Research & reports

Karen Schmelzkopf · Urban Geography · United States (New York City)

This study examined the conflict over community gardens in New York City, arguing that it was a struggle concerning the right to space. The city, operating from an entrepreneurial governance perspective, claimed that the gardens represented a loss of exchange value and potential housing. The city used market economy rhetoric to dismiss incommensurable use values, thereby restricting rights to the city within a demonstration of power and "reason."

Sigrid Stagl, Sabine O’Hara · International Journal of Agricultural Resources Governance and Ecology · United States (New York City)

This study examined whether Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) groups are a broadly accepted or limited alternative food system, based on a household survey in two distinct socio-economic neighborhoods in upstate New York. The survey found that approximately 25% of respondents expressed interest in becoming CSA members, with similar interest levels in both wealthier and low-income areas. However, several factors preventing food demand through CSAs were identified, indicating that these barriers would need to be addressed for expansion.

Maurizio Tiepolo · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Niger

This paper investigates whether urbanization in Niamey, Niger, generates or aggravates urban food insecurity by examining agro-pastoral production, food demand, and buying power. It found that Niamey's high rate of urban growth has increased food insecurity for its inhabitants. This insecurity is attributed to low productivity of peri-urban agriculture, insufficient food influxes, rising prices, extreme poverty, and a nutrient-poor diet, with current measures failing to address root causes like land tenure uncertainty.

C. Clare Hinrichs, Kathy S. Kremer · Journal of Poverty · United States

This 1997 case study examined a Midwest community supported agriculture (CSA) project that aimed to increase low-income participation through financial subsidies, using a telephone survey of 41 member-households. The study found that while subsidized households had lower incomes, the overall CSA sample was more advantaged in income, occupation, and education compared to local populations. The project inadvertently served the "advantaged" poor, indicating that social inclusion efforts in local food systems may not effectively reach the most vulnerable.

Cindy Rosenthal · TDR/The Drama Review · United States (New York City)

In New York City, a group of NYU students and local community activists protested and performed against landlords and the city bulldozing community gardens. Their performance piece documented the transformation of garbage-strewn lots into lush, vital community havens and cried out against their destruction. This highlights a conflict over urban garden governance.

L. A. Akinbile · African Journal of Livestock Extension · Nigeria (Ibadan)

A study in Ibadan, Nigeria, reviewed grasscutter rearing as an urban agricultural practice. It found that farmers used intensive rearing systems and sold animals for N1,000-N2,100, generating up to N5,000 annually per pair. However, the provision of credit was identified as a major limiting factor for this practice.

Melford Mj W. Gunderson · UND Scholarly Commons (University of North Dakota) · United States

A study of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and the community of Elbowoods, North Dakota (2001) describes the social disorganization and community upheaval inflicted on Native Americans by the 1954 construction of the Garrison Dam by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Flooding of thousands of acres stripped Elbowoods residents of farmland, natural shelter for people and cattle, family structure, community gardens, and a way of life that had existed for thousands of years. Drawing primarily on interviews with ten former Elbowoods residents, supplemented by newspapers, published reports, photographs, video, and congressional records, and framed through social disorganization and community theory, the study documents that the dam's construction and the resulting relocation devastated the community and forced residents to cope with and adapt to a "loss of community."

Cynthia A. Cone, Andrea Myhre · Human Organization · Global

A five-year study of eight Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms examined farm members' perceptions and behavior, including motivations for membership and women's roles. The study raises questions about the long-term sustainability of CSA, citing tension between farmers' lifestyles and needs, and shareholders' constraints and competing values.

David Billings · · United States

A study of Portland, Oregon, examines claims that the well-documented benefits of community gardens are inequitably distributed across society. Portland is recognized as a sustainability leader with an abundance of community gardens and urban agriculture, yet it is also one of the whitest urban cities in the United States, where people of color — and the black community in particular — have faced a legacy of oppression and marginalization. Based on 17 in-depth interviews and extensive observation of community gardens, the research finds that the whiteness of these garden spaces functions to marginalize black individuals and contributes to the ongoing oppression of the black community. It also documents how Portland's black community engages in community gardening as a means of resisting these and broader effects of structural racism.

Godfrey D. Mudimu, Shepherd Siziba, Benjamin Hanyani‐Mlambo · OpenDocs (Institute of Development Studies) · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study in Harare, Zimbabwe, examined the socio-economics of urban crop production on municipal lands, cultivators' views, and land use conflicts. Urban agriculture, a widespread practice for subsistence maize and food security, is not supported by planners and conflicts with urban land use provisions. Findings revealed a serious lack of environmental concern among cultivators, with most ignoring stream bank regulations and lacking knowledge of environmental effects.

Dick Foeken, A. Mboganie-Mwangi · Leiden Repository (Leiden University) · Africa

Using survey data collected in 1994 in Korogocho, one of Nairobi's slum areas in Kenya, this study examined whether access to farmland influences a household's food situation. Access to land had a positive impact on urban households' overall welfare, but not necessarily on their food situation. Households with access to a rural plot appeared better off in terms of self-reported food situation than households without any land access, and access to rural land appeared more favorable for food situation than access to urban land alone. Among the very poor households in Korogocho who claimed access to rural land, half did not actually use that land themselves.

Godfrey D. Mudimu · Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study examines the role of women in urban agriculture and perceptions of urban space use for agriculture in Harare, Zimbabwe. Despite its utility in meeting household food needs, urban agriculture is not planned for or supported by urban planners and managers as a legitimate urban land use. The activities of women, who are the main participants in urban agriculture, directly conflict with planning provisions for urban space. The study offers empirical insight on perceptions of space use for agriculture in an urban tropical environment, where conflicts can arise from different perceptions and alternative uses.

A. Mboganie-Mwangi, Dick Foeken · Leiden Repository (Leiden University) · Kenya (Nairobi)

A 1996 study in Nairobi, Kenya, compared the food security and nutritional status of low-income households engaged in urban agriculture with those not farming. It found that urban farmers primarily produced for home consumption and faced theft as a major problem. While the Undugu Society Urban Agriculture Project (USUAP) group showed better food situations and higher energy and protein intakes than other groups, all three groups had inadequate energy intake on average. The long-term beneficial effect of urban agriculture on nutritional status was negligible.

Daniel Maxwell, Samuel Zziwa · Ecology of Food and Nutrition · Uganda (Kampala)

This study examines urban agriculture in Kampala, Uganda, as an adaptive response to economic hardships. It identifies significant constraints, including institutional obstacles to accessing underutilized urban land, municipal bylaws that suppress urban agriculture, and urban officials' indifferent to hostile views. The study found that these bylaws and views are based on misleading or false generalizations about urban agriculture.

Lee M · PubMed · Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, urban agriculture faces significant challenges due to government disapproval of public land use for farming and difficulty in obtaining credit. A 1983 survey in Addis Ababa found that 17% of 1352 households produced their own food on less than 25 sq. meters, with 90% of non-farmers citing lack of land. Despite urban agricultural cooperatives demonstrating 70% higher member income, their lack of government legalization prevents access to loans for productivity improvement.

Johan Pottier · Africa · Rwanda

This article explores the themes of knowledge, ignorance, and power in the context of a Rwandan development project, demonstrating how ignorance is generated through agricultural extension. It argues that agronomic services rely on power structures reminiscent of social inequality, and assesses whether the project-induced creation of ignorance leads to the displacement of local knowledge and the adoption of new methods.

Natália da Silva Lemos, Liza Maria Da Souza de Andrade, Valério Augusto Soares de Medeiros · Paranoá cadernos de arquitetura e urbanismo · Brazil

This research analyzed urban planning challenges in Brazil from the perspective of urban agriculture, examining social policies and legal frameworks including the City Statute (Law 10.257/2001) and Law 6.766/1979. The findings indicate a gap in legal provisions for urban agriculture actions and practices within land use and occupation regulations. The study suggests guidelines for implementation to address this deficiency.