Impacts of Urban Agriculture Annual Report.p65 - International ...

18pawpaw, pineapple, watermelon, jackfruit, tangerine,apple, pear, orange), meat (beef and pork) and fresh milk.Information on purchasing requirements—quality,packaging, minimum volumes, frequency of delivery,etc—was obtained for all these products.The selected products were presented to farmers, whochose the most appropriate enterprises within theirmeans. These were: mushrooms, poultry and pork. Thesewere identified as high value products whose productionis less risky than other alternatives that may provide ahigher income, such as fruits and vegetables.Market studies indicated, however, that the identifiedproducts had the potential to increase farmers’ incomeonly if they met the demands of traders in terms of quality,quantity, continuity and price. To fulfill these requirements,project participants concluded that they must eitherconfine themselves to the local or niche markets that theycan supply with their present production levels, or movetoward collective action as a means of supplying greatervolumes to those markets indicating growth possibilities.Moreover, providing support services to farmers toovercome these initial “barriers to entry” (i.e. access toseeds, technical assistance, contacts with potentialbuyers, etc.) is key in helping farmers develop their cropproduction into a sustainable income-generating activity.At present, services either do not exist or are orientedmore toward production with little attention paid tomarketing or enterprise organization.The inter-institutional and multidisciplinary nature ofthis particular project is an attempt to bring togetherappropriate actors from both research anddevelopment to establish such services and work withthe local community to develop more efficiententerprises.The findings from this work are now beingincorporated into a recently installed research anddevelopment project in Kampala, part of theInternational Development Research Centre (IDRC)-supported Focus City program. 11 The Focus City Research Initiative (FCRI) selected eight cities around the world where multistakeholder City Teams are working in partnership over four years to researchand test innovative solutions to alleviate poverty.