Research & reports

Harniati Harniati, Reni Suryanti · Jurnal Penyuluhan Pertanian · Indonesia

This study investigated urban farmers' accessibility to agroinputs in intra-urban (Situ Gede, Margajaya) and peri-urban (Pasir Buncir, Pasir Eurih of Tamansari) areas in Indonesia. The findings revealed that land, labor, feed concentrate, fertilizer, and seeds are difficult for farmers to access. Specifically, peri-urban paddy land ownership is less than 0.2 Ha, intra-urban farmers are landless, outside labor is limited and expensive, and feed concentrate for sheep is rarely available and unaffordable. These limited accessibilities present problems and challenges for urban agribusiness development.

Hoda Fakour, Shang‐Lien Lo, Nathan Thadeo Yoashi, Angelbetter Marselian Massao, Nelson Naboth Lema, Fezile Bethusile Mkhontfo, Patrick Chris Jomalema, Nasra Shabani Jumanne, Bright Hubert Mbuya, James Travor Mtweve, Moslem Imani · Agriculture · Taiwan (Tainan)

A study in Tainan city farms, Taiwan, quantified and analyzed microplastics (MPs) in farmland soils. MPs were found in all soil samples at depths ranging from 12–117 items/m2. Farms adjacent to suburban roads had approximately three times more MPs than enclosed farms. Fragment and fibers were the main forms, with low-density polyethylene being the dominant polymer, originating from historical land use, plastic mulch, and fruit protection foams.

Camille Frazier · Hong Kong University Press eBooks · India (Bengaluru)

This paper examines motivations for organic terrace gardening among middle-class individuals in Bengaluru, India, who grow food for home consumption. Gardeners respond to worsening health and environmental conditions, but class and caste inequalities limit their engagement with a broader community of urban food producers. These inequalities restrict the transformative potential of organic terrace gardening as an intervention, indicating a critical finding regarding equity.

Daren Shi-chi Leung · China Perspectives · China (Guangzhou)

The Chinese community-supported agriculture (CSA) movement advocates for peasant farming and food sovereignty, promoting "ethical" food often through intermediary certification. However, controversy exists among CSA activists who question the effectiveness of certification in improving consumer-producer relationships. This paper presents an alternative approach focusing on strengthening participatory culture within the consumer-producer nexus, based on an empirical study of Chengxianghui (CXH) in Guangzhou and outlining a "convivial agriculture" framework.

Tenri Ulfa, Nurlita Pertiwi · UNM Environmental Journals · Indonesia (Makassar)

This descriptive quantitative and correlational study of 50 respondents in Makassar City examined urban farming behavior and influencing factors. While respondents generally had high environmental knowledge, their environmental attitudes were moderate. 23 respondents with low urban farming activities cited time constraints as a difficulty, despite a significant, strong, and unidirectional relationship found between knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.

Nhung Pham Thi, Martin Kappas, Heiko Faust · Sustainability · Vietnam

This study in Huong Thuy Town, Vietnam, examined the impacts of agricultural land acquisition for urbanization (ALAFU) on 50 affected households. It found that rice cultivation and animal breeding sharply declined, while potted flower plantation grew, becoming the main income for 34% of households. However, all agricultural activities faced challenges due to shortcomings in agricultural land allocation and development plans.

Dimas Ganda Permana Putra, Elida Novita, Bambang Herry Purnomo, Diana Nurhayati · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Indonesia (Jember)

A study conducted from May to August 2020 in Jember Regency, Indonesia, investigated the average monthly income of hydroponic farmers. Based on surveys and interviews, the average monthly income ranged from Rp.200,000.00 to Rp. 4,000,000.00. This low income was attributed to most respondents still being in a trial-and-error phase and lacking government assistance.

Seema Purushothaman, Sheetal Patil, Raghvendra S. Vanjari, A. R. Shwetha · · India (Bengaluru)

A participatory assessment in Byramangala, Bengaluru, explored farmers' perspectives on using wastewater (domestic sewage with industrial effluents) for irrigation. The study found that farmers were adapting to a heavily polluted environment, which resulted in restricted crop choices, lower produce prices, health impacts, and socio-cultural consequences. Despite concerns about water quality, farmers prioritized health-imparting agriculture and were keen to continue farming, but their preference for treated wastewater was overshadowed by its potential diversion for urban use.

Audrey Chia, Junyu Ong, Anjali Bundele, Yee Wei Lim · Obesity Reviews · South Korea

A scoping review of social ventures in obesity prevention identified 512 social ventures across 32 countries, with 93% originating from developed countries, including urban farming among their intervention areas. Social ventures developed diverse business models with multiple revenue streams, offering financially self-sufficient approaches. However, the review did not provide detailed data on specific successful cases or the scale of economic viability for these ventures.

Dong BaoCheng, Wei Li, Wenyong Xu · Antibiotics · China

A field experiment in peri-urban agricultural soil in China investigated the effects of partially substituting chemical fertilizer with organic fertilizers like pig manure and sewage sludge on soil quality and antibiotic residues. Organic substitution significantly increased residual antibiotic levels in agricultural soil, with antibiotic sequestration rising by 138.1~332.5%. This indicated that organic fertilizers can promote antibiotic persistence in soil by modifying soil quality, demonstrating a contamination risk.

Dr.Sumanta Bhattacharya, H. B. Lal, Bhavneet Kaur Sachdev · Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research · India

India's horticulture industry has grown, contributing to GDP and employing 42% of the population. However, 60% of products rot due to a lack of cold storage, hindering the elimination of food shortages and export amplification. Floriculture has also improved, with women playing a role in rural economy and empowerment.

K. C. Sahu, M. K. Satapathy · International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development · India

This paper discusses rooftop gardens as an alternative for vegetable production in Bhubaneswar City, India. While rooftop agriculture can improve ecosystem services and enhance urban biodiversity, vegetable production activities on rooftops are limited due to multiple challenges that need to be addressed for widespread implementation. Rooftops are not a total solution for food security but can supplement other urban food sources.

Subeen Jang · The Korea Association of Yeolin Education · South Korea (Seoul)

This study analyzed the implementation process of the School Farm Program in Seoul, South Korea, through a literature review. The analysis found that there was a risk of the policy's focus deviating from school and educational issues, as multiple policymakers pursued diverse economic and social goals using school farms. Additionally, policy effects at the target level could differ from policymaker goals depending on each school's context, and interaction among policy implementers and various interest groups like civic organizations, experts, and media was insufficient.

Zachary Burt, C. Shambu Prasad, Pay Drechsel, Isha Ray · Journal of Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Development · India (Karnataka)

A preference-ranking model was developed to understand the acceptance of fecal sludge-derived fertilizer (FSF) in Karnataka, India, by modeling farmowners and farmworkers separately. The study found that farmers willing to use FSF prefer to conceal its origins from workers and their caste group, especially caste-adhering, vegetarian farmowners. Workers were open to FSF if it resembled cow manure, revealing that the waste economy in rural India is shaped by unacknowledged caste hierarchies and practices.

Xingjia Wang, Wenbo Li, Dongyan Wang, Songze Wu, Zhuoran Yan, Jiaqi Han · Ecological Indicators · China

A 'trinity' assessment method was developed to evaluate heavy-metal contamination in peri-urban soil–crop systems in Northeast China, covering total, available, and accumulated heavy metals. While traditional methods indicated less contamination, the trinity method revealed spatial clustering of heavy-metal contamination in cultivated lands caused by urbanization and industrialization, and a decreasing urban–rural trend in contaminated areas, particularly in transition zones.

Margareth Margareth, Oekan S. Abdoellah, Martha Fani Cahyandito, Kinanti Indah Safitri · Prosiding Seminar Nasional Fakultas Pertanian UNS · Indonesia (Bandung)

This qualitative study examines the implementation of urban farming in Bandung City, Indonesia, from a political ecology perspective, focusing on market, service, and institutional interactions, and product marketing chains. The research identifies policy failures, where city government agricultural policies were insufficient to meet residents' food needs, necessitating top-down urban farming innovations. It also notes market failures due to public dissatisfaction with available products, driving bottom-up urban farming initiatives by independent organizations. Funding sources and operational cost efficiency strategies differ between government-led and independent urban farming efforts.

Mun Gi Hong, Bo Eun Nam · Journal of Character Education and Research · South Korea

This study analyzed the suitability of G National University's campus as an educational site for ecological and character education for elementary students. The campus had a green space ratio of approximately 40% and 120 woody plant species. However, vulnerabilities in plant diversity were identified, including a bias towards certain species like oak and azalea, and multiple species concentrated in small numbers. A critical finding was the overlapping flowering and fruiting seasons for most species, which could negatively impact the ecology of wild animals like insects and birds that rely on these resources.

Pratik Mishra, Sumit Vij · · India (Gurugram)

Ethnographic research in Budhera, a peri-urban village bordering Gurugram city in Haryana, India, investigated the juxtaposition of urbanization processes and climate variability impacts on peri-urban agriculture. Results showed that dimensions of agrarian livelihoods, such as cropping choices, irrigation cycles, sharecropping arrangements, declining common property resources, and land use changes to non-agricultural uses, were influenced by urbanization processes. It was concluded that changes in land and water use reshape agricultural practices and can cascade upon climate variability impacts, making agriculture more precarious for peri-urban farmers.

Dion Notario, Ferdian Suprata, Meda Canti, Listya Utami Karmawan · MITRA Jurnal Pemberdayaan Masyarakat · Indonesia (Jakarta)

A community empowerment program focusing on clean water management, compost making, and urban farming was implemented in Muara Baru flats, Jakarta. A majority of residents responded positively to the program and expressed willingness to actively participate. However, several obstacles hindering the program's success were identified, including a lack of commitment from the local community, climate change, water availability, and arable land availability.

Yuyang Zhang, Qilin Wu, Lei Wu, Li Yan · Land · China

A study noting that although exposure to green space benefits residents' physical and mental health, its spatial distribution is inequitable, and that existing green equity studies typically rely on administrative units, a macro-scale approach that overlooks the fine-scale green spaces (such as community gardens and lawns) residents encounter most often, risking biased estimates. Using the community as the unit of analysis, the study drew on three types of green-space data - fine-scale green spaces within communities, surrounding large-scale parks, and streetscape imagery - and applied a proposed set of 11 metrics across morphology, visibility, and accessibility to 4,544 communities in urban Beijing. Through spatial visualization, spatial clustering, radar plots, and correlation analysis, the study found large differences and complementary relationships between metric categories, similarities within the same category, and confirmed inequity in green space across regions of the city as urbanization proceeds.

Hamidullah Amin, Mansour Helmi · Environmental Science & Sustainable Development · Asia

A study of agricultural land in the Yakatoot area of Kabul, Afghanistan, examining the economic and environmental impacts of land-use change in the capital. It states plainly that, due to rapid population growth, population densification, and the city's inability to enforce its master plan and regulations, a large portion of agricultural land cover has been transformed into unplanned developments, shifting communities from productive societies into consumer and dependent ones. Using a qualitative approach combining field surveys, aerial photographs from Google Earth, and data from CRIDA, the study describes Afghanistan's land laws and identifies the social, economic and environmental impacts of this land-use change, while also reviewing international experience with land-use change and sustainable responses. The authors recommend incorporating urban agriculture practice into Kabul's master plan and other urban initiatives, though this recommendation is presented as the paper's own policy proposal rather than a measured outcome.

Sai Balakrishnan · Cornell University Press eBooks · India

This chapter analyzes the regional class and caste politics of large-scale land investment in Maharashtra, India, through the case of the Khed Special Economic Zone (SEZ), where peri-urban agricultural land was converted into urban real estate. Dominant agrarian castes, long invested in commodity agriculture and closely tied to urban capital, protested vociferously against land acquisition for the SEZ, while Adivasi ("tribal") and Dalit groups historically dependent on land classified as "waste" embraced the forced acquisition. Historic narratives linking poor land quality to the social backwardness of those occupying "wasteland" were leveraged by these lower-caste and lower-class groups themselves to frame land expropriation as a path into the urban economy. The chapter concludes that fictions of "waste" that had previously excluded the most socially subordinated groups from commodity agriculture became, in this case, an instrument of urban inclusion.

Shrabana Mazumder, Joydeep Saha, Gouranga Nandi, Mrinmoyee Naskar, Jibananda Gayen, Debajit Datta · SN Applied Sciences · India

A study of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area, India, used free and open-source geospatial software and multi-temporal databases to assess land use/land cover change from 1990 to 2020, focusing on the transformation of urban and peri-urban agricultural land, and projected cropland change to 2030 using an artificial neural network module (MOLUSCE). Built-up areas persistently expanded into croplands, wetlands, vegetation, and water bodies throughout the period, with an estimated loss of 181.11 sq km of cropland between 1990 and 2020, concentrated in the northern, eastern, and south-eastern parts of the study area. The 2030 projection indicates a further loss of 15.46 sq km, bringing the cumulative cropland loss to 37.39% of its 1990 extent under current socio-economic and administrative conditions.

Sulistiya Sulistiya · Jurnal Pertanian Agros · Indonesia

This qualitative study in Indonesia investigated citizen participation in community-based urban agriculture, finding that while overall participation was high, the decision-making stage showed the lowest level of engagement. Most citizens had low group experience and had lived in their housing for less than 30 years. Age, education, income, and family burden were not significantly related to participation, but group experience, length of stay, activity methods, and service quality were significant factors.

Zhenzhong Si, Theresa Schumilas, Weiping Chen, Tony Fuller, Steffanie Scott · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada; China

A comparative study of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) models in Canada and China was conducted based on interviews and survey results. The study developed a framework to compare CSAs based on initiators’ motivations, economic characteristics, ecological practices, shareholder relations, and community building. It was found that CSAs in both Canada and China are struggling to maintain the movement’s original values and economic viability, moving away from the traditional ‘risk sharing’ approach to more flexible payment mechanisms. However, other original tenets of the CSA model, such as member engagement, are strengthening.