This study examines spatial land use planning and urban agriculture practises in Dar Es Salaam,
Tanzania, one of the rapidly urbanising cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. It demonstrates how urban
agriculture livelihood can be integrated in spatial land use planning and improve urban land
governance by taking Goba, Chango’mbe ‘A’ and Ubungo Darajani as case study settlements.
Location and periurban typology are theoretical premises used in this study. These help in
understanding the policy and practical premises that constrain urban agriculture livelihood
integration in urban land use planning processes and land management principles. Methodological
aspects deployed are documentary search, interviews, mapping, observations, and historical trends
analysis. In addition, context, evidence based and institutional links are analytical frameworks used.
The study shows that the urbanisation processes, urban poverty, food insecurity and inadequate
community involvement in land use planning are the factors underpinning and catalysing changes
in land use, land transactions, immigration and overall urban agriculture proliferation in the city.
The implications generated by these factors suggest that poor urban land governance is not only
the cause, but it is caused by the weakness of planning institutions to realise and adapt to the new
challenges that urban agriculture presents to urban land development process. Correspondingly,
the rise of urban agricultural land use by and large, indicates a disparity between the widely
cherished planning norms and standards underpinning formal land use planning processes and
structures in urban development. These include land use zoning, location, land use change
conditions, density distribution, accessibility to resources, land tenure modalities, and equitable
provision of basic services in ensuring sustainable use of urban land. Equally, the study indicates
the existence of supportive city land development policies and country legislature for urban
agriculture, which are in practise faced with health, sanitation and economic return constraints.
These constraints increase urban agriculture’s negative perceptions to consumers and decrease
acceptance in spatial land use planning processes and output implementation. However, urban
agriculture has been observed to make productive use of undeveloped land, green the city, provide
income and nutrition, and is often a safety-net function for the poorest sectors of society. As such,
it is an important vehicle for poverty alleviation, capital mobilisation, and sustainable use of land.