Sack farms in Mathare

Katy Fentress, Nairobi Community Manager

For many people in Nairobi's Mathare slum, food insecurity is a simple fact of life. Even the slightest hike in prices can prove sufficient to exclude them from their daily meal. A large proportion of the inhabitants of Mathare, as well as those living in Nairobi's other informal settlements, can be considered to be living in a perpetual state of emergency. Humanitarian policy makers are actively seeking to address this problem, but with mixed results. Meanwhile, however, Mathare residents are learning to supplement insecure food sources with an urban agricultural alternative dubbed "Farm in a Sack."

The inability to always guarantee food on the table, whether because of market fluctuations or unemployment, has for decades pushed Mathare residents to make do with tiny patches of land on which to grow a few heads of sukuma wiki (kale — literally, "push weekly": it pushes you through the week). Over time, however, with the amount of farmable land decreasing along with the quality of the soil, sustaining this practice has become a major challenge.

In light of that challenge, urban agriculture (UA) has recently become a priority in both emergency and development policy planning, according to Robert Biel and Yves Cabannes, affiliates of the Development Planning Unit (DPU) at University College London. In an article on UA co-authored by Biel and Cabannes, they say urban farming has not only helped to see impoverished urban families through difficult times, but also helped keep communities together by encouraging them to "guarantee their own social and economic reproduction in a low-cost way or outside of the monetary economy" (2009, DPUnews, issue 51).

One of the more popular solutions to creating sustainable urban agriculture in impoverished neighbourhoods has been the concept of "Farm in a Sack" agriculture. This concept involves taking a burlap (or similar) sack, filling it with a core of rocks surrounded by soil, and growing crops out of little holes in the side. This "vertical" method increases dramatically the amount of produce that can be grown: instead of 15 plants of sukuma wiki per square metre, the "Farm in a Sack" method can enable families to grow up to 60.

Farm in a Sack, which has been introduced to Mathare over the years by various NGOs, has produced differing results depending on the methodology used. The most successful project so far appears to be the most recent, a project completed in 2010 by the Italian NGO COOPI.

Claudio Torres, an architect who works with COOPI in Mathare, tells us that "different organisations have tried this technique and failed." According to Torres, the problem stems from unrealistic expectations: the "projects didn't work out because they just gave people sacks and seedlings and expected them to go and get the earth themselves."

"The shacks that people live in were simply too small for this to work," adds Torres, who spearheaded COOPI's Mathare urban agriculture initiative. "Also, the soil that was used was depleted Mathare soil," which was not rich enough to make the plants grow abundantly.

Taking a more hands-on approach, COOPI took great pains to provide all the necessary materials to get the project underway, including a rich soil sourced in a nearby forest. The full sacks came to about $10 each, a cost that was covered by the NGO and its donors. The sacks were placed together in plots of land that were protected by a fence and irrigated by a water tank. This communal aspect of the initiative was, in Torres' view, one of the major factors that guaranteed its success.

The project officially ended after six months, but has been continuing informally ever since. A quick trip down to an assigned plot by the Mathare River reveals how many of the bags that COOPI provided are still there, proof that people continued using the method even after the logistical support had ended.

According to Torres, sack farms could eventually provide a sustainable solution for the community. He feels, however, that there is still much room for improvement, emphasizing that in order for this method to be sustainable, there are several steps that must be taken. These would include creating a local nursery for seedlings and installing a water treatment plant, so users can access the Mathare River and benefit from year-round irrigation. It would also be necessary to create a compost system using manure and other organic waste collected from around the area, Torres adds.