Research & reports

Chiara Certomà, Lorenzo Chelleri, Bruno Notteboom · Urban Studies · Italy (Rome)

This paper investigates informal planning practices and "fluid governance" in urban public spaces, using the case of Parco delle Energie in Rome, Italy, and a comparative analysis of international cases. It found that politically progressive urban gardening challenges traditional governance networks and redefines public space functioning by transforming green spaces into food production and collaboratively managed areas through informal planning. This demonstrates that urban gardening worldwide challenges traditional planning perspectives and governance, turning citizens' dissensus into a productive force.

Rebecca St. Clair, Michael Hardman, Richard Armitage, Graeme Sherriff · Urban Studies · United Kingdom (Manchester)

This study, conducted in Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK, highlights the difficulties of collaboration among organizations in a lottery-funded urban agriculture project. Due to local authority cutbacks and a lack of funding, community groups and charitable organizations compete for space and resources, leading to a "siege mentality" where organizational self-preservation takes precedence over cooperation. This paradoxically results in groups with similar goals working against each other instead of collaborating.

Lisa Westholm, Madelene Ostwald · Agroforestry Systems · Africa, Asia, Latin America

This literature review of 104 scientific articles across Africa, Asia, and Latin America examined food production and gender relations in multifunctional land use systems. The review found that the specific role of landscape multifunctionality for women's food security opportunities is rarely explicitly studied. It also showed that products controlled by women are often secondary and far from markets, risking neglect by policymakers, and efforts to increase their value may adversely affect women's empowerment if powerful actors appropriate benefits.

Wendy Johanna Murcia Gulumá, Óscar Andrés Pérez Soler, Sindy Rodríguez Rodríguez · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This study provided advisory support to an urban garden in Bogotá, Colombia, named "Guerreros y Guerreras Unidos en Accion," which had been operating empirically since 2005 without formal legal status or strategic planning. The garden, primarily involving individuals over 50 without formal employment, sought to formalize its activities by establishing a foundation. The intervention aimed to guide the garden's members through the legal and administrative steps for formalization.

Alma Clavin · Manchester University Press eBooks · United Kingdom

A study using qualitative, visual methods and Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach in five community garden sites in the UK and Ireland examined their potential for human agency and ecological sustainability. While positive agency and wellbeing benefits were observed, the gardens were found to be limited in their ability to truly enhance political freedoms and overcome asymmetric power relations. The research indicates that these initiatives may perpetuate neoliberal forms of unsustainable and uneven development, alongside ongoing issues of tenure insecurity.

Alexandra Rodríguez Dueñas · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Ecuador (Quito)

Quito’s Participatory Urban Agriculture Project (AGRUPAR), launched in 2002, supports vulnerable populations by providing technical assistance, capacity building, and microcredit for urban farming, aiming for food security and employment. While integrated into local government and recognized with the Future Policy Silver Award 2018, the program faces significant challenges including administrative changes, budget cuts, and restrictive land-use legislation.

Mathilde Martin-Moreau, David Ménascé · OpenEdition (OpenEdition) · Global

The deployment of urban agriculture relies on initiatives from companies, startups, and non-profit organizations, alongside support from public authorities, especially local governments. Challenges include the need to raise consumer awareness of new production methods and to train urban farmers for quality supply chains. The abstract indicates that commitment from local stakeholders is crucial for scaling up urban agriculture projects.

Alessandra Manganelli, Pieter Van den Broeck, Frank Moulaert · Territory Politics Governance · Global

This theoretical paper points out that Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) encounter governance challenges stemming from organizational growth pains, the search for cultivable land, and confrontation with urban planning policy and state structures that have a low affinity with urban agriculture. As AFNs develop, various governance tensions arise both within their organization and in their institutionalization processes. The paper redefines hybrid governance to elucidate these dynamics, suggesting that existing agro-food literature insufficiently addresses the complexity of AFNs' governance.

gökçe öcal · Journal of Planning · Turkey (Istanbul)

This study focuses on the Roma Garden, one of Istanbul's last remaining urban gardens, within the context of "DIY urbanism." In Istanbul, historical gardens are threatened by municipal policies favoring urban development, leading to the formation of "DIY" urban gardens on public land since 2013. These gardens operate without legal ties to the local state, and the destruction of urban public space over the last decade is noted as having paved the way for DIY public gardens as spaces of solidarity and shared knowledge.

Annelise Caetano Fraga Fernandez, Almir Cezar Baptista Filho · Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) · Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)

This article describes the obstacles to implementing public policy for family agriculture in urban areas of Brazil. Representations associated with rural-agricultural concepts have shaped the classification criteria of rural technical assistance technicians, limiting the policy's application in urban settings. Social movements in Rio de Janeiro highlighted the lack of access for urban family farmers to agrarian policies, leading to the recognition of urban family agriculture as a public problem.

Lindsay K. Campbell, Erika S. Svendsen, Renae Reynolds, Victoria Marshall · Social & Cultural Geography · United States (Rockaway, NY)

This study used Actor Network Theory to explore the material and social dynamics of a coastal community garden on public housing grounds in Rockaway, NY, after Hurricane Sandy. Three assemblages with different governance arrangements—tidal shore, garden plots, and treed lawn—were identified. However, "unruly" actors and actants, including people, saltwater, poison ivy, dogs, and trash, were found to spark controversy and resist governing.

Nicolette Tamara Jonkman, Boris Jansen · Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability · Sub-Saharan Africa

This literature review on urban agriculture (UA) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) identifies a significant constraint: conflicting stakeholder perceptions of UA, which hinders its development into a sustainable business. Some view UA as illegal and unsustainable, while others see it as a means to food security and employment. The review highlights a knowledge gap regarding land-use history and its effect on UA soil composition and nutrient status, proposing that UA sustainability requires understanding this historical context to build inclusive business models.

I Gusti Agung Adi Wiraguna, Ngakan Putu Sueca, I Made Adhika · RUANG-SPACE Jurnal Lingkungan Binaan (Space Journal of the Built Environment) · Indonesia (Denpasar)

This mixed-method study in Denpasar, Indonesia, investigated factors driving the conversion of urban agricultural land, primarily rice paddy fields. Despite a local government requirement for 30% urban open space, statistical data showed an average annual decrease of 31.86 hectares of farming land, from 2,632 hectares in 2010 to 2,409 hectares in 2017. The study revealed that various parties, including the government, community, private sector, and social institutions, play important roles in directing this land conversion.

María Carolina Feito, Sofía Boza, Santiago Peredo · Repositorio Digital Institucional de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (Universidad de Buenos Aires) · Argentina

This study focused on the reality of Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (AUPU) in Latin America, comparing cases in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area and the Santiago Metropolitan Region. Both cities form complex territories strongly related to their periphery, but the debate regarding AUPU's future development model remains open, reflected in contradictions even in public policies. The strong link between family farming and AUPU further complicates the situation due to the intrinsic limitations of family farming.

Carrie Chennault · Iowa State University Digital Repository (Iowa State University) · United States

This three-year feminist ethnographic study examined the Growing Together Iowa community donation gardening and food rescue program, focusing on its institutional and community partners. The research aimed to understand how solutions to food insecurity emerge from social relations and socio-historical contexts. Findings demonstrated that uneven power relations permeate even well-intended efforts to address food insecurity within such initiatives.

Blaire O’Neal · · United States (San Diego County)

This research investigates the significance of soil in distinguishing urban agriculture forms in San Diego County and examines how soil-based and soilless growing methods relate to justice. The results illustrate that while the way food is grown is important for urban agriculture organizations' identity and practices, it is only one of many factors influencing justice, such as socio-spatial context. Justice is an ongoing process that evolves as urban agriculture commodities travel through their circuits and interact with placed networks filled with intentions, actions, discourses, objects, actors, and forces.

Robert Bartłomiejski, Maciej Kowalewski · Sustainability · Poland

This article discusses Polish urban allotment gardens (UAGs) as an alternative urban development framework, "Slow City." It notes that increasing problems of soil pollution, abandoned gardens, informal housing, and limitation of access to UAG green areas for other inhabitants reinforce the pressure to reduce the number of UAGs.

Peter R. W. Gerritsen, Víctor Sanchez Bernal, Georgina Torres Rodríguez · Brazilian Journal of Development · Mexico

This study analyzed food security in two medium-sized cities in Western Mexico using secondary data and field research. It found that while these highly globalized cities had a low degree of food security, extensive domestic backyard agricultural activities significantly raised family-level food security. A critical finding is that this potential for urban food security is not valued by governmental institutions.

Mawuna Donald Houessou, B.G.J.S. Sonneveld, Augustin K. N. Aoudji, Fréjus THOTO, Smith A. R. Dossou, D. J. Snelder, Anselme Adégbidi, Tjard de Cock Buning · Sustainability · Benin

A study explored and compared international standards of prevailing organizations and their functioning among 261 urban gardeners in two cities in Benin. It found that a vast majority of urban gardeners are members of a cooperation. However, their membership is largely titular because gardeners mostly behave semi-autonomously, and few decisions are taken collectively. The obvious economic advantages of leveraging bargaining power, reducing transaction costs, and increasing possibilities for loans are seriously underutilized.

Michael Hardman, Mags Adams, Melissa Barker, Luke Beesley · Manchester University Press eBooks · United Kingdom (Todmorden)

The Incredible Edible Todmorden (IET) movement in Todmorden, UK, was investigated using a qualitative approach. The scheme was found to have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the town, providing social, environmental, and economic benefits and contributing to a more just food movement through its "free for all" philosophy. However, negative aspects were also highlighted, including maintenance issues and a lack of perceived inclusivity in some parts.

A. J. Sarker, Janet F. Bornman, Дора Маринова · Urban Science · Australia

This study analyzes policy and planning practices for integrating urban agriculture into city land-use planning in Australia. It found that recent planning has overlooked and failed to realize the opportunity of urban agriculture, with regulatory and legal frameworks, including land access, being significant constraints. The study concludes that without direct public policy support and institutional recognition, integrating urban agriculture into Australian cities' development and planning goals is difficult.

Isabela Laís Tavares, Gisela da Cunha Viana Leonelli · Revista dos Trabalhos de Iniciação Científica da UNICAMP · Global

This study investigated the position of urban agriculture within development policies and legislation for urban and regional planning. Through legal analysis of legislation from supranational to municipal levels, it was shown that urban agriculture can be a tool in city planning to reduce vacant lots and buildings not fulfilling their social function. However, the research revealed that despite a diverse range of legislation for urban agriculture development, these laws are not fully interconnected and often operate as parallel initiatives.

Ashenafi Tilahun Hailie · IGI Global eBooks · Global

This chapter assessed the benefits of urban agriculture in a study area, using qualitative and quantitative analysis aligned with a sustainable livelihood framework. Findings indicated that urban agriculture is sustained by sex indiscrimination, migrant dominancy, poor educational status, and agricultural background. While assets like land access and fertile soil were promising, skills, knowledge transfer, labor ability, and good health were found insufficient. Identified vulnerabilities included population explosion, absence of good governance, frequent natural calamities, land tenure insecurity, and seasonality of prices.

Sonia Aissaoui, Pascale Bueno Merino, Samuel Grandval · · Global

This study discusses the risk of having no contract in a solidarity partnership, specifically Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) formed between an agricultural entrepreneur and consumers, based on an extreme case analysis. Through 47 semi-structured interviews, three non-participant observations, and seven additional semi-structured interviews, findings showed that trust mechanisms can quickly weaken during misunderstandings, exposing partners to the risk of exploiting the agreement. Contractual logic, particularly its coordinating function, complements trust in maintaining the stability of a solidarity partnership.

Rikawanto Eko Muljawan · Prosiding Konferensi Nasional Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat dan Corporate Social Responsibility (PKM-CSR) · Indonesia (Surabaya)

In East Java, Indonesia, rapid infrastructure development leads to approximately 100 hectares of agricultural land being converted annually, reducing food supply. In Surabaya, 2000 hectares are controlled by developers, with some loaned for farming, and the local government supports urban farming for 624 households on 400 hectares. The abstract suggests that developers, who benefit from extensive land conversion, should contribute to agricultural resource improvement through Corporate Social Responsibility funds for agro eco-technology programs.