What are the links between urban waste management and peri-urban agriculture? How could waste be safely recycled to benefit farmers on the outskirts of cities? What policies are needed to encourage private sector engagement in waste sorting and redistribution and promote links between waste managers and peri-urban farmers?

Research from Wageningen University and Research Centre and the International Institute for Environment and Development, examines the potential for improving the use of urban organic waste in fields around the capitals of Mali and Burkina Faso. Current plans for centralised waste management are evaluated for environmental sustainability, institutional rigidity and equity.

Each city produces an estimated 600-700 tonnes of solid waste per day. Although about a third of the total waste is organic, the amount varies widely among income groups: higher-income households produce almost four times as much organic waste as low-income households. As populations have expanded and municipal resources proven inadequate, small private operators working with donkey-pulled carts have contracted with households to transport waste to collection depots where entrepreneurs sort out more valuable components and municipal lorries remove the remainder. Lower income households are less able to afford such services.

Land used for agricultural purposes is at great risk of giving way to residential settlements. Farmers – many of them newcomers – thus have little interest in long-term soil quality. Growing staple crops for their own consumption and fruit and vegetables for urban markets, they are aware of the benefits of waste for soil fertility. Many farmers, of staple crops in particular, contract with drivers to violate municipal regulations and dump it on their fields. They remove larger inorganic objects and spread the residue over their fields. As the waste is only partly sorted, there are concerns about long-term build-up of contaminants. But at the moment, there is no evidence of risk to food safety. The safety of fruit and vegetable products is more likely to be endangered by the variable quality of water used for irrigation. The results indicate that claims of food safety risks are exaggerated which diverts attention from the opportunities offered by solid organic waste.

Effective and safe waste management requires removing waste from where it is produced and then processing or disposing of it. While the cost of doing so has been accepted by the two municipalities, current plans, backed by the World Bank, leave recycling as an ‘end-of-the-pipe’ solution.

The authors also note that projected management and privatisation plans:

• may encourage farmers with insecure tenure to continue to make their own illicit and dangerous arrangements for acquiring waste material
• could put out of business not-for-profit community based enterprises, many of which employ local women
• are based on industrialised country centralised systems involving large investments in equipment and ambitious targets
• marginalise the role for existing waste stakeholders and make no provision for delivering compost to farmers at affordable prices.

The authors argue that:

• Waste management plans can be adjusted to recycle the organic fraction of waste in agriculture without incurring additional costs.
• Organic waste recycling should be a core element in new waste management plans involving local operators.
• Improving tenure security for peri-urban and urban farmers would provide them the incentive to manage the land and produce food products in a sustainable way.
• Bottom-up initiatives based at commune level, rather than whole-city schemes, are more likely to be sustainable.

Source(s):
‘Opportunities for managing solid waste flows in the periurban interface of Bamako and Ouagadougou’ by D. Eaton and T. Hilhorst, Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 15, No. 1, April 2003, pp53-63 Full document.

Funded by: European Commission - DG Research (INCO Programme, 4th Framework Programme) + Ministry of Agriculture, Nature & Food Quality, The Netherlands (North-South Research Programme)

id21 Research Highlight: 15 December 2003

Further Information:
Derek Eaton
Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI)
Wageningen University and Research Centre
PO Box 29703
Den Haag 2502 LS
The Netherlands
http://www.lei.nl/apugedu

Tel: +31 (70) 335 82 43
Fax: +31 (70) 361 56 24
Contact the contributor: derek.eaton@wur.nl

Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI)

Thea Hilhorst
Drylands Programme
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street,
London
WC1H 0DD
UK
http://www.iied.org

Tel: +44 (0)20 7388-2117
Fax: +44 (0)20 7388-2826
Contact the contributor: thea.hilhorst@iied.org

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

Other related links:
DLO Research Programme International Co-operation

'Potentials of development of (peri) urban agriculture in relation to urban waste management in West Africa (PDU)'

'Urban Agriculture in Local Waste Management: Santiago ( Dominican Republic)'

'The Potential of Organic Matter Composting for Urban Waste Management'

Study visit/workshop: Reuse of Wastewater in Urban Agriculture, a Challenge for Municipalities in West Africa