Assessing the Potential of Rooftop and Wall-Based Urban Agriculture for Food Security Enhancement in Gasabo District, City of Kigali, Rwanda

Florien Misago; Isaac Nzayisenga; Henri Jacques Ngirinshuti; Leon De Pere Irakoze; Richard Mind’Je

doi:10.37284/eajab.8.1.3259

Florien Misago University of Lay Adventists of Kigali
Isaac Nzayisenga Hohai University
Henri Jacques Ngirinshuti University of Lay Adventists of Kigali
Leon De Pere Irakoze University of Rwanda
Richard Mind’Je University of Lay Adventists of Kigali

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37284/eajab.8.1.3259

Keywords: Food Security, GIS, Household Survey, Rwanda, Spatial Analysis, Urban Agriculture

Share Article:

Abstract

This study evaluates the potential of rooftop and wall-based urban agriculture to enhance food security in the Gasabo District of Kigali, Rwanda. It combines GIS and remote sensing techniques to map suitable urban farming spaces and uses a stratified sampling technique to select 400 household heads for assessment using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). The findings show that 41.5% of the households experience moderate to severe food insecurity, and approximately 32% of rooftops and walls are structurally appropriate for urban agriculture. While 57.8% of households express willingness to adopt rooftop or wall gardening, 67.4% cite structural and financial constraints. A strong positive correlation (r = 0.68, p < 0.01) was observed between urban agriculture adoption and improved food security. The study recommends prioritising high-suitability sectors such as Kinyinya and Ndera for pilot projects and promoting lightweight hydroponic and vertical farming systems tailored to urban structures. These findings support the integration of urban agriculture into Kigali’s urban planning to enhance food resilience and sustainability

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Andreae, B. (2013). Farming, development, and space: A world agricultural geography. Walter de Gruyter.

Dangi, M. B., Urynowicz, M. A., Gerow, K. G., & Thapa, R. B. (2008). Use of stratified cluster sampling for efficient estimation of solid waste generation at the household level. Waste Management & Research, 26(6), 493–499.

De Zeeuw, H., Komisar, J., Sanyé-Mengual, E., Kahane, R., Gianquinto, G., Geoffriau, E., Sia, C. S., Rodríguez-Delfín, A., Tawk, S. T., & El Omari, H. (2017). A geography of rooftop agriculture in 20 projects. In Rooftop Urban Agriculture (pp. 309–382). Springer.

DEL PERO, C., & Manfren, M. (2014). Building services. In Sustainable Building Design For Tropical Climates (pp. 147–168). UN-Habitat-UNON, Publishing Services Section.

District Administrative Map, G. (2023). Republic Of Rwanda, City of Kigali, Gasabo District, Updated Environmental And Social Management Plan (Esmp) For Second Additional Financing For The Rwanda Quality Basic Education For Human Capital Development (Rqbe) Project In Gasabo District.

Fallahzadeh, H., Asgarian, F. S., Sheikhzade, S., & Dehghani, A. (2023). Validity and Reliability of Persian Version of Volition in Exercise Questionnaire among Students of Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Journal of Community Health Research, 12(1), 109–118.

Gakuba, A. (2024). Rwanda Environment Management Authority.

Heeringa, S. G., Wagner, J., Torres, M., Duan, N., Adams, T., & Berglund, P. (2004). Sample designs and sampling methods for the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Studies (CPES). International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 13(4), 221–240.

Khan, M. M., Akram, M. T., Janke, R., Qadri, R. W. K., Al-Sadi, A. M., & Farooque, A. A. (2020). Urban horticulture for food secure cities through and beyond COVID-19. Sustainability, 12(22), 9592.

Kimote, J. (2020). A study of the adoption and maintenance of green roofs as part of the Urban Green spaces for the City of Nairobi. (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Nairobi).

Labib, S. M., & Harris, A. (2018). The potential of Sentinel-2 and LandSat-8 data in green infrastructure extraction, using object based image analysis (OBIA) method. European Journal of Remote Sensing, 51(1), 231–240.

Lin, B. B., Philpott, S. M., Jha, S., & Liere, H. (2017). Urban Agriculture as a Productive Green Infrastructure for Environmental and Social Well-Being. Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements, September, 155–179. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4113-6_8

Montealegre, A. L., García-Pérez, S., Guillén-Lambea, S., Monzón-Chavarrías, M., & Sierra-Pérez, J. (2022). GIS-based assessment for the potential of implementation of food-energy-water systems on building rooftops at the urban level. Science of The Total Environment, 803, 149963.

Nagle, L. K., Nagle, L. K., & Echols, S. (2016). Vertical Food Production: Applications and Modeling. May.

Nzeyimana, E. (2021). Socio-economic and demographic determinants of food security in low income households in the city of Kigali, Rwanda.

Oikonomaki, E., Papadaki, I., & Kakderi, C. (2024). Promoting Green Transformations through Smart Engagement: An Assessment of 100 Citizen-Led Urban Greening Projects. Land, 13(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/land13040556

Palanisamy, K., & Parthasarathy, K. (2016). Urbanization, Food Insecurity and Agriculture-Challenges for Social Sustainable Development Urbanizacja oraz zagrożenia bezpieczeństwa żywieniowego-wyzwania dla społecznej płaszczyzny rozwoju zrównoważonego. 12(1), 157–162.

Psihoda, S., Lamei, N., & Lyberg, L. (2022). Preventing and mitigating the effects on data quality generated by the mode of data collection, coding, and editing. Improving the Measurement of Poverty and Social Exclusion in Europe: Reducing Non-Sampling Errors, 337.

Romero-Lankao, P., Gnatz, D. M., Wilhelmi, O., & Hayden, M. (2016). Urban sustainability and resilience: From theory to practice. Sustainability, 8(12), 1224.

Steinicke, H. (2005). Straw as a Building Material: The Structural Application of Straw in Building Construction. California Polytechnic State University.

Taguchi, M., & Santini, G. (2019). Urban agriculture in the Global North & South: A perspective from FAO. Field Actions Science Reports. The Journal of Field Actions, Special Issue 20, 12–17.

Vogt, W. P., Gardner, D. C., Haeffele, L. M., & Vogt, E. R. (2014). Selecting the right analyses for your data: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Guilford Publications.

Wang, R. (2013). 3D building modeling using images and LiDAR: A review. International Journal of Image and Data Fusion, 4(4), 273–292.

Yeenee, L. N., Mind’je, R., Walker, R., & Habarurema, S. G. (2024). Assessing Local Communities’ Perception of Domestic Waste Management in Gasabo District, Rwanda. Journal of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, 8(1), 20–36.

Zhao, Q., Li, T., Chen, G., Zeng, Z., & He, J. (2020). Prognosis and risk factors of radiation-induced lymphopenia in early-stage lung cancer treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy. Frontiers in Oncology, 9, 1488.