In 2021, Rikolto, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) committed themselves to boosting Kampala's urban farming future. In the future, growing cities like Kampala are expected to consume 80% of all food. It is, therefore, all the more important to promote growing fruits and vegetables in the city itself.
Urban farming has far more benefits than proving food for growing cities: It can generate income by selling the vegetables grown at home. It can also add highly nutritious vegetables to the diet of urban residents and their children, contributing to the fight against malnutrition. Besides the economic and social impact, it also makes the city landscape greener. For those reasons, Rikolto, KCCA and UNEP worked together in the framework of an urban farming project called “Promoting Sustainable Urban & Peri-urban Agriculture for healthy, sustainable, and nutritious diets in Kampala”.
On 12 November 2021, we celebrated the end of the project as well as a bright future for urban farming in Kampala. We invited different stakeholders in Kampala’s food system to celebrate with us: Government officials, local authorities that were involved or have an interest in the project, representatives from foreign governments such as the Belgian embassy, several NGOs, Kampala’s model farmers, companies, youth and many more.
The event provided for a perfect opportunity to discuss Rikolto’s global Food Smart City programme, the government’s vision to create sustainable food systems and of course the objectives and achievements of the project itself.