Over fifty percent of humans live in cities. The environmental cost of this is massive, as is the potential for utilizing privately held yards as an integral part of conservation in urban areas. The Backyard Habitat Certification Program (BHCP) in Portland, Oregon, was established to reduce invasive plants, support wildlife, and promote conservation. The program involves > 3000 yards certified at three tiers. While onsite inspections are required to verify compliance, there has never been an assessment of the value of these yards to wildlife. Chapter 1 examined the relationships between the urban landscape and bird distributions outside of yards. Chapter 2 evaluated the ability of the program to separate yards by assessing differences in vegetation structure and composition. Chapter 3 tested if avian abundance, richness and diversity in yards are a product of responses to yard or landscape vegetation structure. Avian data was collected at 146 yards and 73 random locations in 2013 and 2014. Public landscape data was used to collect yard data in the field. Avian abundance, richness, and diversity were affected negatively by urbanization (especially impervious surface) and population density, but positively by tree cover. The BHCP was effective at distinguishing platinum yards from others, but overlap was relatively high among gold, silver and uncertified yards. Avian abundance, richness and diversity within yards was less affected by yard vegetation than the structure of habitat in the surrounding landscape. Species responded individualistically to yard vegetation and the urban landscape, and response was a continuum of tolerance to urbanization. Ultimately, the ability of yards to support wildlife will depend on wide scale neighborhood participation.

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As cities grew throughout the past century, the availability of locally grown food declined, mostly because urban expansion occurred at the expense of adjacent agricultural land. As a result, city dwellers turned to commercial food market systems that import food from distant production areas. Private greenspace, which is one of the largest land cover types in cities, offers the potential for substantial agricultural production. Because urban food production on private land, such as backyards, requires the willing participation of landowners, resident's feelings about and experience with food growing are important to understand. The demographic groups that were most likely to food garden were those in long-term relationships, higher income brackets, those with college education and residents over 50 years old. Incentives and programs focused on producing more from existing gardens may be most appropriate for people in these demographic groups, while other groups will most require basic food growing information. Study participants highly valued intangible benefits of food gardening (e.g., relaxation, feelings of happiness and satisfaction), often more than the provision of food. Most barriers and problems with backyard food growing, such as a lack of space and the need for gardening information, were similar for those who food garden and those who do not. Results from this study indicate that traditional agricultural incentives and perspectives must be rethought if they are to be applied in urban settings. By creating incentives and initiatives that reflect the needs and challenges faced by urban growers, urban agriculture will become an integrated part of the community, improving food quantity and quality while enriching residents' lives. / by John G. Zahina-Ramos. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Urban agriculture is gaining more attention because of the current global trends such as urbanization and global economic and food crisis. The numbers of people who practice urban agriculture are estimated to 800 million. Based on this scale and other claims made about urban agriculture, it is argued that urban agriculture must be integrated to urban policy and planning. The premise of this dissertation was to understand motivations and determinants of urban agriculture, and how these can inform policy. The intention of the dissertation was to understand which urban residents in KwaMsane Township of uMkhanyakude district at KwaZulu-Natal province cultivated gardens and why. This was critical considering that generally urban areas are better than rural areas in terms of employment opportunities, infrastructure, and provision of basic services. In pursuit of this objective, the dissertation assessed KwaMsane Township households cultivating gardens in terms of assets, resources, and livelihood strategies with an aim of identifying motivations and determinant factors. The central idea of the dissertation from the onset was to validate the claim that since there is diversity in terms of household composition among those cultivating gardens there are different reasons for engaging with the activity. Using qualitative with borrowed participatory action tools, and quantitative (STATA 11) methods guided by the sustainable livelihood approach, the findings showed that only 9.7% of KwaMsane Township residents cultivated gardens. Of the households 92% were cultivating gardens and consuming their produce because of food demand due to large household size and children, their awareness about nutritional content of fresh vegetables from the soil, their agricultural background of cultivating gardens for subsistence purposes, high food prices from the market, and their lack of necessary skills to create and sell in the local market. The binary logistic regression showed that the determinants for households to cultivate gardens at KwaMsane Township were the presence of children, agricultural assets, governmental grants, and pensioners in a household. The two common factors between the above mentioned determinants were income and time availability which incentivized the practice. The dissertation also showed that the majority of gardeners from KwaMsane Township were in their productive ages (in this case between 29 and 61 years of age), females were more predominant in the activity with few males, and most of the gardeners were educated, and employed. However, gender, education, and employment had little relationship with cultivation of gardens. On average gardeners were older than non-gardeners. It was also shown that gardeners consisted of different income groups but mostly middle income group. The dissertation indicated that the use of urban agriculture by KwaMsane Township gardeners was informed by their motivations which contributed to food security, food sovereignty, and poverty alleviation. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Food security exists when the issue of poverty is addressed. Simultaneous access to different forms of capital ensures sustainable livelihoods. On the other hand, food insecurity is interwoven in unemployment and illiteracy, especially amongst adult women. Food insecurity is also deeply rooted in the lack of access to food and non-availability. This compromises the livelihoods within communities The study is concerned with the current state of poverty that remains stagnant, bringing about food insecurity, despite the food security campaigns that have been launched in South Africa. The aim of the study is to establish whether the ‘One Home One Garden’ campaign is unique compared to other campaigns in trying to fight food insecurity. It further inquires about access to the resources necessary to make gardens a sustainable source of livelihood. In order to fulfil these inquiries, qualitative research was undertaken at Nkandla in a section called eQhudeni within two subsections, Nsingabantu and Mjonisini. This research was based on the examination of the impact of the ‘One Home One Garden’ campaign as a poverty alleviation strategy. The study found that poverty, which contributes to food insecurity, has not been addressed by the campaign. Households suffer from chronic food insecurity given the high levels of poverty in the area. ‘The One Home One Garden’ campaign is not sustainable because it does not address the holistic needs of gardening, such as access to organic seeds and water and furthermore it is in any case seasonal. Research obtained showed that people’s perceptions are that the seeds are genetically modified based on the appearance of the produce, and also that they do not reproduce. The study viewed home gardens as a tool capable of addressing food insecurities, but, highlighted that it does not fully address all aspects, rather it upholds that poverty needs to be tackled holistically. In addition, it emphasises that for people to have a sustainable livelihood there should be designated market places from which they can sell their produce. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Backyard gardens has been identified as one of the possible solutions to some of the issues surrounding poverty alleviation in the Bojanala Platinum District Municipality. The main objective of the study was to determine the economic contribution of backyard gardens in alleviation of poverty in rural communities of Bojanala Platinum District Municipality in the North West Province, South Africa. The study used purposive sampling for data collection from the study respondents which enabled the researcher to select a sample with experience and knowledge about the study variables. The questionnaire used as data collection instrument was pretested, validated and subjected to reliability test to improve the efficiency of the use of the questionnaire. The collected data was sorted, coded and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 23.0 software. Frequency count and percentage were used to summarize the data into tables and graphs. The linear multiple regression model specification was employed to examine the demographic and socio-economic factors (predictors) that influence the generation of income from backyard gardens. Multinomial logistics regression model was also used to determine factors influencing the respondents’ objectives for the Backyard gardens, while the logit regression model was used to analyse determinants of the proportion of backyard land used for backyard farming by respondents/growers. The findings of the study are that: more females (68.2%) were involved in the study than males (31.8%); youth involved in the study were 27.7%; the majority (60.4%) of respondents are in the age group of 41-70 years of age; majority (69.5%) of respondents had matric education, 20.9% had tertiary education, and 3.6% had below matric education whilst 5.9% had no formal education; most of respondents are unemployed (86.6%); 32.2% of respondents are dependent on pension as their source of income, 12.3% depend on grant, 15% depend on monthly salaries, 0.5% depend on investments, 2.3% depend on remittance, and 18.6% depend on piece jobs, whilst 19.1% reported other source of income; majority (99%) of respondents reported that backyard garden contribute a significant proportion to both household income and food security, whilst 1.0% did not agree; 40% of the respondents could not manage to farm the whole garden area, while 60% were able to farm the entire garden area; the majority (70.9%) of respondents provide own solutions to their backyard garden challenges; majority (53.7%) of respondents reported that extension officers never visited their gardens, whilst 46.3% had extension visits on weekly, monthly and quarterly bases; 23.2% of the respondents created permanent employment while 34.1% of them created seasonal employment. The results of the OLS regression analysis showed that gender of respondents, with formal employment, ownership of a farm besides the Backyard garden (BYG) by respondent, farmers’ years of experience in farming and annual income from the sale of livestock by respondent had positive and statistically significant influence on the annual income from Backyard garden with all other factors held constant. The results of the multinomial regression analyses show that a unit change in number of years involved in backyard gardening (YRSBG) does not significantly change the odds of being classified in the 4th category of the outcome variable (Produce to help the needy, the poor, to feed the orphans, and for home based-cares around their communities = 4) relative to the first or second or third categories of the outcome variable, while controlling for the influence of the others. On the other hand a unit change in being employed (EMPLO) and involved in non-farm activities (NFA) do significantly change the odds of being classified in the 4th category of the outcome variable relative to the second or third categories of the outcome variable, while controlling the influence of the others. The Logit coefficient estimate associated with Age, Income per month from BYG, Engage in non-farm activities, Years of experience in gardening, Proportion of produce consumed, having a business plan, Own a farm besides BYG and to lease your backyard have statistically significant impact on respondents area of cultivation for BYG with other factors held constant. Policies to improve BYG in the district should be informed by the aforementioned variables from the results of the inferential analyses. / Agriculture / M. Sc. (Agriculture)