Abstract:
Urban agriculture is the production of food and non-food items within the urban area
and its periphery, for home consumption and/or for the urban market. Although urban
agriculture has a significant impact in fulfilling the basic demand of low-income
households, it still lacks proper consideration and the right full place for policy-makers,
urban planners, and authorities. This study tried to evaluate the impact of urban
agriculture on poverty reduction at household level in Hossana Town using crosssectional data obtained from 176 urban households selected from three kebeles. Factors
affecting households’ participation in urban agriculture were identified using binary
logit model while propensity score matching was used to evaluate the impact of urban
agriculture on poverty reduction (by using proxy consumption expenditure and asset
building). Furthermore, this study also examined the extent of participation of urban
households in urban agriculture with the help of secondary data. The binary logistic
result revealed that variables such as household size, income from other sources, access
to credit, access to water, access to extension services and access to the improved inputs
significantly enhanced participation of urban agriculture practice except for income from
other sources. The results from the propensity score matching showed the participation
of urban agriculture practice has a robust and positive effect on urban households’
consumption expenditure per adult equivalent per month and asset building per capita.
The average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) was 432 and 1.1; Ethiopian Birr and
unit respectively for consumption expenditure per adult equivalent and assets building
per capita, increase for participants as compared to non-participants, indicating that
efforts to promote existing urban agriculture practice will contribute to poverty reduction
among urban households. According to the findings of this study, major determinants are
very important in determining households to participate in urban agriculture or not and
urban agriculture has a significant positive impact on poverty reduction. Therefore,
urban agriculture practice should be encouraged by Government and Non-government
organizations through provision of credit, farm inputs, and extension services in order to
increase its production thereby reducing poverty among urban households so that it can
be taken as an alternative poverty reduction policy strategy.
