Supporting Socio-Economic Resilience in the City of Cape Town through Sustainable Urban Agriculture

The document argues that urban agriculture (UA) provides a pathway to community resilience by improving food security, creating jobs, and reducing environmental impact. It highlights the transition of Nazeer Sonday from intensive hydroponic tomato farming to a regenerative polyculture system at Vegkop Polyculture Farm in Philippi. By implementing practices such as no-till, mulching, and crop rotation, the farm increased its soil organic content (SOC) from 0.5% to 2% and expanded its crop variety from one to approximately thirty. The case study emphasizes that regenerative practices mitigate economic risks, such as the 2008 spike in potassium nitrate fertiliser prices, and reduce dependence on costly synthetic inputs. It also notes the role of co-operatives and Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) in helping small-scale farmers access larger markets and ensure sustainable production.

• Urban agriculture (UA) enhances city resilience by promoting food security, creating jobs, and stimulating economic activity across the agricultural value chain, including input producers and agro-processors.
• Regenerative agricultural practices, such as no-till, mulching, crop rotation, and intercropping, improve soil health and make farms more economically resilient by reducing the need for expensive synthetic fertilisers and water.
• Polyculture production reduces a farm's vulnerability to market volatility and crop-specific price spikes compared to monoculture.
• At Vegkop Polyculture Farm, the adoption of regenerative practices increased soil organic content (SOC) from 0.5% to 2% over two to three years, with a long-term target of 6% to further reduce compost requirements.
• Sustainable urban farming can be more labour-intensive than traditional crop industries; Vegkop employs four full-time workers on 4,000m2, exceeding the employment averages of stone fruit, pomme fruit, flowers, and blueberries.
• Small-scale urban farmers use co-operatives to aggregate output for larger markets and employ Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) for peer review of sustainable production methods.

APA

GreenCape (n.d.). Supporting Socio-Economic Resilience in the City of Cape Town through Sustainable Urban Agriculture. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sustainable-Urban-Agriculture-case-study-4.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. Supporting Socio-Economic Resilience in the City of Cape Town through Sustainable Urban Agriculture. n.d. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sustainable-Urban-Agriculture-case-study-4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=Supporting Socio-Economic Resilience in the City of Cape Town through Sustainable Urban Agriculture |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sustainable-Urban-Agriculture-case-study-4.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencapendsupporting, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{Supporting Socio-Economic Resilience in the City of Cape Town through Sustainable Urban Agriculture}}, institution = {GreenCape}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sustainable-Urban-Agriculture-case-study-4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }