Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
418 results(8 / 17)
Agricultura e produção do espaço urbano: reflexões para uma agenda de pesquisa
2021Ricardo Theóphilo Folhes, Harley Silva, Raul da Silva Ventura Neto, Kevin Gabriel Leite Da Silva, Círia Cristiane Da Rosa, Aelton Dias Costa · Novos Cadernos NAEA · Brazil (Pará)
This article presents initial results from a bibliographic review on Urban Agriculture (UA) to support a research agenda in the metropolitan regions of Pará State, Brazilian Amazon. The review analyzed concepts, approaches, and challenges in national and international literature. It concludes that UA needs to be problematized within the phenomena of urban-regional space production, which cause socioeconomic and spatial inequalities, representing the greatest structural difficulties for urban agriculture.
Equity & displacementUrban–rural linkagePolicyEconomicsProximity of Urban Farms to Hazards With and Without Heavy Metal Contamination in Baltimore, Maryland
2021Jonathan Hall, Isabel Shargo, Niya Khanjar, Jianna Howard, Laura Schmidt, Ashley Deng, Camryn Edwards, Isabelle Berman, Joseph Galarraga, Sacoby Wilson · Environmental Justice · United States
This study in Baltimore, Maryland, used GIS mapping and spatial analysis to assess the proximity of urban farms to environmental hazards, including those with heavy metal contamination. Analyses indicated that contamination of urban farms is a possibility due to proximity: more environmental hazards were found in census tracts with urban farms, and low-income communities of color had hazards near urban farms. Historically industrial areas showed a higher concentration of environmental hazards with heavy metal or unknown contamination.
Contamination & food safetyHealthCommunityUrban–rural linkagePolicyTHEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL APPROACHES TO THE FORMATION OF URBAN AGROLANDSCAPE STRUCTURES
2021Viktoria Shchurova · Current problems of architecture and urban planning · Ukraine (Kiev)
This article highlights the problems of the negative impact of the agricultural sector integrated into the central and middle zones of large cities. A critical view was formulated on the practical implementation of scientific and legislative documents, using the example of the city of Kiev, and strategies for reorganization, restrictions, or a complete ban on estate development in urban environments were analyzed. Specific plots of estate development in Kiev were identified as requiring reconstruction or complete renovation in accordance with the city's strategic development concept.
Environmental trade-offsPolicyUrban–rural linkageClimate changeCommunityChanging Agriculture and Climate Variability in Peri-Urban Gurugram, India
2021Pratik 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.
Economic viabilityPeri-urban agricultureClimate changeEconomicsUrban–rural linkageTowards Green Rusunawa: Clean Water Utilization, Composting, and Urban Farming in Muara Baru Flats
2021Dion 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.
Governance failureCommunityCompostUrban–rural linkageClimate changeNature-based solutions as discursive tools and contested practices in urban nature’s neoliberalisation processes
2020Panagiota Kotsila, Isabelle Anguelovski, Francesc Baró, Johannes Langemeyer, Filka Sekulova, James J. Connolly · Environment and Planning E Nature and Space · Spain (Barcelona)
This paper analyzes nature-based solutions (NBS) as discursive tools that create an inviting space for nature's neoliberalization processes, examining two city-initiated projects in Barcelona, Spain: the Passeig de Sant Joan green corridor and the Espai Germanetes community garden. The study found that urban nature can serve elite economic players at the expense of widespread socio-ecological benefits. It also noted that outcomes regarding neoliberalism and its contestation were very distinct between the two projects due to different forms of governance.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkage‘Locationally disadvantaged’: planning governmentalities and peri-urban agricultural futures
2020Laura Wynne, Laure‐Elise Ruoso, Dana Cordell, Brent Jacobs · Australian Geographer · Australia (Sydney)
This paper investigates metropolitan-level strategic planning documents in Sydney, Australia, using a Foucauldian governmentality approach, to understand how they relate to peri-urban agriculture. The analysis reveals that prevailing rationalities, including the global city, compact city, and sustainability agenda, frame the urbanization of peri-urban agricultural lands as necessary and inevitable. Consequently, peri-urban areas are not considered to have unique planning needs but are instead imagined as latent spaces for future housing and job development, integrating agriculture only when it aligns with the 'global city' narrative.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyUrban–rural linkageReflecting on the Potential and Limitations of Urban Agriculture as an Urban Greening Tool in South Africa
2020Elizelle Juaneé Cilliers, Louis Lategan, Sarel S. Cilliers, Karla Stander · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities · South Africa
This paper investigates urban agriculture (UA) in South Africa as a citizen-led urban greening strategy, reviewing case studies and the national policy framework. Key limitations include many UA initiatives not being self-sustaining or fully citizen-driven, a cultural stigma, limited national support due to the absence of a dedicated UA policy, and South African spatial planners' limited knowledge of UA. These issues hinder the broader implementation of UA.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageBarriers to urban agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa
2020Julia Davies, Corrie Hannah, Zack Guido, Andrew Zimmer, Laura E. McCann, Jane Battersby, Tom Evans · Food Policy · Sub-Saharan Africa
This study investigated the association between urban agriculture (UA) and household food security in smaller African cities and towns, using survey data from 2,687 low- and low-middle income households in 18 urban areas with populations of less than 200,000 across Zambia and Kenya. The analysis found that 33% of households in the sample engaged in UA, but there was limited statistical significance in the relationship between UA and household food security. Key barriers identified were settlement formality, property rights, and distance from food retailers.
Limited or null effectFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyUrban–rural linkageURBANISATION AND THE CONCERNS FOR FOOD SECURITY IN MALAYSIA
2020Azizan Marzuki, Ahmad Sahir Jais · PLANNING MALAYSIA · Malaysia
This qualitative exploratory review, based on a Systematic Literature Review of secondary data, investigated the connection between urban sprawl and its impact on agricultural productivity and food security in Malaysia. The study found that urbanization did affect Malaysia's food security self-sufficiency level, particularly for land-intensive food products like vegetables and livestock, due to the conversion of agricultural lands.
Limited or null effectFood sovereignty & justicePolicyUrban–rural linkageTerritorializing the Urban-Rural Border in Medellín, Colombia: Socio-Ecological Assemblages and Disruptions
2020Colleen Hammelman, Alexis Saenz-Montoya · Journal of Latin American geography · Colombia (Medellín)
In Medellín, Colombia, large infrastructure projects by the local government, intended to transform the city, have contributed to a neoliberal sustainability agenda. Data from community meetings (2015-2017) with displaced people engaged in subsistence urban agriculture revealed that these projects exclude marginalized residents from newly valued "natural" commons. This territorialization strategy controls peripheral spaces by including approved actors while dispossessing less powerful residents of their right to the city.
Equity & displacementUrban–rural linkageCommunityPolicyWelfarePolluted Waters Use in the Urban Agriculture and Its Impact on the Quality of the Grown Vegetables
2020Fabien Ilunga Mpanga, Michel Shengo Lutandula⃰ · The Global Environmental Engineers · Democratic Republic of Congo (Lubumbashi)
A study conducted in the Kasungami district of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, investigated the link between the use of polluted waters in urban agriculture and heavy metal contamination in soil and cultivated vegetables (amaranths, broccolis). Physicochemical and mineral analyses of water, soil, and plant samples revealed that heavy metals, except cobalt, were present in the water used for urban agriculture at concentrations below quality standards, but the soil contained heavy metals at phytotoxic concentrations. Only broccolis were contaminated with lead, while amaranths had heavy metals below quality standards. These findings suggest that urban agriculture in large agglomerations of the DRC could endanger consumers' health.
Contamination & food safetyHealthUrban–rural linkageMemory, waterways, and ecocultural identity
2020Jeffrey Alan Hoffmann · · United States
Hoffmann examined oral histories and interviews (1995-1996, 2014, 2017) with elders of multiple ethnicities in a working-class urban agricultural neighborhood in the U.S. Southwest. The study found that while ecocultural memory fosters trust in shared water relationships, historical anxieties stemming from urban development violence can impede communities' ability to organize to protect and restore ancestral waterways.
Equity & displacementCommunityUrban–rural linkageHeirloom & landraceSPATIO-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF THE PRACTICE OF URBAN AGRICULTURE IN LAGOS METROPOLIS AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR URBAN PLANNING
2020Dauda Rotimi Awoniran, Omotayo Ben Olugbamila, Emmanuel Olufemi Omisore · Analele Universităţii din Oradea Seria Geografie · Sub-Saharan Africa (Lagos)
This study examined urban agriculture practices and land use changes in Lagos Metropolis, Sub-Saharan Africa, over three decades using satellite imagery and primary data from four Local Government Areas. It found that cultivated lands decreased by 28.70% between 1986 and 2000, and by 19.25% between 2000 and 2016. Urban farmlands converted to other uses by 89.48% between 1986 and 2000, and by 75.64% between 2000 and 2016, indicating that food security is under threat as land for urban farmers shrinks.
Limited or null effectPolicyUrban–rural linkageEconomicsTra espansione urbana e sicurezza alimentare: il caso della Green Belt bonearense
2020Thomas Gilardi · Geography Notebooks · Argentina
In the Bonearense region, urban expansion is encroaching on fertile plains, impacting territorial characteristics. While urban and peri-urban agriculture contributes to food sustenance for the AMBA population, it has not been sufficiently recognized for green area recovery, organic waste recycling, and wastewater management. Regional authorities have begun to acknowledge urban agriculture's role in combating urban poverty, but local economic development faces challenges in mediating food security and recreational services amidst pressures from urban real estate and agro-industrial production.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justicePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsUrban–rural linkageUrbane Landwirtschaft im Ruhrgebiet
2020Ulrich Häpke · sub\urban zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung · Germany (Ruhrgebiet)
While statistical data demonstrates the significance of urban agriculture in German cities and metropolitan areas, urban agriculture faces the problem of constant land loss despite its proximity to consumers. The example of the Ruhrgebiet highlights challenges such as land loss and high proportions of leased land, indicating governance issues faced by urban agriculture.
Governance failureUrban–rural linkageEconomicsPolicyCommunityAccessibility of urban green infrastructure in Addis-Ababa city, Ethiopia: current status and future challenge
2020Sileshi Azagew, Hailu Worku · ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH · Ethiopia (Addis-Ababa)
This study assessed the status, accessibility, and constraints of urban green infrastructure (UGI) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It revealed that UGI land use decreased by 9.2% from 2003 to 2016, with urban agriculture declining by 11.9%. City residents lack sufficient recreational UGI, with park per capita at a very small 0.37 m² compared to Ethiopian standards of 15 m², and over 90% of the population lacking access to existing parks within walking distance. Major constraints identified include weak implementation of development plans, density, built-up area expansion, and lack of priority for UGI development.
Governance failurePolicyUrban–rural linkageEconomicsImpact of urban agriculture on business
2020Takeshi So · The Japanese Journal of Real Estate Sciences · Japan
This study discusses urban agriculture in Japan from three perspectives: suburban farming, urban farming, and isolated farming operations within urban areas. Despite its historical impact on urban planning, urban farmland has dramatically decreased and currently hinders real estate business and new business creation. It is suggested that economic rationality and public interest should be prioritized, and tax incentives for urban farmland should be reconsidered in a stepwise manner.
Economic viabilityEconomicsPolicyUrban–rural linkageUrban agroforestry and its potential integration into city planning efforts
2020Sarah Taylor Lovell · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Global
Despite increasing awareness and proposals for urban agriculture implementation, broad integration into the urban environment has not yet been observed. In most cities, the level of food production has not expanded significantly enough to impact the supply of vegetables, fruits, or other products. Key barriers limiting widespread adoption of urban agriculture include land access, zoning and tax policies, risks of soil and air contaminants, and urban forestry plans neglecting food security.
Governance failurePolicyUrban–rural linkageEconomicsCommunityUso e ocupação de áreas produtivas na Horta Comunitária EREMCC, Petrolina-PE
2020Lucas Ricardo Souza Almeida, Diego Cesar Alves Lima Verde, Hélder Ribeiro Freitas, Rita de Cássia Rodrigues Gonçalves Gervásio, Elson de Oliveira · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil (Petrolina)
This study analyzed land use and occupation seasonality at the EREMCC Community Garden in Petrolina, Brazil, from August 2018 to March 2019. In August 2018, 73% of the 6,200 m² garden area was uncultivated, indicating a large unexplored area for production. By March 2019, food production increased by 35.71%, with most beds cultivated with cabbage, coriander, and lettuce.
Limited or null effectCommunityUrban–rural linkageEconomicsПотенциални рискове от замърсяване на производството при земеделие в градска среда
2020Милена Йорданова, Вера Петрова, Цветелина Николова, Елена Цветкова, Milena Yordanova, Vera Petrova, Tsvetelina Nikolova, Elena Tsvetkova · Bulgarian Portal for Open Science · Global
This article considered the potential risks of contamination in urban agricultural products. Urban agriculture, particularly in large cities, areas with heavy traffic, or near industrial zones, can lead to the accumulation of heavy metals in vegetable crops due to air pollution, traffic pollution, and other sources. Consuming these contaminated fresh vegetables is noted to potentially deteriorate human health.
Contamination & food safetyHealthUrban–rural linkageConsuming the city: challenges and possibilities for foraging in Toronto’s parks
2020Anna Shortly, Thembela Kepe · Forests Trees and Livelihoods · Canada (Toronto)
This paper explores the opportunities and challenges of incorporating foraging practices into parks planning and management in Toronto, Canada, where foraging is often not permitted in urban parks. The study, based on a scan of practices and interviews, concludes that urban parkland managers should establish dedicated spaces like community orchards to safely and sustainably accommodate foraging, acknowledging current restrictions.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageUrban Agriculture in Ethiopia: An Overview
2020Amsalu Woldie Yalew · Regional Economic Development Research · Ethiopia
This paper provides an overview of urban agriculture in Ethiopia, synthesizing existing evidence on its role in the overall agricultural sector, urban economy, and urban employment, based on official reports and statistical surveys. Despite scant evidence, urban agriculture shows considerable contributions. However, the review reveals existing gaps in institutional and policy support for urban agriculture.
Governance failureEconomicsPolicyUrban–rural linkageEffect of changing urban farming landscape on financing livelihoods and food security of urban farmers’ households in Ghana
2020Mr. Isaiah ACQUAH, Dr.Sc. Joseph Ato FORSON, Dr.Sc. Theresa Yaaba BAAH-ENNUMH · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Ghana
This qualitative exploratory study in Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Ghana, investigated the effect of urban growth and concretization on urban farming households' livelihoods and food security. The study, using interviews and spatial imagery, found that urban farms face challenges due to inadequate land use planning and support, leading to a loss of farmlands. Significant challenges identified include limited farming space, limited resources, continuous increase in buildings, and inadequate education for urban farmers.
Governance failureUrban–rural linkageEconomicsFood sovereignty & justicePolicyAtmospheric sources of trace element contamination in cultivated urban areas: A review
2020Salvatore Engel‐Di Mauro · Journal of Environmental Quality · Global
This review examines atmospheric sources of trace element (TE) contamination in cultivated urban areas (CUAs), noting that these sources are understudied and poorly understood despite extensive research on TE contamination in CUAs. Existing research often assesses atmospheric deposition indirectly or lacks controls for other TE contaminants, and shows little engagement with atmospheric sciences methodological guidelines, which reduces confidence in current findings. The review suggests combining atmospheric science techniques with existing robust methodologies for TE contamination studies in CUAs.
Contamination & food safetyHealthUrban–rural linkage