OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGE OF URBAN AGRICULTURE: THE CASE OF WERABE TOWN ADMINISTRATION, SILTE ZONE CENTRAL ETHIOPIA

Abstract Urban agriculture (UA) emerged as a response to the limited supply of food for urban dwellers. Moreover, it has been considered as one of the employment options for youth and women in towns. Despite obstacles that hinder its productivity, urban agriculture production is growing in importance as a means of achieving food security for urban people in developing nations like Ethiopia. This sector's performance is still far below its potential; hence the objective of this research is to examine the opportunities and challenges of UA practice in Werabe town, located in the siltie zone, central Ethiopia region. The study was conducted by using a cross-sectional research design and Qualitative and quantitative analysis method and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The challenges and opportunities of practicing urban gardening were categorized into five groups (technical, resource-related, economic, social and environmental factors) Purposive sampling techniques were used to obtain the necessary data from 92 sample size of two kebeles and three villages. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire, key informant interview, focus group discussion and field observation data collection tools were used as tools of primary data collection. The research finding shows that UA practice raises practitioners' incomes; availability of fresh food high in nutrients and a wider variety diets to households’ food security of urban farmers. There were also large markets potential for UA. The main challenge of UA production activities were water shortages, limited access to land, and lack of modern technological inputs,. The results of the analysis show that access of irrigation water, land size, modern technological inputs, and agricultural extension supports ware the most significant factors that determine UA practices. The study's conclusions emphasize opportunities to improve community food sovereignty, increase support for agricultural extension, and strengthening already-established production networks like institutional urban agriculture and home garden agricultures. Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the challenges and opportunities of urban gardens and socio-demographics. The result showed that there were moderate correlation between technical factor and educational level with (-0.463) also between resource related factors with income from other sources (-0.425) and as well as between experience and technical factor (−0.345) whereas there were weak correlation between number of HH size and environment factor and social factor ( 0.273 and 0.206) respectively. There is a need for further work, and other research should be conducted to know what actions can be taken to make for expanding urban agriculture.