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Compost: A Tool to Sustainable Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa?

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Composting for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Africa, with around one billion inhabitants is the world’s second largest and most-populous continent after Asia, the majority of this population live in cities and generate urge amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) which constitute a serious threat to the health of the residents and the environment. Urban and Peri-urban agriculture (UPA), an activity that was developed in African cities in response to the structural adjustments programmes in 1990s is becoming more and more intensive with the continuous raising population. Composting MSW represents an economically, environmentally and socially advantage that could inspire all stakeholders involved in urban planning, within an integrated municipal waste management system, since the MSW that is daily generated has a significant percentage of organic waste that could be easily recycle within the cities in order to close the carbon cycle.

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Bougnom, B., Boyomo, O., Nwaga, D., Essia Ngang, J., Etoa, F. (2014). Compost: A Tool to Sustainable Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa?. In: Maheshwari, D. (eds) Composting for Sustainable Agriculture. Sustainable Development and Biodiversity, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08004-8_13

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