Research & reports

P. Antwi Agyei, Jeroen H. J. Ensink · Journal of Science and Technology (Ghana) · Ghana (Accra)

A study in Accra, Ghana, from September 2012 to August 2013, analyzed 323 soil and irrigation water samples and 501 produce samples for E. coli, and interviewed 693 participants. It found irrigation water was significantly more contaminated than farm soil, and over 80% of produce samples were contaminated with E. coli, with street food salad being the most contaminated. Key risk factors included farm soil, wastewater use, and poor hygiene, while consumers did not prioritize health indicators despite high risk awareness.

雷靖, 陈斯钰, 刘煜 · 农村经济与科技 · China (Zhoushan)

This study examines Zhoushan City's "Vegetable Basket" project, which established production bases in urban and rural areas to ensure vegetable supply and stabilize prices. Despite significant achievements, the project is noted to have problems such as incomplete vegetable supply varieties, imperfect infrastructure, low industrialization, and a lack of quality assurance. The study suggests addressing these issues by diversifying product supply, strengthening infrastructure, improving industrialization, and enhancing quality and safety supervision.

肇 石原, Hajime Ishihara · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan (Osaka)

This study analyzed changes in green space components (parks, agricultural land, forests) across Osaka Prefecture, Japan, from 1970 to 2010. While forest area decreased slightly and park area increased, the increase in park area was insufficient to offset the significant reduction in agricultural land. Consequently, the overall green space ratio in Osaka Prefecture showed a declining trend, particularly noticeable in Osaka City and its surrounding areas.

Cécile Faliès · Problèmes d Amérique latine · Chile (Santiago)

This article provides an overview of agriculture around Santiago, Chile, based on fieldwork conducted since 2005. Despite the presence of agriculture linked to Santiago and Valparaiso, and the emergence of some forms like organic farming, it is difficult to classify this as urban agriculture due to the peripheral location and limited number of plots. The study indicates that urban agriculture, as commonly defined, has a limited presence in the Santiago metropolitan area.

Diogo José Amorim de Almeida, Dilamar Dallemole, Arturo Alejandro Zavala Zavala · Revista Ibero-Americana de Ciências Ambientais · Brazil (Varzea Grande)

This study analyzed the urban and peri-urban horticultural production structure in Varzea Grande, Mato Grosso, Brazil, using an exploratory empirical and bibliographic approach followed by Cluster Analysis of primary data from local producers. Despite contributing to food production and maintaining disease-vector-free land, the research found that this activity is in decline. Its low profitability and challenging commercialization process make it unattractive or merely a supplementary income, as small productive forces struggle to sustain themselves against the current market structure and unfavorable social policies.

Rusida Rusida · Plano Madani : Jurnal Perencanaan Wilayah dan Kota · Indonesia (Belopa)

A study in the urban area of Belopa, Indonesia, assessed the potential for urban agriculture, identifying suitable land for various crop types and key commodities. However, the research found that extensive housing development, particularly on the outskirts, and limited land availability mean not all land can be developed for urban agriculture. Urban agriculture supports food security, and public and government perceptions influence future land plans.

Joshua Oluwole Olowoyo, Gladness Nteboheng Lion · South African Journal of Science · South Africa

This review reports on the concentrations of trace metals in crops, including leafy vegetables, harvested from various urban areas. It highlights the presence of trace metals in leafy vegetables and discusses various pathways of uptake, possible health risks associated with urban farming, and morphological and physiological impacts of trace metals in leafy vegetables.

肇 石原, Hajime ISHIHARA · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This study analyzed changes in green space components (parks, agricultural land, forests) across Aichi Prefecture, Japan, from 1970 to 2010. While forest area decreased less significantly than agricultural land, and park area increased, the increase in park area was insufficient to offset the reduction in agricultural land. Consequently, the overall green space ratio showed a declining trend in most areas, particularly in Nagoya City and its surrounding regions.

Elke Rogge, Eva Kerselaers, Charlotte Prové · · Europe

This study explores opportunities and challenges for peri-urban agriculture, examining envisioning processes in Ghent and Kortrijk, Belgium, initiated by local authorities. Results indicate that pressure on farmland is a key issue in both contexts. Multifunctionality is complex in practice and governance, and successful envisioning processes require clear objectives, defined study areas, policy support, strong leadership, and reliable data.

G. A. Abu, A. Soom, Abu, Godwin Anjeinu, Soom, Aondonenge · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Nigeria

This study examined factors affecting food security in 180 rural and urban farming households in Benue State, Nigeria, using structured questionnaires. It found that 53.3% of rural and 62.2% of urban households were food secure based on calorie intake. Key constraints to food security included lack of access to credit, inadequate land, poverty, soil infertility, and storage/processing problems.

Jin-Hee Ju, Won-Tae Kim, Hui Xu, Young-Han Yoon, Eun‐Young Choi · Journal of Environmental Science International · Global

This study investigated the influence of hydrophilic polymer (HP) mixture ratio on the growth of eggplant (Solanum melongena) for lower maintenance urban agriculture via green roofs. As the hydrophilic polymer mixture ratio increased, the growth index, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf width, and dry weight of shoot and root decreased. Specifically, these values were significantly lower in HP5.0% and HP10.0% treatments compared to the control, and the survival rate was lowest at 56% in the HP10.0% treatment.

Diana Mincytė, Karin Dobernig · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space · North America

This article examines manual work in urban farming within alternative food networks in the Northeastern United States, based on ethnographic fieldwork and 40 interviews. The analysis reveals that while manual work counters alienation, it also reproduces consumer society institutions and reinforces neoliberal values like productivity and self-improvement. Urban farms function as "experiential production" sites, where the farming experience is continuously commodified despite re-embedding in community and environment.

Thaís Cristina Schneider, Paulo André Niederle, Myrian Regina Del Vecchio-de Lima · Razón y Palabra · Brazil

This article analyzes urban agriculture from a communication perspective, focusing on how practitioners and non-practitioners understand its critical and alternative role regarding the modern food system. The study of Quinta da Videira in southern Brazil found that while urban agriculture is used to counter conventional food production and associated lifestyles, there are also resistances to integrating agricultural practices into the urban environment.

Prince Antwi-Agyei, Adam Biran, Anne Peasey, Jane Bruce, Jeroen H. J. Ensink · BMC Public Health · Ghana (Accra)

This cross-sectional study in Accra, Ghana, assessed faecal exposure among 80 farm workers during dry and wet seasons, analyzing water and soil samples for E. coli. The results showed that while irrigation water was highly contaminated (5.6 Log E. coli/100 ml), exposure to farm soil (2.3 Log E. coli/g) was the key risk pathway due to soil-to-mouth events, with 53% of farmers experiencing such events daily. The estimated norovirus infection risk to farmers was found to be higher than guidelines set by the WHO, indicating that exposure to soil is a critical pathway of pathogen risk in wastewater farmers, exceeding recommended health targets.

Christopher Bryant, Ghalia Chahine · Geographical Research · Canada (Montreal)

This 2015 case study from the Montreal Region, Canada, analyzed an action research project initiated in 2008 to reduce the vulnerability of peri-urban agriculture. Despite initiatives since the mid-1960s, significant pressures continue to increase the vulnerability of peri-urban farming, with farmland often removed from agricultural reserves. The project in Senneville involved farmers, non-farm actors, and municipal presentations over three years, aiming to integrate conservation and leisure activities.

宋志军, 刘黎明 · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni · China

Chinese urban agriculture has developed against a backdrop of multifunctionality, urbanization, industrialization, and non-agriculturalization. Since the reform and opening-up, the development of non-agricultural functions has complemented and advanced the broad modernization of urban agriculture, while simultaneously inhibiting, delaying, and destroying narrow modernization. This has led to a "reverse modernization" phenomenon in the spatial pattern of urban agriculture, characterized by changes spatially "opposite" to narrow agricultural modernization. China's current urban agriculture exhibits an overall spatial state of "reverse modernization" with various agricultural forms interspersed.

Fikadu Goshu Fufa · European Journal of Business and Management · Ethiopia

A study of 96 micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Nekemte town, Ethiopia, found that educational status of MSE operators negatively affects business profitability growth. Additionally, the study revealed that microfinance institution (MFI) loan terms are too short for business operations, and most MSEs rely on personal savings for finance.

Elvis Albert Robe Wandscheer, Rosa Maria Vieria Medeiros · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil (Porto Alegre)

This study descriptively and qualitatively analyzed the socioeconomic dynamics of urban agriculture in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It highlighted issues in the demarcation of urban and rural spaces, showing that many areas designated as urban possess distinctly rural characteristics. The most significant impacting factors were markets and real estate speculation. The study concluded that while urban agriculture is relevant to the municipality, it faces difficulties arising from competition for space, which can lead to the extinction or displacement of production activities to other areas.

Achamyeleh Gashu Adam · · Ethiopia

A study assessed the process of built-up property formation in Ethiopia's peri-urban areas. Through analysis of survey results and a review of relevant literature, the study elucidated the processes of peri-urbanization and new property development. It demonstrated that both formal (legal) and informal methods are equally important in converting peri-urban agricultural lands into urban built-up non-agricultural properties. This process creates intense competition for land between agriculture and non-agriculture, leading to the emergence of new property rights and the dissolution of existing traditional rights.

M. G. Dahiru, Onaiwu Idahosa Enabulele · · Nigeria (Kano)

Microbiological and physicochemical parameters of urban wastewater from the Jakara Canal in Kano were analyzed to assess its potential for irrigation. Mean fecal coliform counts ranged from 64.43 ± 63.20 MPN 100/ml to 216.85 ± 350.16 MPN 100/ml, increasing along the canal. All physicochemical parameters were within FEPA and WHO/FAO acceptable limits, but conductivity needed monitoring to avoid salinity.

Zulfadhli Nasution · · Indonesia (Jakarta, Bandung, Bogor)

This study investigated the relationship between urban farming communities and food sovereignty in Jakarta, Bandung, and Bogor, Indonesia. The findings suggest that the discourse of food sovereignty has not been exposed to urban farming communities. This is attributed to urban farming having different historical roots and social and political characteristics compared to the food sovereignty movement.

West Africa, Olufunke Cofie · · West Africa

An examination of urban agriculture (UA) development in West Africa reveals that despite its known benefits for food supply and livelihoods, UA is not fully recognized as an important component of urban development. This is due to high land demand from other sectors and perceived health risks by authorities. Policy makers need to address issues to institutionalize UA and integrate it into urban development plans.

Jin Hee Kim, Jin I. Yun · Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology · South Korea (Seoul)

This study evaluated daily temperatures for June-September from 2041-2070 in Seoul, projected by the RCP8.5 climate scenario, to understand climate departure implications for urban agriculture. Analysis of climate extremes and their effects on hot pepper growth revealed that while mean temperatures might depart after 2040, extreme events like heat waves and tropical nights already exceed past variability. Applying scenario data to hot pepper cultivation showed that planting and harvest dates are expected to deviate, and the maximum cultivation duration has already deviated from past variability.

N. Claire Napawan · Landscape Journal · United States (San Francisco)

This paper evaluated five case studies of communally-managed urban farms in San Francisco to determine their ability to operate dualistically as areas for food production and public space. Using a case-study methodology, it compared the spatial characteristics of these farms against the spatial criteria for successful public space. The study identified both conflicts and compatibilities in the spatial considerations for both functions.

Guy M. Robinson, Zhiling Liu · AIMS environmental science · Australia

This paper examines the contradictions between greening and "ungreening" in Adelaide, South Australia, focusing on the city's Park Lands and urban sprawl. It argues that urban sprawl, including recent development on prime farmland, has been antithetical to biodiversity maintenance and greening principles, reducing sustainability capacity. The paper identifies problems such as conflict between biodiversity and protecting residents in bushfire risk areas, stemming from a relaxed attitude towards low-density expansion.