Ordering urban agriculture: farmers, experts, the state and the collective management of resources in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Abstract

This article explores the way land tenure, water flows, and water quality are legally, politically and socially framed in a site in Ouagadougou. It shows that urban agriculture is an important source of revenue for various individuals and groups, and a socio-political arena for state representatives, experts and farmers. The main stakes in these power relationships are the regulation, control and use of natural resources (especially water and land), but also residents’ nutrition and health interests. Public authorities produce and monitor the enforcement of legal standards of water use and hygiene, while farmers struggle individually and collectively to ensure efficient use of land and multiple water sources, sometimes challenging official norms. These competing interests lead sometimes to conflicts – over the use of the resources or the legitimacy of rules that regulate urban farming processes – that are negotiated through institutional or informal bargaining. Urban farming is thus a marker of socio-political and economic dynamics in Ouagadougou.