Soil Scientist expresses worry over the neglect of urban Agriculture

Prof. Dr. Bend Marshner, a Soil Scientist at the Geographical Institute in Germany has raised concerns over the absolute neglect of urban Agriculture in the West African sub-region.  He said much of Agricultural research and aid work in the sub-region has been focusing on rural agriculture. According to him, urban Agriculture is becoming increasingly more important since consumers in the cities are demanding for more vegetables which need to be produce closer to them because they perished during transportation. Prof. Dr. Marshner was speaking to a team of researchers in West Africa at the opening ceremony of the UrbanFoodPlus Summer School at the University for Development Studies on how to enhance food security in sub-region. UrbanFoodPlus is an African-German partnership aimed to enhance resource use efficiency in urban and peri-urban Agriculture for improved food security in West African cities, financed by the German Ministry of Education and Research. It is a seven million Euro project which is a five-year activity, brought together PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and professors from four German universities and partnered with various West African institutions. Prof. Dr. Bend Marshner also stated that urban vegetable growers depend on wastewater during dry season due to scarcity. This he said poses consumers to health hazards, hence the need to developing simple treatment technologies to engage in all year-round farming.  The summer school will  dedicate a day to assess the potential of biochar, a type of charcoal produce at very low oxygen levels to improve soil quality, reduce greenhouse gas emission and improve the water holding capacity of soils.

Source:Saaka Alhassan