Research & reports

Sònia Callau-Berenguer, Anna Roca-Torrent, Josep Montasell-Dorda, Sandra Ricart · Investigaciones Geográficas · Spain (Barcelona)

This study analyzed the food system behavior in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, Spain, during the initial stage of the Covid-19 pandemic (March-May 2020). Semi-structured interviews with 11 peri-urban entities and institutions revealed shortcomings in the operation and logistics of the metropolitan food system. Findings also indicated complicity between local producers and urban consumers, the role of peri-urban agricultural areas in food supply, and a need for cooperation among food system agents.

Sofia Nikolaidou · Cahiers de la Méditerranée · Greece (Athens)

This article analyzed the role of peri-urban agriculture and alternative food networks (AFN) in the Athens metropolitan area, Greece, using a mixed method approach including qualitative, quantitative research, and spatial data collection. Bottom-up claims for food security positively impacted sustainable food systems and public policies, while informal retail channels and self-production schemes strengthened agricultural resilience. However, poor land management and zoning control are major constraints to sustainable agricultural production and farmers' resilience in the Athens metropolitan area.

Jessica Cuevas-Castilleja, Armando Martínez-Luz, Marcelo Adán López-Arzate, Itzel Arlette Ramírez-García, Gustavo Mora‐Aguilera, Norma Ávila-Alistac · Revista mexicana de fitopatología(en línea)/Revista mexicana de fitopatología · Mexico (Mexico City)

This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on productive activities and the level of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) application among 108 urban agriculture farmers and extensionists in six areas of Mexico City. A digital survey in 2020 revealed that the sanitary emergency reduced extension services, though they continued with digital technologies. During the peak of COVID-19, 14% of farmers declined to sow the summer-fall season, and up to 75% reported 20% losses due to the epidemic. The main pest control strategies were mechanical (67%) and chemical (52%), indicating an intuitive understanding of IPM benefits despite farmers being unaware of its principles.

Pastory Salvatory Thomas, Wilbard Kombe, Aldo Lupala · Current Urban Studies · Tanzania (Arusha)

This study examined factors characterizing changes in the nature and value of urban agriculture in Arusha City, Tanzania, a rapidly urbanizing city, through in-depth interviews with 60 respondents in Daraja Mbili and Lemala wards. Findings revealed that limited access to ideal urban agriculture areas leads some farmers to acquire small plots in unlawful areas, restricting livestock numbers and crop types, and reducing their ability to meet food needs. While uncontrolled agricultural practices accelerate environmental degradation and pollution, they also support the livelihoods of needy farmers; however, the study concluded that urban agriculture cannot thrive without adequate access to agricultural land and a strong institutional framework.

Luuk Graamans · Architecture and the Built Environment · Global

This research investigated the potential and limitations of plant factories (vertical farming) for urban food production. The STACKED method was developed to assess plant factory performance across multiple scales, from leaf to facility to city, analyzing resource requirements including energy, electricity, water, CO2, and land area use for fresh vegetable production. The study found that while plant factories feature extensive climate control, their necessity, effectiveness, and efficiency remain questionable, and their effects on the urban energy balance were also assessed.

Akeem Ola · Town and Regional Planning · Nigeria (Ilorin)

This study examined the effects of urban planning practices on urban agriculture (UA) in Ilorin, Nigeria, and its contribution to the city's food shock resilience. Findings revealed that UA contributed 16.9% to meat/fish/egg requirements, 4.5% to yam/cassava/potato, 0.58% to vegetables, 0.6% to fruits, and 0.5% to grain requirements. However, the Respondents’ Agreement Index (RAI) indicated that poor access to finance (0.93), limited land area (0.75), and lack of tenure security (0.44) were dominant variables influencing UA's poor contribution to food security.

Cecilia M. Tsu · Amerasia Journal · United States

This article examines community gardens established for refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in the United States during the 1980s. It argues that refugee gardeners perceived a significant disconnect between their rural lives in Southeast Asia and the role of vegetable growing in the U.S., despite advocates emphasizing continuity with their past. The gardens provided a measure of economic empowerment, but highlighted the disjuncture in their resettlement experience.

Sandra Patricia Montenegro Gómez, Yulian Adalberto Sepúlveda Casadiego · Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia eBooks · Colombia

This paper contextualizes relevant experiences and technical tools for implementing urban and peri-urban agroecological orchards in Colombia. It notes that urban and peri-urban agriculture can alleviate food insecurity and create jobs, but currently, Colombia lacks government policies to support these processes. The study aims to transfer knowledge on crops to communities to strengthen food security through vegetable production.

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore · Southern cultures · United States

This article examines urban gardening practices by women in the New South during the early 20th century, which provided self-sufficiency and profits. It chronicles how urban planners and zoning eliminated most of these urban gardening opportunities by the late 1930s. The study considers these practices through two collages by artist Romare Bearden, focusing on the gardener Maudell Sleet.

Camille Frazier · Hong Kong University Press eBooks · India (Bengaluru)

This paper examines motivations for organic terrace gardening among middle-class individuals in Bengaluru, India, who grow food for home consumption. Gardeners respond to worsening health and environmental conditions, but class and caste inequalities limit their engagement with a broader community of urban food producers. These inequalities restrict the transformative potential of organic terrace gardening as an intervention, indicating a critical finding regarding equity.

Mkwela Hawa · Journal of Geography and Regional Planning · Tanzania

This study used a qualitative approach to examine land injustices faced by urban farmers in Mbweni-Mpiji, a sub-urban area of Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania. Findings indicated that farmers experience constant pressure from land insecurity, inferior land rights, informal land access, stiff competition from other land users, degrading land quality, and a continuous decrease in agricultural land size. These factors negatively impact the daily livelihoods, including food security, social status, and income, of those entirely dependent on urban farming.

Elijalma Augusto Beserra, Vivianni Marques Leite dos Santos, Eva Mônica Sarmento da Silva, Lúcia Marisy Souza Ribeiro de Oliveira, Hesler Piedade Caffé Filho · ID on line REVISTA DE PSICOLOGIA · Brazil

This descriptive, qualitative, and quantitative research, conducted from September to December 2021, investigated how the community garden of the Coelho Atikum Jurema Community in Brazil was affected by Covid-19. The study identified a series of adversities faced by the community in adapting to the market changes resulting from Covid-19 social interaction rules. These rules directly impacted the community's marketing techniques, posing challenges to economic viability.

Daren Shi-chi Leung · China Perspectives · China (Guangzhou)

The Chinese community-supported agriculture (CSA) movement advocates for peasant farming and food sovereignty, promoting "ethical" food often through intermediary certification. However, controversy exists among CSA activists who question the effectiveness of certification in improving consumer-producer relationships. This paper presents an alternative approach focusing on strengthening participatory culture within the consumer-producer nexus, based on an empirical study of Chengxianghui (CXH) in Guangzhou and outlining a "convivial agriculture" framework.

Sandra Schwindenhammer, Denise Gonglach · Politics and Governance · Germany

This qualitative and participatory case study in Germany examined the governance implications of an emerging technology in urban agriculture that connects wastewater treatment and agricultural production for urban hydroponics. The analysis found that while this technology has the potential to facilitate SDG implementation, it simultaneously creates new sector interlinkages between water and food, leading to policy demands that necessitate more integrated policymaking.

Meredith Gaglio · · United States

The "Ecotopia" concept, promoting ecologically and socially responsible American Appropriate Technology (AT), included innovative urban planning like rooftop gardens. However, the expansion and contraction of the intranational Ecotopian network built by former Rainmakers in the mid-to-late 1970s revealed a crisis of purpose within RAIN and signaled a crisis within the AT Movement itself.

Fabio Amato, Lucia Simonetti · Journal of urban regeneration and renewal · Italy (Naples)

This paper focuses on the social urban garden in the Ponticelli neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Naples, Italy, an area facing significant social and cultural problems including high unemployment and crime rates. The urban garden demonstrates how social cohesion can be built through urban agriculture and contribute to sustainability. However, the initiative risks remaining isolated and providing limited benefit to regional environmental sustainability efforts if not framed within an overall metropolitan strategy.

Benjamin Selwyn · The Journal of Peasant Studies · Global

This article argues that a Green New Deal (GND) for agriculture must actively combat environmental degradation, social inequality, and labor exploitation, rather than merely aiming to restart capitalist economies. It identifies key areas for discussion and political action, including the reorientation of state subsidies, workers' rights, agrarian reform, the decommodification of food, agroecology, urban agriculture, new technologies, and rewilding.

Reni Nurjasmi · Jurnal Ilmiah Respati · Global

This review examines the potential of urban agriculture by the elderly to support food security. While urban agriculture could produce 180 million tons of food globally per year, representing 10% of total global food production, it is currently insufficient to meet urban food needs, with urban food supply still heavily reliant on rural areas and imports. With an increasing urban elderly population, empowering seniors through urban agriculture technologies like vertical farming is proposed as an opportunity for food security.

Nancy Karanja, Mary Njenga · · Kenya (Nairobi)

The urban agriculture efforts of Alice Wairimu and her husband Michael Macharia, who migrated to Nairobi, Kenya, are presented. They raised livestock but lost a cow during political unrest and sold the rest for hospital bills. They also attempted wastewater farming on government-owned land, which was repossessed in 2010. Subsequently, they used their meager savings to rent land nearby and continue practicing urban agriculture.

Mariana Portilho, Camila Rodrigues, Annelise Caetano Fraga Fernandez · Cidades, comunidades e território/Cidades comunidades e territórios · Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)

This study describes the formation of Arranjo Local da Penha, a community network created in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro's Penha favela complex, focused on urban agriculture and led by women. Through fieldwork and participant observation, the study analyzed themes of women and agroecology, health, and healthy eating. The network promoted women's empowerment and access to healthy food, but faced limits in the mobilization and development of urban agriculture.

Martin MASSOUANGUI-KIFOUALA · International journal of innovation and applied studies · Republic of Congo (Pointe-Noire)

This article analyzed precipitation data in Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo, using agronomic criteria and frequencies to understand rainy season behavior for agricultural planning. The study found that Pointe-Noire has a bimodal rainfall regime, allowing for two cultivation periods annually. However, the rainy seasons are very random, with increasingly late starts, early endings, and shortening durations over the years.

Boglarka Z. Gulyas, Jill L. Edmondson · Sustainability · Global North

A systematic review of literature on urban agriculture (UA) in the Global North identified factors determining its success in enhancing city resilience and challenges limiting it. UA's success in increasing city resilience was defined as dependent on five factors: institutional and public support, a sufficient knowledge base, communication and collaboration among actors, and resourcefulness in efficient space and resource use. However, comprehensive assessments of UA's potential are still lacking, suggesting challenges in its effective implementation.

Solomon Tulu Tadesse, O. Oenema, Christy van Beek, Fikre Lemessa Ocho · Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering · Ethiopia

This study in Jimma, Ethiopia, from 2015-2050, used an N mass flow model and field experiments to explore manure recycling from urban livestock farms under four scenarios. It found that livestock manures are the main organic wastes in urban areas, and manure production in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is projected to increase 3 to 10 times. Critically, only 13% to 38% of manure nitrogen will be recycled in croplands, and intensification of urban livestock production greatly increased nitrogen surpluses, indicating a significant environmental tradeoff.

Salvatore Engel‐Di Mauro, George M. Martin · · Global

This chapter examines urban cultivation across diverse global contexts, finding that global South cities often experience declining food production due to displacement by financiers and landowners. It notes that urban cultivation is frequently associated with unacknowledged pollution problems, and its overall ecological impacts are not necessarily positive. Furthermore, urban food production, with the exception of Cuba, does little to reduce social inequality and can sometimes exacerbate it.

Salvatore Engel‐Di Mauro, George Martin · · Global

This chapter examines the global relationship between food growing and capitalism over 500 years, identifying three profit-seeking formats: mercantilism, industrialism, and global financialization. It argues that capitalism has led to a de-industrialization of cities and a commodification of agricultural products by corporate megafarms, contributing to green gentrification in urban redevelopment. This has incited a food resistance trend, leading to the emergence of community gardens and farms.