Kobe Urban Farming (Machi no Noen Navi)
Kobe, Japan · Operator: 神戸市経済観光局（農政部）
Overview
Kobe's urban-farming push covers gardens in downtown parks, vacant lots and rooftops where residents grow and harvest their own food. Beyond raising interest in agriculture, it builds community and tackles city issues such as putting vacant land and houses to use, with the city's Machi no Noen Navi guiding people to the spots.
Citizen participation
Residents take part in gardens set up in downtown parks, vacant lots and rooftops, enjoying growing and harvesting their own food. Activities also build community—farmers teaching chefs, and resident foreigners mixing with locals—and the city's Machi no Noen Navi maps the spots.
Operating model
A city-led urban-agriculture framework aimed at putting vacant land to use, cutting distribution costs and training new farmers, with each garden run by its own operator.
Impact
It turns idle urban spaces into places for farming, helping form community and address the city's vacant-land and vacant-house problems.
Crops
- vegetables
- herbs
- seasonal crops
Scale
市内のまちなかの公園・空地・建物の屋上などに点在するアーバンファーミングスポットを束ねる情報・推進の取り組み
Sources（2）
This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.
Related cases
YEBISU GARDEN FARM (Yebisu Garden Place)
JPTokyo, Japan
A participatory farm inside Yebisu Garden Place run jointly by the Urban Farmers Club NPO and Sapporo Real Estate — a corporate-partnership case turning a developer's complex into a citizen growing space.
workmill.jp+1
JR Chuo Line Viaduct 'Nonomichi' Community Garden
JPTokyo, Japan
Community gardens created under the JR Chuo Line viaduct by the NPO birth and JR East with citizen participation (since 2014) — a pattern for using railway viaduct gap space for citizen greening.
npo-birth.org
Skip Garden by Global Generation
GBLondon, United Kingdom
A movable organic garden built inside builders' skips in the middle of the King's Cross redevelopment in London. Made largely (~90%) from reclaimed materials, with beehives and bug hotels, it turned a gap space into a site for youth education and community.
globalgeneration.org.uk+1
Antonis Tritsis Park Community Farm
GRAthens, Greece
Large-scale community farm project in Antonis Tritsis Park, Athens. 50,000 square meters of park land transformed into community food production area. Integrates urban greening with food production. Operates with citizen participation and educational programs. A significant-scale example of urban agriculture in Greece.
astydama.com+1