Research & reports

Héritier Mesa · Cahiers d études africaines · Congo (Kinshasa)

This article explores social trajectories and inequality dynamics among informal workers in Kinshasa, focusing on labor relations within the informal economy. Drawing from ethnographic data on street bread, second-hand clothing, and urban agriculture, the study finds that limited access to capital constrains many workers to sell their labor power with weakened bargaining power, revealing unequal social positionalities.

Maurice Kesonga Nsele, Jules Nkulu Mwine Fyama, Kevin Maréchal, Thomas Dogot · Agriculture · Democratic Republic of Congo (Lubumbashi)

In urban agriculture in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, an innovative technology package was disseminated, but ten years later, farmers' daily income was less than USD 1.25, and critical exceedances of heavy metal content standards in crops were recorded. Survey data from 202 farmers and a Logit model identified factors influencing the sustained adoption of two innovations: motor pumps and integrated soil fertility management. Socio-demographic factors were not significant for motor pump adoption, and only mutual aid moderately influenced integrated soil fertility management. Economic factors like land tenure and income diversification were significant for motor pump adoption, but no economic factors were significant for integrated soil fertility management. Institutional factors such as access to credit and association membership were significant for the sustained adoption of both innovations.

Demoundou Namodji, Ndoutorlengar Medard · International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education · Chad

This article notes that while urban agriculture is protected and encouraged by governments in developed countries like Japan, in Africa, urban farmers often face repressive measures from urban administrators or planners. Despite its role as a safety valve for low-income households, urban agriculture in Africa is subject to these restrictive governmental actions.

Nicola C. Thomas, Anders Blok · Nature and Culture · Denmark (Copenhagen)

This study analyzes the social and political conditions of urban allotment gardens in Copenhagen, which are specially protected as valuable urban nature. It finds that asymmetric civic-public compromises, while enabling protection, result in new material conflicts between civic and municipal actors. These conflicts are linked to unresolved competing visions of civic, green, and market sustainability in urban development.

Amine Mseddi, Mariann Simon · European Journal of Architecture and Urban Planning · Hungary (Budapest)

This paper analyzes four community gardens on vacant inner-city plots in Budapest, Hungary, to understand their challenges and opportunities. It found that these gardens face significant obstacles including temporary status, changing political circumstances, and varying local population attitudes. Despite these challenges, NGOs and local communities play a crucial role in sustaining these projects and raising awareness.

Paulien C. H. van de Vlasakker, Karin Tonderski, Geneviève S. Metson · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

A review of empirical peer-reviewed studies (2000-2021) on nutrient losses to water from soil- and ground-based urban agriculture. Of 241 publications screened for a stated concern with nutrient losses to water, 20 were retained, but only seven had actually measured losses to water. Of four experimental studies, three measured leachate losses under different garden management practices; of 16 real-world studies, only four quantified losses to water as leachate, with measured average losses ranging from 0.005 to 6.5 kg/ha for phosphorus and 0.05 to 140 kg/ha for nitrogen. Thirteen of the 16 non-experimental studies provided input and harvested-crop data allowing nutrient balances to be calculated; despite wide value ranges, most studied gardens showed nutrient surpluses (inputs exceeding crop harvest) for nitrogen and phosphorus but not potassium, identified as a risk factor for losses to water, though large surpluses were not always linked to higher leachate losses. The review concludes that more field studies measuring actual losses to water, and documenting contextual factors, are needed to determine whether urban agriculture can contribute to a circular economy without causing nutrient-related water quality impairment.

Jaime Pizarro‐Araya, Fermín M. Alfaro, Francisco Gómez, Roberto Villablanca · Anthropocene Coasts · Chile

A 2022 study characterized the taxonomic richness and abundance of terrestrial arthropod fauna at the Aguada de La Chimba urban coastal wetland in the Antofagasta Region, Chile, using multiple survey methods. From a total of 1,874 specimens, it identified 109 terrestrial arthropod species, with Insecta the most represented taxon (85 species, 47 families, 15 orders); by origin, communities included 24% native, 22% naturalized, and a smaller proportion of endemic species. The study reports that urban coastal wetlands are fragile ecosystems subject to serious disturbance in structure, function, and diversity from advancing urban, agricultural, foraging, and drainage activities, including displacement of endemic species by invasive ones, and discusses the major threats to this wetland alongside the importance of public-private partnerships with the local community for biodiversity conservation.

Nirosha Ruwani Amarasekara, Abdullah Ibn Mafiz, Xun Qian, James M. Tiedje, Weilong Hao, Yifan Zhang · Journal of Agriculture and Food Research · Global

Metagenomic analysis of total soil DNA from urban vegetable garden soils examined the co-occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) with resistance genes to other compounds, including heavy metals and biocides. Relative abundance was 2.00-2.90 x 10^-1 copies per 16S rRNA gene for ARGs and 4.22-6.00 x 10^-2 for metal resistance genes (MRGs), with the most abundant ARGs conferring multidrug, vancomycin, bacitracin, fosmidomycin, and macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin (MLS) resistance, alongside MRGs for copper, arsenic, multiple metals, iron, and chromium, biocide resistance genes (BRGs) for multi-biocide, peroxide, and phenolic compounds, and multi-compound resistance genes (MCRGs) combining biocide-metal, drug-biocide-metal, and drug-biocide resistance. Multidrug resistance genes (including mexF, mexW), the MLS gene macB, and the MCRG ruvB showed the strongest correlations with other resistance genes, demonstrating extensive co-occurrence of ARGs, MRGs, BRGs, and MCRGs in urban agricultural environments and suggesting that soil contaminants have potential as co-selection agents for antibiotic resistance.

Pastory Salvatory Thomas, Wilbard Kombe, Aldo Lupala · International Journal of Social Science Research and Review · Tanzania

In-depth interviews with 60 purposefully selected respondents in the Daraja Mbili and Lemala wards of Arusha City, Tanzania, examined how diverse stakeholder perceptions of urban agriculture affect its governance. Farmers and agricultural officers viewed urban agriculture positively because their livelihoods and professional interests were tied to it, while urban planners and environmental officers were skeptical, citing a lack of evidence for its value, and implementation and enforcement of related policies and bylaws had not succeeded. Farming in environmentally sensitive areas violated bylaws, yet encroachment by farmers with no alternative land continued. The study concludes that urban agriculture cannot be effectively governed, even where policy and bylaws exist, as long as the actors involved perceive it negatively.

Bárbara Corneli Colombatto · enREDando · Argentina

Built around interviews with huerteros (urban gardeners), this piece presents both the achievements and the limits of Rosario's urban agriculture: 7 Park Gardens and 6 group gardens involving over 250 people, 25 hectares producing 2,500 tonnes a year, and a $250,000 international prize won in 2021. It also documents organizational fragmentation among gardeners, a lack of secure land-loan agreements (comodatos), the absence of sustained public investment matching the programme's international recognition, and unresolved conflicts with neighbors that the municipality does not intervene in. It cites a regional statistic that only 18% of farms in Latin America and the Caribbean are run by women.

Helen Toxopeus, Friedemann Polzin · Journal of Environmental Management · Global

A systematic review of academic literature identified key barriers and strategies for financing urban nature-based solutions (NBS), including urban agriculture. Two overarching barriers were found: a lack of coordination between private and public financiers, and difficulties in integrating NBS benefits into valuation and accounting methods. The review concluded that an integrated accounting and valuation framework for NBS is currently lacking, and strategies often focus on encouraging co-financing from private beneficiaries.

Thulani Dube, Saziso Sibanda, Phibion Chiwara · Cogent Social Sciences · Zimbabwe (Bulawayo)

This study investigated farmers' perceived effects of climate change on peri-urban agriculture in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and their adaptation methods. Using a sample of thirty peri-urban plots, findings revealed that farmers perceived significant climatic changes negatively impacting their farming activities, including reduced precipitation, increased atmospheric temperature, and diminishing borehole yields. Adaptation methods included repeated planting, watering plants at night, renting animal space in other farms with more water sources, and purchasing supplementary feed for livestock.

Alba Canet-Martí, Rocío Pineda‐Martos, Ranka Junge, Katrin Bohn, Teresa A. Paço, Cecília Delgado, Gitana Alenčikienė, Siv Lene Gangenes Skar, Gösta F. M. Baganz · Water · Global

This paper examines nature-based solutions (NBS) for urban agriculture (UA) in circular cities, focusing on input/output streams. It identifies that the understanding of I/O streams for different NBS is insufficient to fully leverage their potential for strengthening circularity in UA. The study pinpoints gaps that hinder UA's development as an opportunity within the Circular City framework, emphasizing the need for a broader understanding of food-related urban streams.

Chethika Gunasiri Wadumestrige Dona, Geetha Mohan, Kensuke Fukushi · Sustainability · Global

This systematic literature review analyzed 54 articles on urban agriculture, examining socio-economic context, agriculture models, opportunities, and challenges. The review found that academic literature favors community gardens in developed countries and gives comparatively less attention to identifying challenges, benefit groups, and government support for urban agriculture.

Carlos Tapia, Linda Randall, Shinan Wang, Luciane Aguiar Borges · Sustainable Cities and Society · Denmark (Aarhus)

This study presents a novel indicator-based evaluation framework for urban agriculture, tested in Fællesgartneriet Brabrand, a community garden in Aarhus, Denmark. The framework aims to capture the contribution of gardening practices to urban sustainability, acknowledging that urban agriculture may also have social and environmental externalities depending on prevalent farming practices.

Victoria Schoen, Chris Blythe, Silvio Caputo, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Kathrin Specht, Agnès Fargue‐Lelièvre, Nevin Cohen, Lidia Poniży, Konstancja Fedeńczak · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global North

This 2021 paper, based on data collected in summer 2020 from five Global North countries (France, Germany, Poland, UK, USA), examined the effects of COVID-19 on urban farms and gardens. The pandemic presented multiple challenges, including loss of support services, lost income, and reduced output due to labor supply issues. It also created opportunities like new local markets and increased community cohesion, demonstrating how gardens adapted to become more resilient.

Susana Toboso‐Chavero, Cristina Madrid‐López, Gara Villalba, Xavier Gabarrell, Arne Björn Hückstädt, Matthias Finkbeiner, Annekatrin Lehmann · The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment · Global

A comprehensive environmental and social life cycle assessment of perlite, peat, and coir growing media, imported to Spain from Turkey, Germany, and the Philippines respectively, was conducted for urban rooftop farming. Environmentally, coir had the lowest burden, while perlite had the highest impacts due to mining and transport. Socially, peat performed best, but coir showed the worst scores in community infrastructure and human rights, and perlite performed lowest in health and safety.

Christina Ergas · · Cuba

This chapter examines Cuba's urban agricultural food production, which developed through top-down government initiatives that later decentralized and subsidized local efforts in response to resource scarcity. While Cuban urban farmworkers' cooperatives enable local residents to sell produce at low costs, the program still faces social environmental stumbling blocks despite its successes in achieving high human development with a small ecological footprint.

Jamie Wang · Humanities · Singapore

This article explores the rise of urban farming in Singapore, following small- to medium-scale urban farms, including rooftop gardens, community farms, and organic farms, through the politics of localism and the notion of care. It investigates how localism, in some contexts, has been reduced to a narrow sense of geographic location. The study also examines what is being cared for in urban farming and how it might transform bio-cultural and social-technological relations.

Hayley Q McGough · DigitalCommons - CalPoly (California State Polytechnic University) · Global

This paper investigates why plant façades on buildings frequently die, preventing them from fully realizing benefits like urban heat island reduction and improved air quality. Through interviews with landscape architects, it examines factors for maintaining plant façades and assesses if new approaches, such as earlier integration of landscape architects or biocurtains, can address the high mortality rates. The study highlights that these plant façades often fail, leading to waste and unfulfilled potential.

Yang Deng · Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters · Global

While rainwater harvesting (RWH) is considered a sustainable irrigation method for urban agriculture, contaminants in rainwater pose challenges to RWH practices due to potential threats to crop, soil, and human health. Based on literature data, principal pollutants such as particles, toxic metals like cadmium, copper, and zinc, synthetic organic chemicals like agrochemicals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and waterborne pathogens were identified as likely exceeding irrigation quality criteria. This study identifies challenges, knowledge gaps, and research needs for RWH irrigation, offering a basis for technical strategies.

Isaac Asirifi, Korbinian Kaetzl, Steffen Werner, Courage Kosi Setsoafia Saba, Felix K. Abagale, Philip Amoah, Bernd Marschner · Journal of Environmental Quality · Ghana

A field experiment in northern Ghana assessed health risks from pathogen and heavy metal contamination in urban agriculture, evaluating rice husk biochar, N-P-K fertilizer, and their combinations with untreated wastewater or tap water irrigation. While heavy metals in irrigation water and soil were below FAO/WHO standards, wastewater irrigation caused significant E. coli, fecal coliform, and helminth egg contamination on red amaranth vegetables and in soil. Biochar application did not affect bacterial contamination.

Fatiha Hakimi · Journal of Analytical Science & Technology · Morocco (Rabat)

This study assessed the practices, roles, and challenges of peri-urban farming in the metropolis of Rabat, Morocco, surveying 50 respondents. Peri-urban agriculture is a multifunctional activity contributing to job creation, income generation, food supply, and environmental beautification. However, it faces several constraints, including precarious and costly labor, absence of regulating laws, lack of training and technical supervision for peri-urban farmers, and water resource shortages.

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.

Enrico Buscaroli, Ilaria Braschi, Chiara Cirillo, Agnès Fargue‐Lelièvre, Giuseppe Carlo Modarelli, Giuseppina Pennisi, Isabella Righini, Kathrin Specht, Francesco Orsini · Food Control · Global

This paper addresses the potential underestimation of food safety risks in urban agriculture (UA), which can lead to regulatory gaps, despite positive perceptions of UA. It reviews literature on UA food safety assessments, identifying indicators and developing a framework for evaluating food safety risks in UA initiatives. The framework uses business surveys and food analyses to calculate a food safety index for UA businesses and city regions.