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Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) contributes to urban food security and provides important livelihood opportunities. Due to rapid urbanization, though, UPA is subject to increasing land use p...

Agricultural innovation adoption is fundamental in increasing incomes and food output in developing countries. However, the factors that influence farmers’ decisions to adopt innovations in underutilized crops are not well-documented. Underutilized crops like finger millet have been an alternative form of sustenance for resource-poor farmers especially in arid and semi-arid areas in Kenya. They are more nutritive and resilient to environmental extremes and harsh weather conditions than common crops like maize. The study presented sought to investigate factors that facilitate or impede the probability and level of use of different innovations (improved varieties, conservation tillage, integrated pest and weed management, and group marketing) on the production and marketing of these crops. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to survey 384 finger millet producers in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya. The study employed a multivariate probit to model simultaneously the interdependent adoption decisions of finger millet farmers and an ordered probit to determine the level of adoption. The results reveal that plot size, off/non-farm income, household credit, and extension contact positively influence the decision to adopt and the level of adoption. Technical training positively affects the level of adoption but negatively influences the probability of adopting some innovations. Awareness of these factors could allow the development of strategies, policies, and plans to increase the uptake and sustenance of agricultural innovations on the production and marketing of finger millet and could, consequently, contribute to the food security and incomes of finger millet farmers through enhanced productivity and marketing of the crop. Key words: Agricultural innovations, adoption, underutilized cereals, smallholders, Kenya.

Rapid urban growth poses increasing challenges, but also opportunities, for urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). This systematic review explores the nexus between UPA and urban growth through a meta-analysis of research on UPA in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We reviewed 92 empirical articles, reporting on 83 cities, by applying a framework focused on interactions between urban growth, agricultural production factors, and urban food markets. Results show that the most reported challenges facing UPA are agricultural land conversion and peripheralization. Yet, a number of studies indicate spatial expansion and intensification of UPA due to increasing and changing food demand. Urban growth-related dynamics in the availability of water, organic fertilizer, and labour can further foster or constrain UPA. Consequently, farmers respond and adapt to urban growth in multiple ways. These findings indicate a complex, multi-dimensional challenge for planners and policy makers seeking to manage UPA in rapidly urbanizing landscapes. Yet, our meta-analysis shows that few studies holistically address spatiotemporal dynamics, intra-urban variations, and complex multi-dimensional interlinkages of UPA under urban growth. To overcome these limitations and chart a new framework for future research, we reconceptualize the spatiotemporal dynamics of UPA under urban growth as a wheel of urban growth-related UPA dynamics. To apply this framework, we call for further mixed-methods research linking multi-temporal, remotely sensed data to longitudinal qualitative and quantitative fieldwork data, in order to better understand and critically assess the multifaceted and dynamic socio-spatial changes of UPA in cities across the Global South.

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) operates in an ambiguous relation to rapid urban growth. While urban expansion constrains farmers' access to land and resources, resulting in a replacement of UPA, proximity to expanding urban economies creates new market opportunities leading to enduring UPA. While the literature on UPA in the Global South is burgeoning, little attention has been paid to market-oriented forms of UPA under rapid urban growth. In this paper, we analyse the spatiotemporal dynamics of UPA and market-oriented farmer's responses to changing socio-spatial circumstances in two rapidly growing Kenyan cities: Nyeri and Nakuru. By conceptualizing UPA's enduring existence as continuity under change, we develop a spatiotemporal understanding of market-oriented UPA that goes beyond a dominant dichotomous view on replacement versus persistence. Based on a mixed-methods approach combining geospatial analysis with quantitative and qualitative interviews, our findings show that the continued existence of market-oriented agriculture in the city is connected to highly dynamic processes of commercialization, specialization, and intensification. We conclude that market-oriented farmers are not inevitably pushed out of the city, but rather that they are – under certain conditions – able to actively respond to the pressures as well as opportunities that emerge during rapid urban growth.

Cassava commercialization is a concept that has been used by many development practitioners because of its possible strategic role in transforming livelihoods of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, including Siaya and Kilifi Counties in Kenya. This concept can easily be implemented when the levels of commercialization is known. However, empirical evidence reveals little information on the levels of cassava commercialization amongst smallholder farmers in these counties. Thus effective policy interventions on cassava commercialization for these farmers are difficult to implement, since there is no proper understanding of their levels of cassava commercialization. Therefore the main objective of this paper was to characterize levels of cassava commercialization among smallholder farmers. Factors influencing cassava commercialization were also evaluated. The data was collected from 381 farm households in Siaya and Kilifi Counties (Kenya).This data was used to calculate the Household Commercialization Index (HCI) and Value Addition Indices (VAI) which were then integrated to form the Commercialization Index (CI). This integrated index formed the basis for categorizing the levels of commercialization. A multinomial regression model was used to evaluate factors that affect levels of commercialization. The results obtained revealed that majority of smallholder farmers’ operate at low and medium categories with very few of them at high level. Distance to the market, cassava acreage, schooling years, gender and marketing costs were the key determinants of the levels of commercialization. In order to promote high level commercialization, the study recommends developing policies that enhance formal education among farmers, optimal usage of land and minimization of transportation costs through infrastructural development. Key words: Commercialization, cassava, smallholder farmers, value addition, market participation.

In the context of an increasing world population, the demand for agricultural crops is continuously rising. Especially rice plays a key role in food security, not only in Asia. To increase crop production of rice, either productivity of plants has to be improved or new cultivation areas have to be found. In this context, our study investigated crop growth of paddy rice (Oryza Sativa J.) in Germany. An experimental field in the vegetation period of 2014 with two nitrogen treatments was conducted using remote sensing methods. The research project focussed on two main aspects: (1) the potential of UAV-based and hyperspectral remote sensing methods to monitor selected growth parameters at different phenological stages; (2) the potential of paddy rice cultivation under the present climate condition in western Germany. We applied a low-cost UAV-system (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) to generate high resolution Crop Surface Models (CSM). These were compared with hyperspectral in-field measurements and directly measured agronomic parameters (fresh and dry aboveground biomass (AGB), leaf-area-index (LAI) and plant nitrogen concentration (PNC)). For all acquisition dates we could determine single in-field structures in the CSM (e.g. distribution of hills) and different growth characteristics between the nitrogen treatments. Especially in the second half of the growing season, the plants with higher nitrogen availability were about 25 – 30 % larger. The plant height in the CSM correlates particularly with fresh AGB and the LAI (R2 > 0.8). Thus, the conducted methods for plant growth monitoring can be a contribution for precision agriculture approaches.

The poster submitted to the ISPRS Congress 2016 in Prague illustrates the concept behind the research project in its initial stage. The project concerns recent dynamics of urban and peri-urban agriculture (PUA) in middle-size cities of central Kenya. On the date of submission, only general research ideas were presented due to the unavailability of remote sensing data at the early stage of the project.

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is of high importance for city dwellers especially in medium-sized cities in sub-Saharan Africa as it fulfills a wide range of multifunctional urban needs. However, the extent of recent agricultural land use dynamics in sub-Saharan African cities under rapid urbanization so far remains unclear. This study assessed the operationality of a rule-based, hierarchical classification of RapidEye satellite imagery to monitor land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics from 2010 to 2017 with a focus on UPA and its patch sizes on the example of the rapidly growing medium-sized city Nakuru, Kenya. The hierarchical system was able to provide a high-resolution, multitemporal, area-wide data set, and proved beneficial through a high flexibility in considering each class separately. Though the approach offered limitations in distinguishing between agricultural crops, the produced data set gave insights about intense LULC dynamics and high land use pressure indicated, in particular, by an increase of sealed areas by 83%, an ongoing expansion of agricultural land and high variations in the detected classes between the years. In the context of data shortage, the findings contribute to the understanding of urbanization patterns in sub-Saharan Africa.