly influencing traditional
systems of production.
In contrast to the blinkered view of the government, the enormous imagination and
capacity of the urban farmer has made possible the agricultural production within the
urban environment. This phenomenon introduces a very important dimension, demon-
strating the capacity of the unprotected sectors (i.e. the urban farmer) to generate alter-
native solutions in the face of the environmental ‘catastrophe’ presented by the
uncontrolled growth of the city. They have reorganized space, devised new ways of
using degraded land, modified conventional agricultural systems in response to the
demands of the urban sector and have realised the potential for utilising large volumes
of waste as a source of food for animals and/or plants. Awareness is growing in the
area of composting, but markets for this product are still poor and not readily avail-
able. For now, compost is used mainly in small-scale flower gardens of the Asian and
expatriate community in the city. But the potential of composting as part of the waste
minimisation strategy and eventually in income generation, is nevertheless huge.
Regarding public health concerns, we must concede that, although there are possibil-
ities that crops of enhanced nutritional quality will result from the transfer of essential
nutrient elements from the residues to the edible portion of the crop, there are also
possibilities that food and feed crops produced on land treated with organic residues
may contain materials from these residues that will be detrimental to the nutritional
quality of these crops. The correction of micronutrient deficiencies has become