Improving the Rural-urban nutrient cycle through (peri-)urban agriculture  

The project is analyzing the viability of win-win situations for municipalities and farmers through the composting of municipal organic waste, co-composting of solid waste with night soil, and direct night soil application.  

Geographical focus: Ghana and sub-region  

Background

Africa is increasingly becoming urban. The UN projection is that by 2015 there will be 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with higher urban than rural populations; by 2030 this will be already 41 countries. In the West African forest belt already today more people live in urban centers than in rural areas.

Feeding these cities and proper management of waste and sanitation in general are major challenges of the “urban millennium”. Before the merger of both institutions in 2001, IWMI and IBSRAM addressed these challenges from two different but complementary entry points, IBSRAM with focus on solid waste, IWMI with focus on wastewater, both with the common objective to recover wasted (urban) resources (nutrients, water, organic matter) for agricultural production.  

Research activities since 2000:  

• ·         Comprehensive assessment of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the sub-region (extent, profitability, impact on livelihoods, food flows and food supply) (mostly completed)
• ·         Assessments of composting and wastewater use in the sub-region (mostly completed)
• ·         Testing options for solid waste and nightsoil (human excreta) co-composting in a pilot station near Kumasi and of direct use of nightsoil in farming (ongoing).
• ·         Development of recommendations on options for waste composting taking into account detailed analyses of (i) waste supply, (ii) compost demand, (iii) institutional and legal issues, (iv) financial analysis, and (v) different compost process options (completed)
• ·         Transformation of the results into training material and policy briefs (has started)

An overview about our research on urban and peri-urban agriculture, and similar research of other CGIAR centers was summarized by Urban Harvest.   

Donors and partners:   

IDRC, SANDEC / EAWAG, pS-eau, FAO  

Outputs: 

• [pdf] Paper on main project results presented at the Conference: Emerging Issues Along Urban/Rural Interfaces: Linking Science and Society, Atlanta, Georgia -- March 13-16, 2005 
  

• [pdf] Executive Summary of Final Technical Report to the donor, IDRC 

See special section in the main publication list of the office.