Research & reports

Rafael Lima Oliveira, Gabrielly Dos Santos Lima Oliveira, José Raimundo Oliveira Lima · P2P E INOVAÇÃO · Brazil

This study investigated the role of cooperativism as an element for strengthening urban and peri-urban agriculture (AUP) in Brazil. Findings revealed that the absence of public policies and credit availability are limiting factors for AUP. Increased production and product outflow are also difficulties faced by these farmers, which could potentially be resolved through cooperation.

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.

Julia R Bryant · Digital Archive @ GSU · United States (Atlanta)

This paper explores how urban farming in Atlanta, Georgia, shows evidence of neoliberal shaping and retooling. Through qualitative analysis, including a case study, interviews with farmers, participant observation, and archival data collection, it examines how the city and the farm are understood from the perspective of the farmer to understand the degree to which these contestations are resisting neoliberalism. The research suggests that while urban farming can provide spaces for contestation to neoliberalism, scholars should more fully consider the hybridized nature in which urban farmers understand their work.

Kinanti Safirtri, Oekan S. Abdoellah, Budhi Gunawan, Yusep Suparman, Parikesit Parikesit · The Qualitative Report · Indonesia

A qualitative study with 27 export-scale urban farmers in Bandung Metropolitan investigated market pressures to meet international food standards. While intended to encourage environmentally friendly practices, farmers interpreted the implementation of international food standards as an administrative formality for export requirements, rather than a critical reflection on environmental problems from intensive agricultural practices. Consequently, market pressure from international food standards was found to be paradoxical and ineffective in fostering farmers' environmental responsibility.

Kimberly Hill-Tout, Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder, Kiera E. B. McMaster, Megan Herod · Gastronomica The Journal of Food and Culture · Canada

In April 2021, a panel discussion on food security in Canada took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article aims to make visible the vulnerabilities and structural injustices embedded within Canadian foodscapes through different perspectives on food security and justice. COVID-19 rendered many of the structural injustices of food security in Canada more visible.

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.

Eugene McCann, Nathan McClintock, Christiana Miewald · Environment and Planning E Nature and Space · United States (Portland, Oregon)

This paper introduces "impermaculture," a model of urban agriculture where farmers in cities like Portland, Oregon, embrace the impermanence of their operations, viewing the potential for displacement by higher-value developments as an intended modus operandi. This approach, utilizing portable growing systems, is presented as a means of stabilizing the "sustainability fix" in neoliberal cities. The study suggests that this 'impermaculture by design' shores up and temporally rescales the sustainability fix, providing stability to urban agriculture initiatives despite their temporary nature.

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.

S.B. Jilcott Pitts, R.A. Seguin, J. Kolodinsky, E.H. Morgan, M.J. White, M. Sitaker, J.T. McGuirt, W. Wang, K.L. Hanson, A.S. Ammerman · UNC Libraries · United States

This study examined perspectives on food access among 53 low-income families with children participating in a cost-offset community-supported agriculture (CO-CSA) program across nine communities in the US states of New York, North Carolina, Washington, and Vermont. Focus groups revealed that while produce quantity was abundant and affordability was generally good, payment timing was a barrier for some, and unfamiliar foods and quick spoilage hindered acceptability. The study concluded that CO-CSA may facilitate increased access to fruits and vegetables, but perceptions of positive diet change may be limited by challenges in incorporating share pick-up into regular travel patterns and meal planning, with food waste concerns being particularly acute for families with constrained resources.

Gamuchirai Chakona · · South Africa

A study surveyed 314 randomly selected households in four peri-urban settlements in South Africa to assess dietary diversity and food security. Findings revealed generally low dietary diversity and high levels of food insecurity across all sites, with male-headed households experiencing worse conditions than female-headed households. Food insecurity was linked to high poverty, unemployment, and low education levels.

Elizandra Flávia Araujo, Marcos Paulo Fuck · Cadernos de Ciência & Tecnologia · Brazil (Curitiba)

This study aimed to identify and characterize different categories of urban agriculture practitioners in Curitiba. A descriptive study using bibliographic and documentary analysis found that urban agriculture activities are concentrated in peripheral areas of the city, with most participants having a monthly family income of up to two minimum wages. Despite a wide range of actors engaging in these practices, their visibility and inclusion in the political agenda occur asymmetrically.

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.

Pu Xu, Shanwei Li, Xiaona Yang, Yufeng Li · Journal of Environmental and Public Health · China

Agricultural statistical data from Shanghai for 1998-2019 were analyzed using an Environmental Kuznets Curve and a VAR model to examine the relationship between urban agricultural nonpoint source pollution (UANSP) and rural residents' income growth. An inverted "N"-shaped curve linked plastic film application intensity to per capita disposable income, while fertilizer and pesticide application intensity showed a linear negative relationship with income. Nonpoint source pollution emissions declined as income rose, and while reducing this pollution supported short-term income gains for rural residents, it had a negative effect on their long-term income growth.

Ferdi Gultom, Sugeng P. Harianto · Jurnal Analisa Sosiologi · Indonesia

Using dependency theory, this literature study analyzes the decline of the agricultural sector in urban Indonesia, arguing that the government's focus on industrial-sector development, mediated through a central state-satellite relationship, has drawn in the modern sector at agriculture's expense, manifested in widespread conversion of urban agricultural land. Drawing on news sources and journals and analyzing data with the Miles and Huberman model, the study finds that the urban agricultural sector is fading as farmland is increasingly converted to industry, infrastructure and settlements, and that farmer regeneration has declined due to reduced interest in becoming a farmer.

Michael Hardman, Andrew Clark, Graeme Sherriff · Agronomy · United Kingdom

Using a qualitative approach across the UK's largest urban farm and a range of other urban agriculture (UA) sites, this study examined the barriers to upscaling city farming. Evidence pointed to urban soil contamination and hesitation about growing crops in cities as a core issue preventing UA from scaling up, alongside public hesitancy and financial barriers, despite the practice's potential social, environmental and economic value through job creation, biodiversity enhancement and shorter food supply chains. The paper concludes that public hesitation, financial barriers and soil quality prevent development, and calls for a more pragmatic approach to these barriers.

Sandra Boatemaa Kushitor, Shawn Alimohammadi, Paul Currie · PLOS Sustainability and Transformation · South Africa

An ethnographic study using in-depth interviews and participant observation, conducted April to November 2020 with thematic analysis, examined the role of the informal food sector in food flows in Cape Town, South Africa, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The informal food sector has historically been subject to exclusionary urban policies, and lockdown regulations caused food flows through the sector to cease, resulting in job loss and increased food insecurity. The sector subsequently reshaped food flows through urban agriculture, food aid programmes and community change, though it can also hinder urban modernisation. The study concludes regulatory frameworks need to be more inclusive of the sector.

Felix Chari, Bethuel Sibongiseni Ngcamu · Climate · Africa

In Masvingo City, Zimbabwe, a structured questionnaire administered to urban livestock farmers, triangulated with in-depth interviews with livestock stakeholders, examined how climate change-related hazards affect the urban livestock industry. Heatwaves, floods and droughts were found to significantly harm the industry: farmers lose livestock to disease, poor pastures and extreme weather, while the hazards also damage storage and distribution of livestock products, labour supply and productivity, and the profitability of livestock enterprises. The study calls for further research on location-specific adaptation strategies.

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.

Barbara Sowińska-Świerkosz, Malwina Michalik-Śnieżek, Alicja Bieske-Matejak · Sustainability · Poland

This study analyzed the potential of allotment gardens (AGs) in Poland to be considered nature-based solutions (NBS), examining their use of green/blue infrastructure, problem-solving capabilities, benefits, and economic efficiency. The study identified institutional barriers, irregular distribution of benefits, and deficiencies in economic efficiency as significant obstacles. It concluded that AGs, while a type of unsophisticated NBS, have limited effectiveness.

Ambrogio Zanzi, Valentina Vaglia, Roberto Spigarolo, Stefano Bocchi · Land · Italy (Milan)

This study assessed the sustainability of eight agri-food start-ups in a peri-urban area of Milan, Italy, using the FAO's Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems (SAFA) framework. The application of SAFA indicators revealed positive aspects but also some limitations typical of unstructured enterprises.

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.

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.

Bruno do Nascimento Macedo, Fernanda Nogueira Comas, Amarílis Lucia Casteli Figueiredo Gallardo · Journal of Urban Technology and Sustainability · Brazil (São Paulo)

This study discussed the main environmental services and disservices associated with urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in São Paulo, Brazil, using a systematic literature review and spatial analysis. It identified 12 environmental services and 5 disservices, mapping 197 UPA initiatives. The research concluded that UPA has the potential to offer environmental benefits, but can also exert negative pressures on the environment, including in areas that should be protected.