Urban market garbage: a hidden resource for sustainable urban / peri-urban agriculture and the environment in Uganda

Abstract

There is serious accumulation of biodegradable garbage in many markets in urban cities mainly from agricultural produce that is marketed in raw form from the Country. It is estimated that about l000mt of garbage is generated daily from Kampala city council alone and this garbage is creating environmental hazards and social problems especially where it is being dumped by the city Council. The council is limited and is not able to dispose all the daily-generated garbage and besides it is too costly. Alternative ways or technologies are needed that are environmentally, socially and economically acceptable to supplement the efforts of urban cities in reducing garbage accumulation and subsequent environmental pollution. This paper presents a conceptual model that has been developed and some results from a research programme which started three years ago on recycling / integrating urban market crop wastes (garbage) into crop / livestock production systems which is aimed at contributing in the long run to poverty reduction of poor small scale farmers mainly women in the peri-urban areas and also improve on the environmental quality. We have established that many people view garbage as waste and yet they represent a major source of animal feeds, raw materials for biogas production and as organic fertilizers through composting or mulching. The huge quantities of the crop wastes contain large quantities of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium that have been extracted from the areas of production. This is causing serious nutrient depletion and subsequent loss of soil fertility. Crop yields have been obtained through use of these crop wastes. This research, which is funded by Sida/SAREC of Sweden, is also an international joint effort, the first of its kind with scientists from Swedish Universities to boost capacity building in research and training at Ph D level in the faculty of Agriculture at Makerere University.