Improving Urban Land Governance with Emphasis on Integrating Agriculture Based Livelihoods in Spatial Land Use Planning Practise in Tanzania

Abstract

This study examines spatial land use planning and urban agriculture practices in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, one of the rapidly urbanising cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. It demonstrates how urban agriculture livelihood can be integrated in spatial land use planning and improve urban land governance by taking Goba, Chango’mbe ‘A’ and Ubungo Darajani as case study settlements. Location and peri urban typology are theoretical premises used in this study. These help in understanding the policy and practical premises that constrain urban agriculture livelihood integration in urban land use planning processes and land management principles. Methodological aspects deployed are documentary search, interviews, mapping, observations, and historical trends analysis. In addition, context, evidence based and institutional links are analytical frameworks used. The study shows that the urbanisation processes, urban poverty, food insecurity and inadequate community involvement in land use planning are the factors underpinning and catalysing changes in land use, land transactions, immigration and overall urban agriculture proliferation in the city. The implications generated by these factors suggest that poor urban land governance is not only the cause, but it is caused by the weakness of planning institutions to realise and adapt to the new challenges that urban agriculture presents to urban land development process. Correspondingly, the rise of urban agricultural land use by and large, indicates a disparity between the widely cherished planning norms and standards underpinning formal land use planning processes and structures in urban development. These include land use zoning, location, land use change conditions, density distribution, accessibility to resources, land tenure modalities, and equitable provision of basic services in ensuring sustainable use of urban land. Equally, the study indicates the existence of supportive city land development policies and country legislature for urban agriculture, which are in practice faced with health, sanitation and economic return constraints. These constraints increase urban agriculture’s negative perceptions to consumers and decrease acceptance in spatial land use planning processes and output implementation. However, urban agriculture has been observed to make productive use of undeveloped land, green the city, provide income and nutrition, and is often a safety-net function for the poorest sectors of society. As such, it is an important vehicle for poverty alleviation, capital mobilisation, and sustainable use of land.