Economic Opportunity Mailing List Archive

["Johan Kieft" <<address removed>>]

Thoughts from the Moderator - Week 3Dear all,

This is a good point. Writing form Indonesia, the same is true here, around
8 out of 10 poor live in rural areas. This counts as well for those who are
malnourished or suffer otherwise from poverty. The experiences here with the
economic crisis has learned that urban poor, when the economy starts growing
again do recover quicker although they were initially harder hit. This
recovery to a large extent explain the decline in poverty in the country.
Instead of focusing on urban agriculture, it might more efficient to improve
market access in remote marginal areas and ensure that those people gain
access to better basic services including (culturally) appropriate
agricultural extension. However lessons learnt from previous experiences
have to be taken into account.

regards

Johan Kieft
Program Leader Agriculture
CARE Int. Ind.
  -----Original Message-----
  From: <address removed>
[mailto:<address removed> Behalf Of Martin
Fowler
  Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 5:54 PM
  To: <address removed>
  Subject: Urban agriculture


  Dear All,

  Have we got the balance right?  We seem to be focussing our discussion so
much on urban agriculture/the use of urban waste water for irrigation, etc
(although far be it for me to underestimate its importance....to the
livelihoods of urban dwellers; and I am enjoying reading the urban
agriculture contributions).

  A few figures from Uganda to support my position: 87 per cent of the
population is rural.  96 per cent of the country?s poor live in the
countryside (an increase from the 1992 figure of 93 per cent) and 42% of the
rural population lives under the absolute poverty line, compared with 12 per
cent of urban dwellers.  The heads of 81 per cent of those households
classified as poor are employed in the agricultural sector.

  By mid-2000 poverty had decreased to 59 per cent of its 1997 level in the
urban areas, but to only 80 per cent of this level in the rural areas.

  I don't believe Uganda is the only country in which a similar situation
exists.

  Given the poverty-reduction focus of DFID (and all participants in this
e-forum, I hope/assume) should we not, in the short time that remains to us,
try to focus our thoughts, etc., on aspects of agriculture/development in
the rural areas?

  Yours,

  Martin Fowler (....an urban-based agricultural economist)
  Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries,
  Entebbe
  Uganda