J Food Nutr Agric 2018: 1(1) https://www.phoenixpub.org/journals/index.php/jfna 12 Journal of Food, Nutrition and Agriculture, 2018: 1(1) 1216 Doi.: 10.21839/jfna.2018.v1i1.123 © 2018 Phoenix Research Publishers Case Study Opportunies of Urban Horticulture for Poverty Alleviation in Dar es Salaam city, Tanzania  A Case study of Ubungo Municipality Obadia Kyetuza Bishoge ٭ 1 , Shaldon Leparan Suntu 2 1 School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China. 2 School of Computer and Communication Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China (Received: 06-12-2017; Accepted 27-02-2018; Published Online 05-03-2018) ٭Corresponding author. E-mail: obishoge@yahoo.co.uk Abstract The study was conducted to explore the opportunities of the urban agriculture focusing on vegetables and ornamental flowers production towards poverty reduction and alleviation in Dar es Salaam city as a case study of Ubungo Municipality. A non- random (availability) and purposive sampling methods were used to select 240 smallholder farmers and 16 local government officers as crucial informants respectively. The data were collected by using observation, questionnaires, interviews and documentary reviews. The collected data were coded and analyzed by using the SPSS. The study revealed that production of urban vegetables and ornamental flowers has a significant positive contribution towards the increase in availability and accessibility of food security, nutrients and income generation for the improvement of essential social services such as water, electricity, health, and education. It is recommended that the government and other stakeholders should recognize and provide more support to this sector for sustainable development. Keywords: Agriculture, smallholder farmers, vegetables, ornamental flowers, production Introduction Poverty is one among the significant developmental problems facing the world(Lucci, Bhatkal and Khan, 2017). According to the WHO Millennium Development Goals Report 2015(WHO, 2015), about 800 million people still live in extreme poverty and suffer from hunger. It is estimated that over 836 million people live on less than $1.0 per day and more than 1 billion people cannot meet the basic needs. The overwhelming majority of the people living on less than $1.25 a day reside in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia regions- and they account for about 80% (WHO, 2015). Half of the extremely poor live in Sub- Saharan Africa where about 389 million people survive on less than $1 per day(The World Bank, 2016) and 239 million people suffer from hunger (Fanzo, 2012). In Tanzania, the situation is terrible, as about 47% of the Tanzanians live on less than $1.90 per day with approximately 12 million people living in the extreme poverty on earning of less than $0.60 per day(Dokken and Angelsen, 2015). According to the Household Budget Survey of 2014(URT, 2014), the incidence of the basic needs poverty was 28.2%, and the food poverty was 9.7% in 2012, lower than targeted 12.5% by 2015. Indicators of income poverty show disproportions between rural and urban areas, as well as across and with regions and districts. The urban Basic Need Poverty and food poverty constitute about 25.9% and 9.7% to 33.3% and 11.3% in rural areas (URT, 2014). Currently, urban inhabitants in Tanzania are pursuing a wide range of economic activities to address the poverty problem. Taking into contemplation that, life in the urban areas has become more expensive while the employment opportunities in the formal sectors have gone down and the received wages do not keep up with the commodities’ price increases. Based on this fact, some urban occupants have opted for urban agriculture(Smart, Nel and Binns, 2015). Dar es Salaam like other cities in Africa has been facing some problems associated with poverty. Food insecurity, inadequate housing, inadequate access to clean and safe water, and unemployment are some problems facing the inhabitants (Schmidt, 2011). Urban agriculture involves the growing of vegetables, fruits and ornamental flowers and trees in the town or cities (Dieleman, 2017). Urban agriculture like other sectors plays a social, economic and environmental role in many cities globally(Robineau and Dugué, 2017). According to Golden (2013) and Rezai et al. (2016) urban agriculture expands significantly as an adaptive response by urban dwellers to improve their livelihoods through;1. health benefits such as food access and security, increased fruit and vegetable consumption, food and health literacy and general well- being.2. Social benefits such as the creation of safe places, education and youth development opportunities and access to land. 3. Economic benefits such as job creation, training and market expansion for farmers, economic savings on food and increased home values. In general urban agriculture is considered as part of alternative food networks (Kontothanasis, 2017)and it contributes plentiful to the sustainability of the food needs of the cities thus to urban sustainability. Furthermore, it provides the solution of the environmental sustainability through greening the cities (Birkved et al., 2016). Since rapid urbanization pushes low-income families to the margins due to inadequate housing, hunger and a shortage of clean water,