Research & reports

Mosen Farhangi, Margherita Turvani, Arnold van der Valk, G.J. Carsjens · Sustainability · Netherlands (Amsterdam)

An ethnographic study in Amsterdam, Netherlands, analyzed barriers to the integration of high-tech urban agriculture (HTUA) into urban planning processes. The research revealed a lacking connection between planning actors and HTUA technology developers.

F. Feldmann, Ute Vogler · Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection · Global

Ten key challenges for plant protection in cities were identified, each belonging to a specific field of action of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in urban horticulture, according to Directive 2009/128/EC. These challenges include appropriate plant selection, microbiome engineering, nutrient recycling, smart digital solutions, diversification of vegetation, avoidance of pesticide side effects on beneficials, biorational efficacy assessment, effective pest diagnosis, efficient outbreak control, and holistic approaches.

Mary Njoki Mwaura, Sabina Wangia, Japheth Ododa Origa, Lee Ernest Mbatia Oliver · Journal of Agricultural Extension · Kenya (Nairobi)

This study investigated the influence of urban extension workers' socio-economic characteristics on farmer empowerment in Nairobi County, Kenya, using data from 64 extension workers. While extension workers' characteristics positively influenced the choice of extension methods, explaining 37.2% of farmer empowerment, a significant finding was that 49.9% of extension workers were unaware of adult learning principles (ALPs). The study recommends training extension workers in ALPs and ICT techniques to improve extension methods.

Celina Gómez, Christopher J. Currey, Ryan W. Dickson, Hye‐Ji Kim, Ricardo Hernández, Nadia Sabeh, Rosa E. Raudales, Robin G. Brumfield, Angela Shaw, Adam K. Wilke, Roberto G. López, Stephanie E. Burnett · HortScience · Global

This review discusses the application of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) techniques to urban agriculture (UA), driven by increased market demand for local produce. While CEA offers opportunities for year-round production and resource-use efficiency, significant challenges remain due to the high costs of production in urban settings. The review emphasizes that for urban growers to benefit, studies evaluating CEA for commercial food production must consider economic viability.

Michael Carolan · Journal of the American Planning Association · United States

This 2019 study, based on 82 interviews in Denver, New York, and San Francisco, investigated how traditional and digital urban agriculture converge and diverge regarding land use and gentrification. It found that both digital and traditional urban farming systems are linked to gentrification and inequitable land use patterns. Digital urban farming systems also operate in a regulatory gray area, with their "digital" aspects used to gain more zoning permission than traditional urban agriculture.

Annisa Nur Ichniarsyah, Heny Agustin, Maulidian Maulidian · Jurdimas (Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat) Royal · Indonesia (Bekasi)

The Asofa Foundation conducted hydroponic training for the community in Bekasi, Indonesia, covering seeding, transplanting, and mixing hydroponic fertilizers. Participants learned to cultivate plants using hydroponics, but seedlings died after transplanting due to poor local water conditions. The study suggests further training in fruit hydroponics or other cultivation methods suitable for the environmental conditions.

오익근, 서정아, 장승옥 · 한국지역개발학회지 · South Korea

A focus group interview with young urban farmers in Daegu, South Korea, explored job creation through urban farming. Participants perceived farming as physically demanding and unrewarding, despite seeing urban farming as a promising industry for job creation. They also noted a lack of national support policies and difficulties in participation. A contradiction was identified between the young farmers' desire to adopt labor-saving new technologies and the goal of creating jobs through traditional farming.

Kathrin Specht, Felix Zoll, Henrike Schümann, Julia Bela, Julia Kachel, Marcel Robischon · Sustainability · Global

Nineteen qualitative expert interviews were conducted to identify perceptions of sustainability, social acceptability, and ethical aspects of new urban food production approaches. While major perceived benefits included educational effects and efficient resource use, significant conflicts involved negative side-effects, legal constraints, and high investment costs. Acceptance barriers were largely tied to the "unknown," encompassing a lack of understanding of new approaches, uncertainty about benefits, health risk concerns, unfamiliarity with products, and ethical doubts about animal welfare. The study concluded that adapting the unsuitable regulatory framework, which discourages investors, is a crucial first step to foster dissemination of urban food production approaches.

Andy Lockhart, Simon Marvin · Antipode · United Kingdom (Sheffield)

This article explored the phenomenon of automated environmental control, using three sites in Sheffield, UK: a botanical glasshouse, a luxury hotel, and a university plant growth research lab. The study identified technical and ecological tensions and limits of indoor environmental control at each site, which restrict the scope of automation. It also showed that maintaining desired conditions required considerable hidden labor and energy.

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.

Michael Martin, Elvira Molin · Sustainability · Sweden

This study assessed the environmental impacts of urban vertical hydroponic farming through a life-cycle perspective, applied to a case-study vertical hydroponic farm in Stockholm, Sweden, comparing current performance with potential improvement scenarios. Results showed that growing medium, pots, electricity demand, and transportation of raw materials and product deliveries were the important contributors to environmental impact in this system. Replacing plastic pots with paper pots was found capable of producing large reductions in GHG emissions, acidification impacts, and abiotic resource depletion, and replacing conventional gardening soil with coir as the growing medium also led to large impact reductions. However, the study states that further reducing the system's impacts will require more resource-efficient steps specifically to address impacts from electricity demand, an issue not resolved by the pot and growing-medium substitutions, and identifies potential for more symbiotic exchanges using urban wastes and by-products.

김정식, 한미영 · · South Korea

This study examined the suitability of urban agriculture expert training programs in South Korea, surveying students in Daejeon in 2018. Over 60% of students viewed experts as knowledge transmitters, with most motivated by qualification acquisition. While major city programs focused on basic cultivation, the study concluded that current curricula are insufficient for future urban agriculture trends. It recommended adding programs on urban community understanding, industrialization, cooperative agriculture, and farm management.

Georgia Pollard, James Ward, Barbara A Koth · Horticulturae · Australia (Adelaide)

A study in Adelaide, Australia, investigated the social acceptance of aquaponics and its role in urban food planning through focus groups and interviews with urban food opinion leaders and local government officials. Most participants were unfamiliar with aquaponics, and perceived negatives received more attention than benefits. Urban growers' views on overcomplicated urban food planning aligned with mixed policy responses from local government areas towards urban agriculture, indicating a lack of consistent governance.

Júlio Cézar de Almeida Lopes, Hélder Ribeiro Freitas, Eliéser Santurbano Gervásio · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil

This study evaluated the adoption of a drip irrigation kit in an agroecological community garden in Juazeiro, Brazil. The introduction of the system and the social organization of the group led to low adoption of the drip irrigation system, with several farmers returning to manual watering and, to a lesser extent, micro-sprinkler systems.

Bettina König, Ranka Junge, András Bittsánszky, Morris Villarroel, Tamás Kőmíves · Ecocycles · Global

A literature review was conducted on the social, environmental, and economic impacts of aquaponics. The technology has potential applications in various settings, including commercial or community-based urban food production, industrial-scale production, small-scale farming, and educational systems. However, it is concluded that due to the complexity within markets, value chains, communities, infrastructure, and policy settings, further research and data acquisition are needed to fully assess all sustainability aspects.

Qing Guo · · China (Dalian)

This paper, based on the China urban agriculture development report 2013 and a SWOT analysis, studied the development of urban modern agriculture in Dalian. The study found that the agricultural industrial structure, shopping basket program, agricultural management system, land circulation, and agricultural information technology have restricted the development of Dalian's urban modern agriculture.

Pei Xin Koh · DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) · Singapore

This study aimed to verify the viability of vertical farming systems with LED supplementary light compared to conventional hydroponic farming systems, focusing on energy consumption, cost, plant growth quality, and yield. Experiments with Butterhead lettuce showed that LED lights contributed 90.12% of the total energy consumption in the vertical farming setup. The commercial viability and realistic cost levels of vertical farming have not been established, and a detailed cost-benefit and energy-benefit analysis is yet to be made.

Stephen R. Miller · · United States (Newark, New Jersey)

This article proposes a new approach to financing local food, viewing it as a finance problem similar to urban manufacturing, to scale up local food production. It explores the necessity of large-scale urban agriculture, focusing on vertical farms, and examines creative financing examples like AeroFarms in Newark, New Jersey. The paper suggests deploying existing and potential financing types, modeled on economic development agreements, to advance local food initiatives.

Shi Jia-li · · China (Tianjin)

This paper studies the important roles of leisure agriculture in the development of Tianjin's modern urban agriculture. It emphatically analyzes the major problems of science and technology during the promotion of leisure agriculture and puts forward the significances of science and technology support in leisure agriculture.

Ranka Junge, Andreas Graber · Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften digital collection (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) · Global

This paper discusses the need for practical tools and a stronger scientific base for sustainable urban farming, noting that visionary schemes often lack current practical application with available technologies. It identifies requirements for urban food production, including high quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness, and suggests innovations in planting, pest control, irrigation, and integration with existing building infrastructures. Aquaponics is presented as having the potential to contribute to all these aspects.

Leandro Pessoa Lucena, Francisco José Kliemann Neto, Fernanda Mariano Massuia, Leonardo Donizete Fanti · RAI revista de administração e inovação · Canada

Against the backdrop of demographic projections that global population will reach 9.4 billion within the next 50 years, requiring an additional area of fertile land roughly the size of Brazil that does not exist on the planet, this study evaluated the economic viability of a Canadian vertical farm model as a sustainable urban-rural food production alternative. Using the NCIC method via a participant-observer approach, the study reported the model as economically viable and sustainable, as well as innovative in flattening production chains.

Corey James Majeika, Raymond P Stockwell, Shawn A Czerniak · Digital WPI · Global

This study conducted 13 in-depth interviews with farmers to assess their perceptions of Freight Farms, a company growing leafy greens and basil in adapted shipping containers. Most farmers doubted the economic feasibility of Freight Farms, questioned its technologies, and noted the lack of organic certification.

이행우, 김용성, 이재일 · · South Korea

This study noted that vertical farms face problems with economic viability and a lack of resident awareness. It derived types of vertical farms applicable to residential spaces and inferred assessment items for a questionnaire survey to develop u-services. Based on issues from the survey, u-services needed in vertical farm buildings were proposed, including u-notification of crop conditions, remote/automatic control u-services, harvest information u-service, recipe information u-service, indoor air quality monitoring u-service, indoor environment adjusting u-service, and farm environment control u-service.

Felipe de Jesús Cruz Celis, Héctor Montiel Campos · · Global

This study aimed to propose sustainability in urban agriculture through the use of hydroponic technology for agricultural production. Through documentary research and expert interviews, diagnostic criteria and sustainability indicators were determined, making hydroponics an option for producing food in reduced spaces. The results indicate that urban agriculture, due to its spatial scope, has limited possibilities for scaling up to the formal market, but can respond to family self-consumption needs and improve nutritional and higher quality foods.

Cheng Cun-ren · Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research · China

This study introduces the status of machinery equipment for facility agriculture in China and compares it with foreign equipment. It analyzes problems in Chinese facility agriculture, finding that the current machinery equipment faces challenges in achieving high efficiency, quantity, and quality compared to international standards.