Urban farmers drive food market innovations in Addis Abeba
The weather is perfect on the day I decide to visit Emma (Ethiopian equivalent of “Mother” ) Birtukan, one of 105 farmers at Shenkora II urban farming center in Addis Abeba. It is one of three urban farming centers operated by an association of more than 150 elderly women.
I grab my facemask and hand sanitizer on my way out. There is a long queue at the taxi station: the new law states that all transportation must operate at half capacity. By the time I board the first of three taxi rides to the farm, the beautiful skies have turned into scorching sun. Such is life in the Covid-19 era.
As I approach the farming center, I notice two public buses that have been renovated into kiosks. The sides are decorated with colourful drawings of agricultural produce.
Emma Birtukan and another woman are weeding their vegetable lots. She offers me a seat under the shade of a small hut. After I catch my breath, I take a quick tour of the communal gardens to see what has changed since my last visit. “What did you see?’’ asks Emma Birtukan, as she joins me, and begins to tell me about the new vegetables she has planted.
Seizing this opportunity, I ask how the group is coping with the Covid-19 outbreak, and especially the social distancing rules.
“Since we are a group, people think all the work done is as a group but it is not,” Emma Birtukan explains. She pointed to the line of small raised beds. “Every member grows their own crops on their space. This lot belongs to one person, the next to another person, and so on,” she says. The role of the group, she adds, is to help members to access credit, and other requirements that are difficult for individuals to get on their own.
Mobilizing support
When I ask how the government is helping urban farmers, Emma Birtukan replies that the mayor of Addis Abeba paid a visit to the group before the pandemic broke out. “He was very impressed with how we had transformed the riverside into a farm. While he was here, he also promised us to provide one of those new transformed buses. Didn’t you notice it on your way here?”
Mystery solved, I tell myself.
The stationary bus is a government initiative to provide market access for urban farmers, such as the members of Shenkora II.
With many Addis Abeba residents currently unable to afford goods in regular shops due to rising prices, this direct link to producers is crucial. The renovated buses will house a variety of services, including bakeries, dairy outlets, and greengrocers. But the group’s bus not operational yet, Emma Birtukan explains, as work was interrupted by the crisis.
“This pandemic also makes it hard because the government is now focusing on trying to stop the spread of the pandemic but we too are part of that. Without food, life wouldn’t exist and urban farming should get the light it needs too.”
I ask Emma Birtukan if she is aware of a recent call by the mayor for anyone with agricultural experience to share their ideas with the city government. She says she did not hear about the announcement, which was spread through social media, and expresses regret that the opportunity has passed. It makes me realize that with a lot of communication now taking place on digital platforms, it is still crucial to ensure that the government, and other actors, make use of a variety of channels to reach all citizens.
Emma Birtukan invites me to join her for lunch at her home.
Inside the compound I see many types of vegetables being grown inside recycled plastic water bottles. During the meal, she tells me the history of all the three Shenkora urban farms. A study carried out in 2016 found that more than 2000 people had benefited from the farms. “And the numbers are continuing to increase,” she says.
When we return to Shenkora II, a customer comes to buy rosemary. Because the farm is close to a residential area, neighboring families prefer to buy their produce here instead of going to the local market. “Because we use freshwater, customers eat healthy vegetables instead of the ones grown from river water,” Emma Birtuken explains. The group is also getting more orders of seedlings to grow on small home gardens.
She hopes that the government will provide buses for all three farms run by the group, so they can have direct retail outlets within the community. “At the end of the day, urban farms help to easy access to food during this pandemic. People can easily go to those centers to buy food without the fear of being too crowded. It also helps to encourage people to practice growing their own food,” she concludes.
Written by Yared Tesema
This article is part of Covid-19 Food/Future, an initiative under TMG ThinkTank for Sustainability’s SEWOH Lab project (https://www.tmg-thinktank.com/sewoh-lab). It aims at providing a unique and direct insight into the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on national and local food systems. Also follow @CovidFoodFuture, our Video Diaries From Nairobi, and @TMG_think on Twitter. Funding for this initiative is provided by BMZ, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
