Social Networks and Food Security in the Urban Fringe PDF
Preview Social Networks and Food Security in the Urban Fringe
Urban Perspectives from the Global South Stephen Morse The Reverend Sister Nora MacNamara Social Networks and Food Security in the Urban Fringe GeoJournal Library Urban Perspectives from the Global South Series Editors Christian M. Rogerson, School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, Gauteng, South Africa Gustav Visser, Geography and Environmental Studies, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa The Urban Perspectives from the Global South brings together a wide variety of urban scholars under one series title and is purposefully multi-disciplinary. The publications in this series are theoretically informed and explore different facets of varyingsizedurbanplaces.Thisseriesaddressesthebroaddevelopmentalissuesof urbanizationindevelopingworldcountriesandprovidesadistinctiveAfricanfocus onthesubject.Itexaminesavarietyofthemesrelatingtourbandevelopmentinthe global South including: city economic development, issues of local governance, urban planning, and the impact of multi-ethnic and multicultural formations in urbanaffairs.Theseriesaimstoextendcurrentinternationalurbandebatesandoffer new insights into the development of urban places in the Global South from a numberofdisciplinesincludinggeography,sociology,politicalscience,economics, as well as urban studies. A special focus of the series is the challenges of urbanization and cities in Africa. More information about this subseries at http://www.springer.com/series/15342 Stephen Morse (cid:129) The Reverend Sister Nora MacNamara Social Networks and Food Security in the Urban Fringe With Contributors by Shuaibu Adamu, World Bank, Kwali-Abuja, Nigeria; Nancy Sabanti Nathan, Sustainable Development Goals, Abuja, Nigeria; Yemisi Adedipe, MSHR, Abuja, Nigeria; Muhammed Kabir, MSHR, Abuja, Nigeria; Augustine Onwuaroh, MSHR, Abuja, Nigeria; Nathaniel Otene, MSHR, Abuja, Nigeria 123 StephenMorse TheReverend Sister Nora MacNamara Centrefor Environment andSustainability Missionary Sistersof the HolyRosary University of Surrey Artane, Dublin, Ireland Guildford, Surrey, UK ISSN 0924-5499 ISSN 2215-0072 (electronic) GeoJournal Library ISSN 2511-2171 ISSN 2511-218X (electronic) Urban Perspectives from the GlobalSouth ISBN978-3-030-46358-8 ISBN978-3-030-46359-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46359-5 ©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2020 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregard tojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland Preface Social Groups, Movies and Cities The theme of this monograph superficially resembles that of a famous Hollywood movie released in 2010 entitled ‘The Social Network’. The movie covers the cre- ation of Facebook, the famous social networking service, by its founder Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook along with other services such as Twitter are virtually ubiquitous today and many have enjoyed and benefited from the enhanced com- municationtheyprovide;theyhavetransformedthelivesofmanyforbetter.Onthe more negative side,some wouldconsiderthemasnotorious given theriseof‘fake news’ and ‘trolling’ whereby people who remain anonymous can hurt and even threaten the lives of strangers they do not like or disagree with. But while this book is also about social groups and their networking, the sim- ilarity with the movie ends there. The context for the social groups and networks covered in this monograph is a far cry from the origins of Facebook, but they nonetheless share one of the basic tenets which is the very essence of being human—communication.Humansaresocialanimalsandcommunicationisamust. Facebook and Twitter are about communication at all levels, from friends to col- leagues to strangers, and are digital in nature, facilitated by electronic devices that allowforatrulyglobalvillage.Thisbookisalsoconcernedaboutcommunication, and some of what is covered does indeed include media such as Facebook and Twitter, but the context is the role that social groups can play within sustainable development or, more precisely, food security in the urban hinterland of a new capital city in a developing county. Nigeria, West Africa, is a country of many faces and contradictions. Nigerians arehospitableandwelcomingpeople,alwayswillingtohelpthestrangeraswellas their neighbours. Their country is one of the wealthiest (if not the wealthiest) countries in Sub-Saharan Africa based on measures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but is also a country with much poverty and unemployment, especiallyamongtheburgeoningyouthpopulation.Itiscountrycoveredinrichand varied vegetation, from mangrove and oil palm forests in the south through to v vi Preface savannahintheNorthandhasaswelltwomajorrivers(NigerandBenue)withinits bordersthatprovideawealthofservicesandresources.Agricultureisawayoflife formostofitspeople,andthecropsandtreesproducedthereareinmanywaysthe envy of the continent. To crown it all, the country is endowed with rich and high-quality oil and gas reserves off its coastline. While much of the developed world endeavours to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, Nigeria has reaped untold financial benefits since the discovery of oil there in the 1950s and this windfallhadthepotentialtotransformthecountry’seconomy.Fewothercountries are so blessed. But despite this legacy Nigeria is also a country with much poverty and food insecurity;withpeoplestrugglingtoproduceenoughfoodtoeatandsurplustosell. Itisbedevilledwithviolentcrime,armedrobbery,kidnappingandcorruptionatall levels and the country is in the throes of an insurgency led by Islamic extremists. Corruption is now endemic and has retarded progress. The youth have been con- sistentlyignoredandunemploymentisrife.Unsurprisingly,giventhisbackground, theneedtosupportagricultureandaddressfoodinsecurityinasustainablemanner has been high on the ‘to do’ list of successive governments, be they colonial, militaryorcivilian,datingbacktothenineteenthcentury.Theproblemiscertainly notadeficitofwordsandpromisesfrompoliticiansandleaderswhounderstandthe situationonlytoowell;wordsandpromisesarestillbeingproclaimedandnotaday passes without a speech from a senior official extolling the virtues offarming and self-reliance and repeating (yet again) the mantra that government is fully behind them and offering every known support. If words could be sown, then Nigeria would be the breadbasket of the continent; producing enough to supply everyone with a balanced diet and enjoying a massive surplus for export. But unfortunately, words and promises have counted for very little, and agriculture remains a Cinderella sector completely overlooked and forgotten in favour of the more lucrative oil and gas sector. Therein rests the problem and the result has been a sustained insecurity. The food security challenges faced in Nigeria have long been known by aid agencies, many of which have acted to provide support. This book is about a few projectscreatedtohelpovercometheproblemsfacedbyfarmersandtheirfamilies. However, and this is perhaps ironical given what has been said above, the book is not primarily about food security but rather the social groups that these projects haveoftenworkedwithtohelpachievetheirgoal.Thebookisnotaboutcropsbut aboutpeoplewillingtohelpthemselvesandtakeprideinwhattheydo.Itisabook whichexploresthewaysinwhichthosepeoplecooperateandcommunicatetohelp support themselves and how projects seek to tap into that resource to help bring their ideas to fruition. A reader expecting to find agricultural and economic details related to food production, storage and marketing may be disappointed to see this, butthemostimportantresourceofanycountryisitspeopleandespeciallyitsyouth. The authors make no apology for emphasising the role of social groups within whichpeopleworkandsurvive.Itisthesegroupsthataretheveryfabricofsociety in Nigeria. Preface vii Muchhasbeenwrittenaboutsocialgroupsandtheirembeddednesswithinwider social networks in Africa and in other parts of the world. Indeed, Africa is replete with traditional social groups that have existed for millennia. But the exploration of the role of social groups within development projects is an area that has been relatively unchartered, and in particular social groups and projects taking place in whatcanbecalled the‘urban fringe’.The latter termgoesbeyond thewell-known concept of peri-urban (the area immediately around an urban area that acts as a bridgebetweentheruralandurban)andcoverswhatarequintessentiallyruralareas adjacent to a major urban centre but heavily influenced by it. The six projects covered in this book all happened in the urban fringe close to the capital city of Nigeria—Abuja.Theareaswereruralineverysenseoftheword,withfamingbeing themajoroccupation,butbeingneartoAbujaprovidedthecommunitieswithmuch opportunity, including proximity to markets for their produce and support from government. But the question is whether the social groups made use of that opportunity and, if they did, then how? Allied to this is the question about how projects partnered with those groups to help achieve their aims? Nigeria is in a state of rapid flux, and Abuja is growing fast. What are now satellite towns and villages will undoubtedly merge with the city at some future stage. While the physical location of the urban fringe will change over time it will only grow in importance and intensity. Given this, the need for enhancing food security will become even more critical. Indeed, the study of social groups and social networks as part of what is called social capital deserves all the attention it receivesandmore.Theyareindigenous toall ofhumanityand working withthem providesthebestopportunityofachievingadevelopmentthatissustainable.While this book is highly unlikely to become a movie, it is interesting to note how the essenceofwhatiscoveredisattheheartofhumanityandindeedhasalreadybeen well-captured for the big screen and not only in ‘The Social Network’. Guildford, UK Stephen Morse Artane, Ireland The Reverend Sister Nora MacNamara Acknowledgements Therearemanywhoneedtobeacknowledgedandthankedfortheirinvolvementin the six projects spanning 15 years, funded and supported by many agencies, atthe heart of this book. The list is endless, and there is not enough space to thank each one individually. Those who especially spring to mind regarding the three DFID funded projects are Dr. Andrew Ward, Dr. Lawrence Kenyon, Dr. Danny Coyne, Dr. Abiodun Claudius-Cole and Dr. Utiang Ugbe. For the two Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) funded projects the authors would like to thank Dr. Lava Kumar, Dr. Robert Asiedu, Dr. Beatrice Aighewi and Dr. Norbert Maroya, of theInternational Instituteof Tropical Agriculture, as well Dr. Stella Ama Ennin and Dr. Kingsley Osei of the Crop Research Institute, Ghana. For the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) project in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria the authors wish to recognise the contributions of Late Alhaji Ari Isa Muhammad and Alhaji Abubakar Sani Pai. StephenMorsewouldliketothank colleagues attheUniversityofReadingand University of Surrey for their support while working on these projects, especially ProfessorRichardMurphyandthelateProfessorRobPotter.Hewouldalsoliketo thank his family (Mary, Llewellyn and Rhianna) for their wonderful support and understanding over the years spent on these projects. NoraMacNamarawouldliketothanktheMissionarySistersoftheHolyRosary inDublin,IrelandandNigeria,aswellasthesupportofherfamilyandfriendsover many years. For the Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project the authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support pro- vided by BMGF under a grant awarded to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria. For the Community Action in Improving Farmer-saved Seed Yam (CAY-Seed) project the authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support providedbyBMGFunder agrant awarded to theCrop Research Institute(CRI)in Ghana. ix x Acknowledgements Theauthorswouldalsoliketothankthesuggestionsfor improvementprovided by the anonymous reviewer ofthe monograph. The authors take full responsibility for the content of the monograph. Finally,theauthorswouldliketothankthefarmersandsocialgroupswhowere involved in these projects, as well as the other participants in this research.
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