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Part-time farming, to make it through the recession

by Kirstin Glendinning
Churchill Fellow 2011

Small-scale sustainable agriculture may offer a better route out of poverty as well as a path to
food sufficiency.
Dr David Nally, University of Cambridge

Acknowledgements
Firstly and most importantly, Id like to thank the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for allowing
me this wonderful opportunity.
Throughout my travels I met wonderful people doing incredible work. For their hospitality,
generosity and kindness, Id like to thank, in no particular order:
Uganda
Edward Namulonge Farmers Group
Noah Bamulabire
Samson Akankiza
Judith Nabatanzi
Margaret Azuba
Christine Katende
Eva
Harriet & Frank
and Ed Wright
Nairobi
Diana Lee-Smith & Davinder Lamba
Ndungi Ngugi
Kuria Gathuru
Francis Wachira
Esther Maina
Sylvia Oluoch
Mike
Nancy
Canada
Mary-Jane Clark
Sandra and Tamas Dambi
Julian Hall
Lauren Baker
Curtis Stone
Ian McCormick
Hannah Renglich
Paula Segal
Gavin Dandy
Paul & Laird
Dale
Cam
Sol, Heather & Sharon
Juliette & Chris
and Kindling for being interested in what I learnt, and taking up the challenge with me.

Introduction
Between 2004 and 2012 I worked on a mixed livestock and vegetable farm in Yorkshire. For
most of that period I worked part-time to subsidise my fledgling farming business, a small herd
of dairy goats and a creamery for cheese-making, as well as vegetable growing.
My work off-farm was for two food and farming organisations; the Soil Association1 and on the
Sustain food co-ops project2.
A large proportion of Britains farmers work off-farm to help make ends meet, and research has
been carried out to investigate this. I am interested in non-farmers who start producing food on
a part-time basis. I found little work had been done in this area, so a Winston Churchill
Travelling Fellowship provided me with an invaluable opportunity to travel to very differing
countries, to see what lessons we could apply here in the UK.
My interest comes from my own wish to combine farming with other work, aiming to make the
most of both worlds. It also comes form the current socio-economic climate in the UK.
We are seeing an increase in the number of people out of work, particularly in the younger age
groups. We have been experiencing something of a grow-your-own craze for a number of
years now, and although the market is still dominated by the large retailers, alternatives such
as farmers markets, whole-food co-ops and shops which source local food are becoming
increasingly popular.
Given that I was interested in part-time farming as a lifestyle choice I assumed others probably
would be too, and within the current context I began to consider the potential benefits of a
larger part-time farming profession:
Increased personal wealth
Increased national food security: we have a climate and rainfall rate very suitable for
food production. 72% of our land is suitable for agricultural use, yet working in the
agriculture sector one often hears how low the figures are for our national food selfsufficiency. It is claimed we import 15bn-worth of food each year which could feasibly
be grown within the UK.
A healthier population: I thought a move towards part-time farming would help with the
physical and emotional stresses of un- or under-employment, through the effect known
commonly as the green gym.
Food education: I thought it might also help with the gap in understanding one often
hears about, between consumers and the people and landscape which produce food.
We are often told that children dont know that apples grow on trees and leeks in the
ground. I have met a great many adults who are unable to confidently say how food
grows. In much of the rest of the world, particularly in less wealthy countries, the
majority of the population is still actively involved in food production, primarily out of
necessity. If Britain were to return to what we might consider a more traditional societal
structure, where a much larger proportion of the population works in some way with the
land and in food production, it could have positive health impacts for the wider
community through improved education around food.

1 www.soilassociation.org Community Supported Agriculture project, 2007 - 2012


2 http://www.sustainweb.org/foodcoops

Off-setting fears around the suggestion of the 3-day week: during my Fellowship the
New Economics Foundation published their report called 21 Hours3. They argue a
shorter working week could have many benefits to our population as a whole, and I
imagined a part-time farming role could fit in well with this vision.
However, there are clearly many barriers to making a part-time income from farming,
particularly in urban areas:

Access to land
Gaining the necessary skills
start-up capital
our food-buying culture

As a means to making extra cash, farming does not seem the obvious solution. I wanted to see
if there was anything that could be done to shift this, to inspire us to look to the land as a viable
option for an interim livelihood.
I set off to look at practical examples of people who were making an income from part-time
farming. I wanted to see what made their businesses succeed in terms of production
techniques as well as business structures and government policies regarding food production
and marketing.

Scenes from Swillington Organic Farm, Leeds

3 http://www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/21_Hours.pdf

Where & why


I travelled first to Uganda for three weeks in June 2011, followed by 5 days in Nairobi, Kenya,
and in 2012 I spent August in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada.
I had a strong sense that we have much to learn from countries in the Global South and that
the best research would come out of a comparison between two very different countries and
cultures.
Kampala, Uganda
I had read that 90% of Ugandan farmers farm part-time. Further research revealed that the
capital, Kampala, was the first city to have a Department of Agriculture in its municipal
government. As a result, it was also one of the first cities to draw up a set of Ordinances to
regulate its resident farmers.
Local and international non-governmental organisations have worked to promote agriculture in
Uganda for decade, and the sector is heavily dependant on external funding. Until 2012,
development of the local food sector in the UK was also well-funded, and I expected to learn
through a comparison between the two.
The organisations I visited in Uganda were:
Environmental Alert - http://www.envalert.org/
Non Governmental development Organization born out of the need to address the
alarmingly low levels of agricultural productivity in the country, high levels of food
insecurity and low incomes in both rural and urban poor communities, in addition to
protecting against rapid degradation of natural resources on which community livelihood
depends.
With more than fifteen years of grassroots level involvement with resource poor
communities, capacity building of Intermediary institutions and Civil Society
Organizations in Environment & Natural Resources management policies and practices,
Environmental Alert has maintained a multi-level policy engagement.
I am extremely grateful to Noah Bamulabire for his time and thought in introducing me to many
part-time farmers in Kampala city and surrounds.
Send a Cow http://www.sendacowuganda.org/
Send a Cow Uganda is a branch of the UK-based charity, and its stated mission is:
"To work with vulnerable people in Uganda to overcome poverty and malnutrition in a
sustainable manner through the development of animal production, organic farming and
self-sustaining groups"
which they do by operating a Three pronged development approach:
1. Livestock Management with a purpose of increasing household incomes and improving
nutrition
2. Sustainable Organic Agriculture for sustainability of food crops, environmental
protection, and food security
3. Social Development through gender main-streaming, advocacy and communication

Primarily through training, livestock breeding and a livestock replacement programme,


providing families with a pregnant female animal on condition they return the first female
offspring to the programme, which it then supplies to another household.
Eva from Send a Cow Uganda introduced me to an inspiring household farmer on the edge of
Kampala who had raised many children on the proceeds of part-time farming.
Kampala City Council (KCC) District Extension office, Urban Agriculture Project, member
of
Kampala Urban Food Security, Agriculture & Livestock Coordinating Committee,
KUFSALCC
The Kampala Urban Food Security, Agriculture and Livestock Committee was set up in
2004. Its members, from university, public and civil society
organizations including the Kampala City Council, are concerned to promote the
availability of healthy and safe food for Kampala, and are actively
involved in research, policy dialogue and public awareness.
Margaret Azuba, Urban Agriculture officer in the KCC has lead the councils work on urban
agriculture for a number of years.
NOGAMU http://www.nogamu.org.ug/
The National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda works to promote Ugandas organic
produce, particularly fruits and spice, nationally and internationally. They run training for
farmers, undertake certification as well as advocacy and campaigning work.
NOGAMU runs a shop in a southern suburb called Kabalagala, which sells the produce of local
organic farmers. Judith Nabatanzi was a huge help in putting me in touch with local farmers.
Nairobi, Kenya
Whilst in Uganda I contacted the author and lead researcher on urban agriculture in East
Africa, Diana Lee-Smith in Nairobi. She suggested a trip there would be well worth it, so I spent
the last 5 days of my stay with her organisation, Mazingira.
Mazingira http://www.mazinst.org
Meaning environment in Kiswahili, the Mazingira Institute was founded by Diana in 1978 to
promote environmental conservation, amongst other issues. I spent three days with Ngugi, a
farmer from Nairobi, who introduced me to his fellow farmers and interpreted the complicated
situation, particularly the land grabbing and pollution issues, in that city for me.
Canada
In the local food world, Canada and the United States are widely considered to be world
leaders. Both have a huge number of initiatives which contribute to a strong and dynamic local
food system.
I chose to visit Canada to attend the Urban Agriculture Summit at Ryerson University,
Toronto from 15 18th August 2012 http://urbanagsummit.org

At the summit I participated in workshops led by:


Gavin Dandy, Everdale Farm - everdale.org
A training farm for new farmers since 1998, offering an intensive intern programme covering all
aspects necessary to set up a farming business.
Hannah Renglich, Local Organic Food Co-ops Network - http://cultivatingfoodcoops.net/
Workshop on Harnessing the Power of Co-operatives
Amy Cheng, Red Pocket Farm - www.facebook.com/RedPocketFarm
A workshop focusing on exploiting a niche market to supply culturally appropriate foods into
Torontos markets.
Paula Segal - 596acres.org
Jennifer Sauter, University of Victoria mapping project
Curtis Stone, Green City Acres greencityacres.blogspot.co.uk
Curtis presented his SPIN farming operation in Kelowna, BC at the Urban Agriculture Summit
at Ryerson University, Toronto.
SPIN stands for Small Plot Intensive, and is a system for producing high value crops on small
acreages, often in urban or suburban settings. It has become a hugely popular approach in
North America.
SPIN Farming www.spinfarming.com
Victory Garden Vegetables - http://victorygardenvegetables.ca/
This 2-garden SPIN business is run by Paul Hoepfner-Homme and Laird as a supplementary
income-earner in Cobourg, a couple of hours to the east of Toronto.
Inner City Farms, Vancouver http://innercityfarms.com/
Run by a group of professionals in their 20s and 30s using residential gardens to produce
vegetables for sale through a box scheme to Vancouver residents.
City Harvest Co-operative cityharvestcoop.ca/our-story/who-we-are
A co-operative of three women who use the SPIN farming approach using back gardens to
produce fruit and vegetables for a box scheme and farmers market stalls in Victoria, Vancouver
Island, British Colombia.
Kind Organics www.kindorganics.ca
A biodynamic farm one hour north of Toronto, in a hugely fertile area of former marshland.
Sandra and Tamas Dombi produce primarily salads and seed sprouts and sell them at Toronto
farmers markets and through grocery shops.
FarmStart: McVean Farm www.farmstart.ca/programs/start-up-farms/our-farms/brampton
An incubator farm project, allowing new farmers to rent areas from - 3 acres to trial their farm
business ideas in a relatively low risk setting for up to 5 years.
Toronto Food Policy Council www.toronto.ca/health/tfpc
My final day in Toronto was spent meeting Lauren Baker from the TFPC:

The Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC) connects diverse people from the food,
farming and community sector to develop innovative policies and projects that support a
health-focused food system.
The TFPC was established in 1991 as a subcommittee of the Board of Health to advise
the City of Toronto on food policy issues.
Today, the Toronto Food Policy Council's views, experiences and publications are
followed internationally.

Access to land
Access to small plots of land suitable for part-time production is a major barrier, particularly in
urban areas, where contamination is likely to be an issue. At the edge of towns and cities,
inflated land rents, due in large part to the buying power of horse owners, pushes many wouldbe part-time farmers out of the market.
Britain is now one of the most densely population countries in the world. However, a huge 72%
of the land area is suitable for agriculture. It may seem we are surrounded by land which could
be used for agriculture, however it is concentrated in the hands of a small minority; Kevin Cahill
finds that 1% of the population own 70% of the land4.
Lack of access to land is most often cited as the main barrier to starting out in food production,
so I was keen to find initiatives to surmount this problem.
Mapping
In Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, a small city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island,
university researchers and students are mapping the spaces suitable for food production, in
response to the fact that the city is only 10% food secure5. A GIS mapping project has identified
plots of land suitable for growing food, based on a number of factors including:

soil quality
previous land use
water availability
accessibility and
distance from major roads.
local community support
proximity to densely populated areas and
co-location to other food-growing gardens.

Jennifer Sauter from the University of Victoria, who presented the research, described the
barriers to using pockets of urban land for food production:

urban agriculture (UA) activists were not considered an interest group


public perceptions of UA were not supportive
there was a lack of city policy and political will
the cost of land was prohibitive
there was a lack of education and training and
site management was a problem (70% of gardens failed in their first year).

These are issues we also face in the UK. Jennifers research hadnt put forward any solutions,
but her work makes the point that the first step in resolving an issue is to fully understand it.
In New York, 596 Acres is a new movement started by a lawyer and a computer coder to
galvanise civic interest into pressurising the city authority into handing over the use of vacant
lots (empty sites) to community groups for growing food.

4 http://www.whoownstheworld.com/
5 http://web.uvic.ca/ocbr/initiatives/mapping

They started by mapping the vacant lots throughout Brooklyn, where they found a total of 596
acres of empty building plots was sitting unused and off limits, often behind chain link fence
with signs warning trespassers of the threat of prosecution.
Their website provides a medium to meet others interested in taking on a plot and developing it
into a garden. It provides the public with legal advice, administrative support and technical
advice, such as template license agreements, advocacy resources, and advice of growing in
urban spaces. Over the past 2 years 596 Acres has helped community gardeners successfully
request the transfer of management of over 2 acres to local community groups
The most striking and important aspect of this project seemed to me to be the shift in the
publics attitude towards vacant lots, from one of resignation, to indignation that their elected
representatives should be withholding access to what is in effect a public asset, property of the
people of New York city. This is something we must look to emulate here in the UK, where,
through my work with groups running community gardens, there is a widespread sense of
disenfranchisement amongst communities in relation to the empty land around them.
Both the Victoria university project and 596 Acres work with community gardens. Here in the
UK community groups face barriers accessing land for growing, but it is much more difficult for
anyone wanting to grow commercially. I think this stems form the view that land in the city
should be used for public good, and a private commercial garden does not provide public good.
I feel this is a rather narrow-minded approach, as I have seen private, commercial gardens in
both Canada and Uganda which greatly benefit their neighbourhood, and are used to great
effect for training and leisure purposes, just as our community gardens are. Private commercial
gardens have the added benefit that they are contributing to the local economy, from which we
all benefit.
Absentee landlords
In Nairobi I met a group of farmers who had resolved their land access problems by squatting
farm land dotted throughout the city.
Nairobi was suffering under a city government which was illegally selling land to speculative
multi-nationals, who leave it fallow for years. In this process, the original land users are
displaced, and their livelihoods destroyed.
I met Mike, a 26-year-old new farmer who had set himself up on a plot roughly acre in a
valley beside one of the main roads into the city, along with roughly 60 others. He had
established a business selling salad bags to a small number of local supermarkets, which he
packed on site, and transported by bike a couple of miles down the road, 3 times a week.

What struck me about Mike was his sense of entrepreneurship, and his focus on the crops
which would provide him with the highest income. Supermarkets in the UK currently source
from the producers and suppliers who can guarantee them a continual supply, and rock-bottom
prices. I believe public pressure could eventually lead supermarkets to change their
procurement policies, which would enable us to follow in Mikes example.
But the main lesson I learnt from Mike, is one about challenging absentee landlords.
Most towns and cities are surrounded by land waiting to be developed, and in the current
slump they could be sitting fallow for a long time. Id like to see a system which encourages
landlords to make land which is suitable for agricultural production available to farmers,
whether on a part-time basis or otherwise.
SPIN framing
The Spin Farming movement emerged in Saskatchewan, Canada, and has swept throughout
North America. SPIN stands for Small Plot Intensive. The basic premise is that through
intensive use, SPIN farmers can make an impressive profit margin using small and dispersed
parcels of urban land wherever they may find it.
At the Urban Agriculture Summit in Toronto I heard Curtis Stone speak. Curtis set up Green
City Acres in Kelowna in BC as a SPIN farming operation, and he claims to make upwards of
CA$50,000 from a handful of plots of land throughout the town, which total about of an acre.
He doesnt rent the land, instead offering the owners of the gardens he uses a weekly box of
vegetables. The stronger incentive is that they wont need to mow their lawn. He has
persuaded his landlords that vegetable growing is an attractive use of their living space, which
is something we are starting to see in the UK. The difference with the SPIN system is that it is
for commercial production.
I visited two other SPIN farming operations. The first, in Coburg, an hour to the east of Toronto,
was run by Paul and Laird in their front garden. After their first successful year, a passer-by
stopped and offered them the use of his front lawn, to save him from mowing it. Although they
werent making the kind of money Curtis was making, they werent putting as many hours in,
and were combining it effectively with other careers.
In Vancouver I met Cam who worked as part of Inner City Farm, using 16 gardens in a number
of residential neighbourhoods to grow vegetables for a box scheme, distributed through a local
caf. Inner City Farm also offered their landlords vegetables rather than cash. All involved
worked part-time, and they took on a couple of apprentices each year, to support them into a
farming career.

Cam and an apprentice at Inner City Farms, which uses front gardens in Vancouver

Initially I assumed that this model wouldnt work in the UK, as our gardens are generally
smaller than suburban gardens in North America. However, a search of data provided by the
Office of National Statistics shows that over half of the land area in the majority of our cities
(other than London) is comprised of green space, ie parks and gardens. I suspect the more
difficult barrier to overcome would be that of culture as a densely populated nation, I think we
prize the privacy of our back gardens to the extent most of us would be unwilling to hand it over
to a part-time farming business.
That said, I was extremely interested to gain a better insight into the SPIN approach to land
use, as I think it is directly transferable to the UK, with a shift in attitude. Perhaps a handful of
successful examples of back garden SPIN farms would help shift us towards the attitude that
our gardens could help pay the mortgage, if used differently.
When I returned to the UK from Canada, I moved to Manchester and through the Land
Registry contacted the owner of a vacant lot on my street which has been vacant since a bomb
fell on the house that stood there in the Second World War.
After a couple of e-mails we met and I explained my ideas for using his land to grow cut flowers
for sale to local restaurants. It is his responsibility to keep the hedge under control and remove
white goods which are fly-tipped on the pavement in front, and I pointed out the cost benefit to
having a tenant using the land. The major stumbling blocks in our negotiation were his fear that
a tenancy agreement would give me tenure which could complicate his plans for developing
the site in 4 years time.
Additional complications, such as arranging public liability insurance, and the need to charge
me rent, for tax reasons, ostensibly, are surmountable, though, and I would encourage future
part-time farmers to be resourceful in contacting landowners and putting their case forward.
The issue of access to land for food production is one we must overcome to enable the
expansion of a part-time farming profession. I would like to see a creative and flexible
approach to land, using all spaces available, and approaching various land owners with various

lease and tenancy options to enable as many people as possible to start producing food on a
part-time basis.
What can we learn?
A good first step is to map the neighbourhood to identify suitable land
Use social media and technology to bring people with a shared interest in part-time
farming together
Aim for a change in rhetoric from one of Council land to OUR land
Challenge the model of absent landlords
Reconsider how we use our own space an average terrace back garden could be
making 6000 a year, if managed in the way Curtis Stone manages his land6
be flexible and creative about finding land to use for growing food commercially, on a
part-time basis.

6 Based on a garden of 0.015 acres, at CA$50,000 from acre...

Production styles and marketing


The overwhelming majority of Britains domestically-produced food comes from large-scale
farms, which are amongst some of the most efficient and productive in the world. It doesnt
make sense for small-scale, part-time farmers to compete with these producers. Instead, they
must focus on the high-value and highly perishable foods which will give them the premium to
make it worth-while.
They must strive to be even more efficient than their large-scale counter parts, and much
research has found this is indeed possible. Indeed, a World Bank study found that small,
owner-operated farms in Uganda can be far more productive than large farms, for various
reasons.7
It is clear that a lack of large acreage neednt be a barrier to making money as a part-time
farmer, but farming style may. Growing techniques and marketing strategies designed to make
the most of small, part-time enterprises are a key to success.
I saw three production systems which could be applied here in the UK in a part-time farming
operation.
SPIN farming
Intensive production is one of the basic principles of SPIN farming, which categorises
vegetables into one of three zones:

Zone 3 is the most intensive, with three cuttings a season from crops which have a
maturation period of 14 to 60 days. These include micro-greens, sprouts, salad greens, radish
and turnips. Each bed (of 2 x 24) is designed to earn $100 per harvest, ie $300 per year.

Zone 2 is made up of crops with a longer date to maturation, namely 65 to 85 days,


such as carrots, beans, beets, patty pans squashes and tomatoes (in BC we wouldnt quite
reach this here!).

Zone 1 is the crops which stay in the ground for longer than 85 days, and do not feature
much in the SPIN system.
Curtis described a plan for a ratio of 3:2:1 for the zones ie 70% high value crops, 30% lower
value.
Another important lesson I learnt form Curtis about the SPIN farming approach, was that of
standardising the farming operation. For example, by ensuring all the beds are the same size,
it is easier for the farmer plan their working time as they have a good idea how long each task
will take. In addition, keeping good records of how much time each task takes allows the
farmer to value each crop, and work out whether or not it is financially worth employing
someone to help out on the farm.
The SPIN system is based on selling through outlets which will return the highest possible
margin for the farmer, which means either selling direct to the end-consumer through farmers
markets and box schemes, or to restaurants. To be a successful SPIN farmer in the UK, I think
fresh market research would need to be carried out, as I suspect our farmers market and
restaurants needs may well be different from those in BC.
7 http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTDEBTDEPT/Resources/4689801316457581843/CaseStudy_Uganda_01.pdf

Sprouts
In order to learn more about a highly-intensive production system I volunteered at Kind
Organics for a week. This small farm is about an hour north of Toronto, and is run by Sandra
and Tamas Dombi, a couple in their 30s from non-farming backgrounds, with a farm manager
who is also a new farmer.

Kind Organics: High-value sprouts, edible flowers and salads

Kind Organics produce water and soil-sprouted seeds, salad bags, flowers and herbal
infusions from 6 acres of incredibly fertile soil, including four polytunnels.
Tamas told me they had looked around at what was already being produced in Toronto, and
then went on a research trip to California, the only place in the world more food aware than
Toronto. They brought back with them ideas for products which have since made Kind
Organics its name in the city.
Due to the freezing winters in Ontario, the growing work is focused between April and
September, but they also dry plants for teas so they ensured they have work, and therefore an
income, through the winter months.
Kind Organics is a high input, high output system their rent, water and electricity costs were
staggering, but their labour costs were offset by hosting volunteers through the WWOOF
network; there were always at least 5 volunteers, who were housed and budgeted for, at
CA$35 dollars a week per volunteer for food.
I think it was a good model for a high value, part-time operation, based on their labour strategy,
marketing outlets and high/low season balance, but primarily because of the small space
requirements. A part-time farmer could set up a hydro sprout production enterprise out of a
room as small as a domestic kitchen.
Mushrooms
In Kampala I saw some fascinating small-scale, high-value food producing enterprises.
On the southern outskirts of the city I visited Mary who has a half acre garden around her
house where she grows vegetables for her three-generational family, keeps a cow and calf,
chickens and grows mushrooms. Mary received a cow through the Send a Cow programme. In
addition to her first animal, Send a Cow also provided training on all aspects of food production
and micro-business management. She make her income through selling vegetables and milk to
neighbours and local shops.
But it was her mushrooms which intrigued me, as they are high-value and require relatively
little attention.

Inside a shed behind her house she had strung up bags of sawdust inoculated with mushroom
mycelium. After a number of weeks (in the damp, Equatorial climate!) the mycelium fruited
through slits in the plastic bags, producing mushrooms for daily harvest. Taking into account
our more stringent environmental health regulations for food businesses, I think this model
could be quite simply adopted here in the UK.

Bags of sawdust substrate for mushroom-growing

In Kampala I also learnt about a very targeted marketing campaign, selling locally-produced
organic vegetables to the foreign community living in the embassy district. The Ugandan
organic body, NOGAMU, had specifically chosen this approach, in order to earn as large a
premium as possible for their member farmers, and to sell the idea of supporting local farmers
as an added selling point of their produce, to the expatriate residents.
A similar approach of cornering a high-value market was presented at the Urban Agriculture
Summit by Amy Cheng of Red Pocket Farm in Toronto. As a Canadian of Chinese origin* she
had decided to focus on growing Asian crops for friends and family initially, then set up an
office farmers market stall and sold at farmers markets. She was using 1/16th of an acre to
produce bok choi, gailan, choi sum, Chinese pea shoots and Japanese edame beans, and
after one year was already covering her costs.
I think there is scope in the UK to produce and sell more culturally appropriate foods for our
ethnic minority communities. Although it is now possible to buy a huge range of exotic
vegetables, they are often of poor quality, having been imported from thousands of miles away.
The pak chois, in particular, are well suited to our climate.
During my fellowship I learnt that aspiring part-time farmers need to ask themselves three
questions:

How much time are they able to invest in the enterprise? - this will determine what can
be produced, and on what scale.

How much money do they wish to invest? - this will determine the level of mechanisation
to be used.


Which market will they target? farmers markets in the UK can be difficult to access, so
a local box scheme, or local corner shops might be the first option, or selling more informally
through friends and family might be a good place to start.
With limited time and financial resources available, it is important to chose a crop for which
there is a market, and to produce it well, to avoid wastage.
What can we learn?

Part-time farmers need to consider what they are willing to put into their enterprise, and
what they can realistically expect to get back.

Part-time farmers should consider the high-value, low space-intensive, highly perishable
crops, such as sprouts, mushrooms and salad crops.

Part-time farmers should look for profitable niches in the market and they should aim to
sell direct to the end-consumer, or high-paying customers like restaurants, to get a premium for
their product.

Co-operative working
In both Uganda and Canada I saw groups of farmers working together to further their aims.
The Namulonge Horticultural Farmers Group is a group of farmers based about 20 miles northeast of Kampala. Each member contributes 10,000 Shillings (2.50) a year as well as 10% of
their sales revenue to the group, which employs 10 people, including Edward, who showed me
round (photo).

The Namulonge Farmers Group shop

Adam, primary school teacher by day

The group supplies the Organic Shop (NOGAMUs outlet), hotels and supermarkets in the
embassy area. Any excess is sold in the citys main wholesale market, at Nakasero.
They meet each quarter to allocate seeds to each farmer, and the group has a shop front in
Namulonge town (photo), where additional services are offered, such as internet access,
support to open a bank account, solar energy, loans and technical advice on growing fruit and
vegetables.
They buy seeds and fertilisers in bulk, which are sold through the shop at cost price.
Edward introduced me to Adam, a primary school teacher who farmed about an acre in
dispersed plots around his village in the mornings, evenings and at weekends. He was growing
the usual cassava, beans, corn, tomatoes and aubergine, but his big money earner was a
small field of strawberries. During the dry season (when the swamp dries out) he could harvest
80kg a week, providing an income of 480,000 shillings (120 his teaching salary is around
75 a month). This is enough to employ someone full-time to weed the field for the growing
season.
Edwards father is a researcher at the local government-run National Crops Resources
Research Institute8 and is president of the Namulonge Farmers Group. In his spare time, he
runs a 15 acre farm which employs 3 of his 10 children, as well as three other people. They
specialise in the tender crops (salads and raspberries, for example) which are difficult to grow
in Ugandas tropical climate, but for which there is a good market in Kampalas embassy
district. They also grow seedlings for other members of the group (photo) and produce sterile
compost (photo).
Their farm is the largest in the group, and is used to host training sessions, and run trials which
benefit their members.
8 http://www.naro.go.ug/Institute/Namulonge/

Joining the group is not cheap, there are problems with payment delays, and a general
reluctance to grow crops which may go to waste, so allocating seeds can be problematic.
The benefits are clear, however. The marketing considerations are dealt with; the farmers
deliver their crops to the shop in the town, from where a driver transports them into town. All
the farmers need to do is produce food, and contribute to the quarterly meetings. This model
benefits the farmers greatly and seemed to be transferable to the UK.
In Victoria, British Columbia, I spent a week working with Sol and Heather at City Harvest Coop9. Together with their third member, Sharon, they bought their urban farming business in
2010, and set up as a co-operative in 2011. Sol works on the business full time, Heather and
Sharon part-time. Using SPIN farming methods in 16 back gardens dotted around Victoria,
they produce vegetables for a 25 box-a-week Community Supported Agriculture scheme, sell
to restaurants and cafes, and sell at a weekly farmers market in the city.
Each of the three members has varying but complimentary skill sets, and as mothers, working
together makes it easier for them to get their work-life balance right. Sol explained that
operating the business as a co-operative meant a lot of talking; negotiating hours to be worked,
working methods, budgets and so on is a time-consuming process, but the benefits they gain
from being part of a co-operative make it worth-while.
In the UK there is a lot of support for groups wanting to establish themselves as a co-operative.
It is not an easy step to make, and shouldnt be taken lightly, but can be a useful organisational
structure for groups of part-time farmers.
At the Urban Agriculture Summit in Toronto I attended a workshop run by Hannah Renglich
from the Local Organic Food Co-operative network 10, and learnt that co-ops have a much
better long-term survival rate than private businesses; 46% of co-operatives exist 10 years
after set-up, compared with 20% of non-co-opertive businesses.
I was impressed to find out how many food producer co-ops there are in the Greater Toronto
Area, and was particularly interested in the Near Urban Action Group which acts to promote
peri-urban farmers interests. Specifically, this spring they are launching a pilot running cooperative farmers markets which should make it easier for small farmers to access. This is
something we desperately need here in the UK, where farmers markets are often carefully
controlled, stifling competition, and excluding producers who cant guarantee to attend every
week of the year.
What can we learn?
There are a number of ways part-time farmers can work together

through bulk-buying inputs

shared marketing

as formalised co-operatives
Part-time farmers have a lot to gain from working together; indeed, this may be the only way to
thrive in a market dominated by multiple retailers.

9 http://cityharvestcoop.ca/
10 http://cultivatingfoodcoops.net/

City Harvest Co-op: a great example of Spin farming in action using back gardens, with
uniform bed sizes to make labour planning easier. Infrastructure for sorting and packing
vegetables is simple and affordable.

Training
In order to make the first steps into part-time farming, many people need training either in the
technical aspects of growing, or business skills, or the marketing knowledge necessary to
succeed.
Everdale Farm, one hour to the north-west of Toronto, was set up to provide this training11.
Since 1998 they have run a range of programmes designed to train new farmers in all the
areas they will need to run successful farm businesses. They start from one-week introductions
to full-season internships, and include both practical and theory elements. It takes an average
of three years from the beginning of an internship to setting a working farm, and since 2000,
Everdale has produced 75 new farmers.
Interns pay $4000 (2500) for a full season internship (8 months) or $2000 for 15 weeks.
During this time they work 3 days on the farms 10 acre vegetable production enterprise, which
provides 50% of the farms income. The programmes are subsidised up to 70% by the Ontario
government. This recognition, on a provincial level, of the importance of training new farmers is
unfortunately not echoed here in the UK, and is something we are in great need of.
FarmStart
FarmStart is an incubator farm programme situated on McVean Farm in Brampton, outside
Toronto set up as a government extension project12, in recognition of the fact that Canada lost
62% of its farmers under the age of 35 in the 15 years from 1990. The programme aims to
support new farmers into business to fill the generational gap which will become very obvious
in the next few years, as elderly farmers retire.
They aim to engage three groups of people in this programme:

young people from farm and non-farm backgrounds


new immigrants
second-career farmers

The programme rents 40 acres from the Department of Conservation, and sub-lets to new
farmers. In their first year, new farmers, or test croppers rent acre plots, to trial their
farming plan. If they are successful, they may expand their acreage each year, for a maximum
of 6 years. By this time, they are expected to be ready to move off-site an establish their own
farms.
New farmers apply to join the programme by submitting a business plan, including intended
markets and crops to be grown. They pay $600 for their first acre, and pay additionally for
tractor use and irrigation. FarmStart receives external funding from the Ontario government,
which helps to pay for a farm manager who is on-site 5 days a week to carry out tractor work,
lay irrigation, and offer day-to-day advice to the growers. The programme also employs a
project manager, who oversees two sites, and undertakes conflict resolution and mentoring
where required.
The funds also paid for the sites organic certification, which can be a prohibitive cost for
individuals working alone.
11 http://farmertraining.everdale.org/
12 http://www.farmstart.ca/

There is a weekly farm stand (market stall) at the farm for locals to buy the produce, and each
farmer is expected to make arrangements for selling the remainder of their output.

Axe sells his kallaloo (amaranth) to three greengrocers

Test-cropper Ned grows outdoor tomatoes for sale at a Toronto farmers market
One of the strengths of the programme is its balance between providing for new farmers, and
encouraging creativity and entrepreneurship. FarmStart was a hugely inspiring project, and on
my return to the UK to work for the Kindling Trust in Manchester, we have set up a replica
project, called (unimaginatively!) FarmStart Manchester 13.
There is a large gap in the UK in training for small-scale producers. There are plenty of
allotment-growing courses, and there are agricultural degree courses, but we have lost our
market gardeners, and with them the machinery and tools appropriate for small-scale
commercial production. Unlike other European countries, we no longer have small-scale
shared processing units, meaning it is now very difficult to enter the market at a reasonable
cost.
There is also a lack in the UK of good, relevant written materials for small-scale commercial
food producers. In Canada I was directed to the University of California, Santa Cruz website for
resources:
http://casfs.ucsc.edu/education/instructional-resources/downloadable-pdf-files
What can we learn?

We need better training provision for growing crops commercially on a small-scale.

There is a great opportunity in combining training and fully-functioning farming


enterprises

Apply the business incubator model to farming to foster a new generation of small-scale
farmers

- Government needs to recognise the value of funding apprenticeships beyond the


current age restriction of 25, to enable more people to train as new farmers

13 www.kindling.org.uk/node/1091

FarmStart at McVean Farm, Brampton, Toronto

Public policy
Public policy has an important role to play in enabling people to become part-time farmers,
particularly in and around urban areas. Many of our cities now have food strategies, but they
are not always clear how these news policies are to be implemented, and where the resources
are to come from. Food seems often to be regarded as something that just happens, and that
is predominantly governed by the market.
I would like to see public policy which places food production and procurement at its heart, in
recognition of the myriad of benefits a thriving local food system has.
I chose to go to Uganda, as I had read it was the only city in the world to have a Department of
Agriculture, which had drawn up a set of ordinances to support agricultural enterprises in the
city. I also read that 90% of Ugandas farmers were part-time, and thought wed have a lot to
learn.
For a city with 1.8 million inhabitants, Kampala is incredibly green.

Leafy Kampala city, from the Catholic cathedral

I learned from Margaret Azuba, urban agriculture officer in the Kampala City Council (KCC),
the historical reason for this, and how agriculture in the city has evolved through the decades
of the 20th century.
Kampala covers a number of hills, and the swampy wetlands between them, leading into Lake
Victoria. Traditionally, the wealthy lived on the tops of hills, and the poorest at the bottom of the
valleys. The poor still live in the valley bottoms, where they grow crops in order to feed
themselves.

Farming at the bottom of the valley, houses on the hills

The mid 20th century saw rapid urbanisation, and then in the 70s and 80s, unemployment and
poverty was widespread in the capital, thanks to idi Amins government policies. As a result,
many of Kampalas residents were forced into agriculture, merely to survive.
When Amin, who was from the north of Uganda, seized control of the Ugandan government in
1971, he had filled the administration with people from the north, who were largely livestock
farmers, and so brought with them to Kampala their animals, and set themselves up in large
compounds where they could continue farming. As a result of structural adjustments imposed
in 1981, thousands of these civil servants were made redundant, and returned to their
compounds, and their farming lives.
The 1964 Town and Country Planning Act had banned agriculture in Kampala, on the grounds
that it caused a nuisance, was a threat to public health, and enabled criminal activity.
However, agriculture in the city continued.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries decreed that every district throughout
the country must have a Department of Agriculture, and as Kampala city was classified as a
district, it also set up a department. Thus, by dint of a structural quirk, the city gained a
Department of Agriculture.
Today, it is said there are 40,000 cows in Kampala, and there is research to suggest that
children in families who have cows do better at school, thanks to the extra protein in their diets.
Cows taking themselves home, just outside Kampalas central business district

Goats relaxing in a drainage channel, living of scraps they find in rubbish piles

In 2000 the KCC drew up a set of ordinances to try and regulate agricultural activity in the city,
which, despite being technically illegal, was thriving. During the process, stakeholders including
university researchers, MAAIF representatives, traders and farmers were consulted.
According to Margaret the Department of Agriculture was essentially considered a joke, was
allocated very little resources and staff, and because no guidelines for the implementation of
the Ordinances had been drawn up, the objectives were largely unmet.
Diana Lee-Smith and Augustus Nuwagaba have written insightfully about the Ordinances,
specifically their shortcomings, and I recommend the two articles in my resources section at
the end of this report. As I sat in Margarets office I was struck by the punitive language of the
Ordinances (see Appendix 1). I realised in the UK we need public policy to support commercial
food production, on a part-time basis in urban areas, and they must be expressed in positive
terms to encourage people to take the first steps into part-time farming.
It seems to me our policy makers dont yet see the economic advantages (on a micro-level) of
part-time farming in urban areas. Council projects supporting community gardening often come
under the remit of the Community Cohesion team, or similar, and allotments (with their
restrictive statutes) are governed by the Parks Department. Food production in the city is
considered commercially unviable and undesirable, as priority is given to non-commercial,
communal use of allocated green spaces. My hope is that this changes and commercial food
production becomes a more central issue, in light of our on-going economic stagnation.
By contrast, I Canada, the Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC) was set up in 1991, bringing
together stakeholders from all sectors of the food system, to advise the on food policy issues.
Crucially, the council is a sub -committee of the Board of Health, alongside Environmental
Health, making communication between the two easier and more effective.

The TFPC works on various important policies, and advocates for changes in the laws and
policies on public food procurement, back-yard hen-keeping, street food and urban agriculture
action plans, to name just a few. My interest focused on the work they are doing to promote the
commercialisation of small-scale food production in Toronto.
I spoke to Lauren Baker, TFPC co-ordinator, who outlined their work around simplifying the
regulations to enable more people to make a part-time income from food processing.
These include:

training in food hygiene, to ensure it is more suitable for the job market

The Toronto Food Business Incubator (TFBI) (www.tfbi.ca) provide marketing


support and food processing facilities under two programmes pre-commercial, and
commercial, and

redesignating community kitchens as community commercial kitchens


Although these steps are aimed to enable food processors rather than farmers, this is an
important aspect, as many part-time farmers are likely to also process their products.
The TFPC is helping part-time farmers directly by publishing in the future a guidebook on legal
issues around farming in the city, such as:

food safety

volunteer management

land use

selling & labelling

sign-posting further advice and support


I think the key strength of the Toronto Food Policy Council lies in the breadth of stakeholders it
involves. Up to 30 people representing relevant council communities, businesses, NGOs and
policy areas., as well as three farmers, representatives of the large food selling businesses and
city councillors.
The Council operates transparently, holding alternate monthly meetings in public to allow
anyone a say in its discussions.
And finally, it is well-resourced and staffed, an indication of its standing in the city government.
What can we learn?

Commercial food production must be written into municipal authorities plans, and
resources allocated to implement their policies

food programmes should be integrated into departments which recognise the


employment and local economy benefits

regulatory guidelines should be written in simple, plain English, and be relevant to smallscale producers, to encourage up-take.

Conclusions
I have learnt a huge amount over the past 2 years, and it would be impossible to include it all
here. Below are some of the main points, as described in this report:
Access to land
University of Victoria mapping project: good baseline data collecting
596 Acres, New York: great example of using technology to bring people together, and
change attitudes towards access to public land
Nairobi: challenging absentee landlordism. Mike: great example of a profitable, low-input
part-time business.
SPIN farming intensive, adaptive, efficient, highly profitable.
Production styles & marketing
Numerous production systems which could be replicated here, focusing on high profit
margins, relative to amount of time and money invested
SPIN farming, mainly salad crops
sprouted beans, and seeds, and beans in Ontario
mushrooms in Kampala
good examples of niche marketing
Asian vegetables in Toronto
targeting the wealthiest residents in Kampala, in the embassy district through an
organic box scheme
part-time farmers should plan their enterprises according to what they can realistically
get from the time and financial investment they are able to make: low-input systems can
be relatively more profitable than high-input ones.
Co-operative working
Farmers in both Uganda and Canada working effectively together to strengthen their
businesses:

The Namulonge Horticultural Farmers Groups: joint marketing, bulk buying and
additional services such as internet access and bank access
City Harvest Co-op: flexible working hours thanks to their co-operative structure,
tailoring the work to make the most of each members skills
co-operative farmers markets: flexible access to farmers markets, the cheapest testing
ground for new businesses to sell their goods and trial new products

Training

Everdale Organic Farm and Environmental Learning Centre: well-established and


respected farm training institute offering a range of courses to suit all levels of
commitment, combining practical and theory in a balanced approach. Receives
generous provincial government support.
FarmStart at McVean Farm, Ontario: large farm business incubator taking people from
test croppers through to experienced farmers ready to set out on their own. FarmStarts
objective is to fill the gap created by Canadas aging farming population, which it is
doing more effectively than any other programme I have seen.

Public policy

Urban agriculture ordinances in Kampala intended to placate a public wary that


agriculture in the city leads to public health and crime problems
Part-time farming in Kampala show us how effective it is as a poverty alleviate tool if
regulation is relaxed, including policies around land use and market access
Torontos Food Policy Council is one of the worlds best examples of connected thinking
around the importance of food, how to draw up policy through cross-sector consultation,
including stakeholders from across the spectrum, and positive implementation and
resourcing.
Toronto shows us what can be achieved when urban, part-time farming is promoted as a
job creation strategy.

Recommendations
Access to land

Taxation system to encourage absentee landlords to allow access to their land to parttime farmers
Map neighbourhoods as a first step, to build up baseline data
Use social media and technology to bring people interested in becoming part-time
farmers together, to take on land in towns and cities
Aim for a change in rhetoric from one of Council land to OUR land
Reconsider how we use our own space an average terrace back garden could be
making 6000 a year, if used for Spin Farming
Review the statute governing allotment use to allow the selling of crops grown on
allotments, whilst keeping checks to ensure allotments are used as they were intended:
to help people make it through lean times

Production & marketing

Farmers markets to relax rules around access, to enable more seasonal and small
producers to sell through their markets
Part-time farmers need to consider what they are willing to put into their enterprise, and
what they can realistically expect to get back
Part-time farmers should consider the high-value, low space-intensive, highly perishable
crops, such as sprouts, mushrooms and salad crops
Part-time farmers should look for profitable niches in the market and they should aim to
sell direct to the end-consumer, or high-paying customers like restaurants, to get a
premium for their product.

Co-operative working
Part-time farmers should consider forming informal or formal groups to

bulk-buy inputs
share marketing
share labour
represent themselves politically

Training

The government needs to include farming apprenticeships, in particular for those over
25 years old, into their training schemes
Government funding for training courses on commercial vegetable production on a small
scale
Apply the business incubator model to farming to foster a new generation of small-scale
farmers

Public policy

Commercial food production must be written into municipal authorities plans, and
resources allocated to implement their policies

food programmes should be integrated into departments which recognise the


employment and local economy benefits
regulatory guidelines should be written in simple, plain English, and be relevant to smallscale producers, to encourage up-take.

Since the Fellowship


Since my Fellowship Britain has entered a double-dip recession, and the welfare cuts were
implemented at the beginning of April. It is clear we havent yet seen the full impact of the
economic crisis in Britain.
My fellowship seems more relevant than ever, as increasing numbers of people face
unemployment and financial hardship. There are opportunities for many of us to become parttime farmers, but there are also barriers.
On my return to the UK I left the farm I had been working on for the previous eight years, and
moved to Manchester to work for the Kindling Trust, a small social enterprise working towards
a sustainable food supply system in Greater Manchester14.
Kindlings work includes:
the Land Army: a database of volunteers who help out at local organic farms at busy
times of year, such as planting, summer weeding and harvest
Manchester Veg People co-op: a unique multi-stakeholder co-operative which brings
together organic farmers and buyers. The aim is to ensure a fair price for both producer
and buyer through basing prices on costs of production, crop planning with the buyers
and cutting out the middleman, which is usually where most of the profit on food is
made.
The Big Dig: a project funded by the Cabinet Offices Social Action Fund to network
volunteer-run community food-growing gardens, with a focus on training those involved
to start thinking about progressing to commercial production to supply community cafes
and food access projects.
The Commercial Vegetable growing Training Course: run twice each winter, these
courses for up to 12 people train those with some growing experience in scaling up to
commercial, small farm scale growing.
In addition to these projects, we have just launched Britains first incubator farm, along the
model of Torontos FarmStart. Called FarmStart Manchester, it is based on an organic farm
about 15 miles to the south-west of the city. We have rented 2 acres and are sub-letting acre
plots to eight people who want to test-run their commercial growing ideas.
FarmStart Manchester launched in mid-March, so it is obviously far too early to share any
lessons, but to keep up with the development of this project, please follow us at:
www.kindling.org.uk/farmstart
I will be taking on three of the acre plots with two colleagues from the Kindling Trust in order
to trial part-time farming, focusing on Asian vegetables and cut flowers for restaurants. I intend
to run the plots on a low-input, low-labour basis, and sell through Manchester Veg People.

14www.kindling.org.uk

Appendix 1

Recommended Reading
Africas Urban Harvest, Prain, G & Lee-Smith, D
Healthy City Harvests: generating evidence to guide policy on urban agriculture (2008), Cole,
D., Lee-Smith, D., & Nasinyama, G. (eds.), CIP/Urban Harvest and Makerere University Press.
Lima, Peru.
Case Study: Development of New City Ordinances on Urban Agriculture, Kampala - Timeline
and Analysis, Process and Partnership for Pro-Poor Policy Change: What influences pro-poor
policy changes?, ODI / ILRI / CIP-Urban Harvest, Lee-Smith, D (Consultant),
November 2005
http://www.pppppc.org/content/files/Documents/Kampala%20UA%20case%20study%20DLS
%20Timeline.pdf
New Economics Foundation (NEF)
http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/21-hours
Overview of urban agriculture: a Ugandan case study
Augustus Nuwagaba, Makerere Institute of Social Research, August 2003
http://www.ruaf.org/sites/default/files/econf4_submittedpapers_nuwagaba.pdf
Process and partnership for pro-poor policy change: learning lessons from the Kampala urban
agriculture policy process (2005?) Hooton, N., Lee-Smith, D., Nasinyama, G. and Romney, D.
(International Livestock Research Centre & Overseas Development Institute & Urban Harvest):
http://www.pppppc.org/content/files/documents/Kampala%20report%20final%20WEB.pdf
Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF)
http://www.ruaf.org/
The Kampala City Livestock and Companion Animal Ordinance: A Guideline, KUFSALCC and
Urban Harvest Kampala and Nairobi, (2005):
http://www.cipotato.org/urbanharvest/documents/pdf/kampala_guidline_livestock.pdf
Urban Agriculture Network
http://www.cityfarmer.org/TUAN.html

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