Research & reports

Patrick Lubavu Kyamasa, Pascal Tshisuaka Kalombo, Aimée Mahamba Iyanabita, John Mbuyi Kamuena · European Scientific Journal ESJ · Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa)

This study examined environmental, technological, and socio-economic determinants influencing the ecological viability of AI integration in Kinshasa's peri-urban agriculture, which faces threats like soil degradation and inadequate infrastructure. A field survey of 411 farmers in the Kimwenza area found 86.13% viewed AI positively despite major structural constraints, including lack of electricity (78.83%) and digital illiteracy (54.99%). The study highlights the current lack of anticipatory public policies to address these constraints for a sustainable digital transformation.

Kadima Muamba Donatien, Kabaubabo Kalombo Jean- Jacques, Mavula Kikwe Alexis, Kako Gbolo Etienne · International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology (IJISRT) · Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)

Peri-urban agriculture in the Democratic Republic of Congo heavily relies on natural rainfall, leading to yield decreases of up to 50% and a lengthening of the crop cycle from 21 to 45 days during the dry season. This study proposes the design and implementation of an autonomous IoT-based irrigation system to optimize water use at Green Village, Kinshasa. The proposed solution aims to enable real-time adaptive irrigation, reducing water loss and stabilizing production.

Hanna Kye Pohanes, Samantha Andrea Farinas, Maricar Cangayao, Jasmin Mae dela Peña, Chinie King Ho, Jonalyn Palconit, Jholan Hazel Tabance, Divina Gracia Cabaddu, Ryan dela Peña · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Philippines (Navotas City)

This qualitative study in Navotas City explored the economic viability and marketability of aeroponics systems in urban agriculture. Findings indicate aeroponics requires high initial investment and faces challenges such as produce failing to meet specific weight standards for sale, high energy consumption, and high setup costs. While offering benefits like efficient resource use and high yields, further improvements in system efficiency and operational methods are needed for it to become a viable and scalable business model.

Carlos Luiz Vieira · · Brazil

This study analyzes protected cultivation and hydroponics in Brazil as technologies enabling full control of environmental variables and eliminating dependence on climate seasonality. These technologies demonstrate 80-95% reductions in water consumption, 300-500% increases in productivity compared to open fields, and complete elimination of agrochemical residues. However, the study also points out implementation challenges for these technologies, concluding they are fundamental for food security in contexts of accelerated urbanization, water scarcity, and global climate change.

Khushal Balram Muradi, V Siva Teja, Harshavardhan Mohan Totawar, Laxmi PS, Choudhari Balaji Keshavrao, Yogesh V Wayal, N Sravya, Jagmal P Khatana, Sruthi T, Deshmukh Sarita Babarao · International Journal of Advanced Biochemistry Research · Global

This study conducted a global review of vertical farming technologies and sustainability. Vertical farming shows significant savings in land and water consumption compared to traditional agriculture, yielding high production and quality for leafy greens, herbs, and some fruiting species. However, high energy demand remains a significant barrier to its sustainability and economic feasibility. Key research gaps include crop improvement for controlled settings, energy-efficient system design, renewable energy integration, and standardized frameworks for sustainability evaluation.

Thulisekari Prasanna, Guda Bhargavi, Murugesan Mohana Keerthi · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

This comprehensive review synthesizes literature on vertical and urban agriculture within sustainable food systems, identifying production models and technical advancements. Empirical evidence indicates these systems can improve water/land-use efficiency, yield stability, and reduce post-harvest losses. However, significant challenges persist, including high capital and energy prices, inadequate crop diversification, technical complexities, and regulatory constraints, impacting their economic viability.

Sasha Pesci, Ryan E. Galt · Agriculture and Human Values · United States (California)

This paper, based on 28 semi-structured interviews with direct market farmers in California, explores their experiences with market digitalization. It finds that while some farmers perceive online tools as eroding social and environmental connections, others view them as supportive of these connections, highlighting tensions in market digitalization for Alternative Food Networks.

Malsha Samarasiri, Wei Ning Chen · Sustainable Microbiology · Global

This review discusses advances in urban mushroom farming, its integration with computer-based technologies, safety considerations, and the potential of mushrooms and mycelium-based foods as future foods. Key safety considerations for urban mushroom farming systems include biological hazards, mycotoxins, heavy metal accumulation, and potential allergenicity. Macrofungal mycelium-based foods may be regarded as novel foods and require evaluation under novel food safety regulations.

Ivan Adidharma Riswandaputra, Nugroho Trisnu Brata · Jurnal Ekologi Masyarakat dan Sains · Indonesia (Semarang)

This study in Semarang City, Indonesia, analyzed the utilization of hydroponic systems by urban farmers engaged in commercial cultivation. Hydroponics serves as an adaptive strategy to address land scarcity, enhancing spatial efficiency, increasing cultivated plant numbers, and improving crop quality. However, implementing hydroponic systems faces challenges including relatively high initial investment costs, the need for meticulous and consistent maintenance, and consumer markets that differ from conventional agriculture.

Fahmi Alamil Huda, Paramita Wisnuwardhani · BESIRU Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat · Indonesia

This community service program addressed the critical constraint of limited marketing capability affecting small-scale organic hydroponic enterprises in Maospati, Magetan, Indonesia. Using a Participatory Action Research approach, the Urban Farming+ empowerment model improved the partner's marketing capability, strengthened product quality management, and facilitated initial business linkages. The study indicates that despite adequate production capacity, limited marketing remains a significant challenge for these enterprises.

Felipe Jardim, Eduardo Alberto Manjarrés Trelles, Caren Freitas de Lima · Revista de Direito da Cidade · Brazil

This study investigated the role of vertical urban agriculture in promoting the right to food in Brazil, considering the food system crisis as a problem affecting the right to the city. An inductive method with a qualitative approach, including literature review, documental research, and case studies from Japan, Singapore, Germany, the USA, and Brazil, revealed that vertical urban agriculture has "cons" when appropriated as a profitable system with restricted access products, and "pros" such as occupying vacant urban land and being produced by or supporting poor families.

Rui Ling, Sarah N. Strack, Anne Abbott, Haley Schneider, Aryn McLaren · Health Promotion Practice · Global

This qualitative study explored facilitators and barriers to implementing an electronic redemption system in a Healthy Food Incentive (HFI) program among farmers' markets, farm stands, and community-supported agriculture. Semi-structured interviews with HFI staff identified six facilitators and ten barriers, including a cumbersome registration process, technological difficulties, the risk of losing customers, and insufficient capacity. The evaluation highlighted the necessity of localizing technology dissemination.

Yizhi Zhang · · Global

This report systematically reviews the environmental performance of rooftop greenhouses, focusing on life cycle assessment (LCA) approaches. The review found that existing studies are limited, often case-specific, and use diverse methodologies, hindering comparisons. Environmental performance is highly context-dependent and influenced by methodological assumptions, with conventional LCA often failing to capture dynamic interactions between greenhouse operations, crop growth, and host buildings, leading to an incomplete representation of environmental performance.

Akhil S Anand, Hannes Pravida, Fredrik Fossan-Waage, Tormod Skorpe Skjolden, Giulia Robbiani, Younes Zahraoui, Emil Wolff Anthony, Jayaprakash Rajasekharan, Sissel Torre, Knut Asbjørn Solhaug, Sebastien Gros · Frontiers in Horticulture · Global

A paper on vertical farming — a controlled-environment agriculture system — examines its potential integration with energy markets. It states that vertical farming's economic viability is constrained by high capital and operational costs, a substantial share of which is energy expenditure, and explores how vertical farms could participate in day-ahead, balancing, and flexibility energy markets by adjusting lighting and climate-control energy use in response to market signals, potentially reducing costs and generating additional revenue. It identifies gaps in understanding of plant responses to variable lighting as a critical barrier to implementation and illustrates these integration challenges through small-scale laboratory experiments.

Paul Emile Tchinda, Thi-Thanh-Hiên Pham · Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes 70(3) · Cameroon (one large and one medium-sized city)

Urban agriculture appears in many sustainability agendas yet has been ignored in the public policies of many African countries. Combining multi-scale mapping (city and neighbourhood) with semi-structured interviews in one large and one medium-sized Cameroonian city, this study tests how well those techniques characterise urban agriculture for local decision-making. Mapping from 5-metre SPOT satellite imagery gives a general grasp of the spatial distribution of practices, but crop types, emerging entrepreneurial practices and the temporality of crops are invisible to it and surface only through field mapping and interviews. Echoing critical remote-sensing scholarship, the authors propose a methodological framework for profiling urban agriculture and argue that the choice of research method shapes our understanding of it, so it should be made with each city's specific characteristics in mind.

Paul Β. Thompson · · Global

This article discusses urban agriculture, noting that the decline of grocery stores in inner cities and projected vulnerabilities in megacities outside the global West suggest distinct moral imperatives. It contrasts urban agriculture with rural resilience and sustainable intensification, highlighting its focus on consumption and present needs. The article describes two urban agriculture archetypes: one embracing high-tech solutions and another emphasizing local solidarities and urban-based control over the food system.

Gokulakrishnan G, Navaneetha Krishnan T, Tamilselvan D, S Sanjeevkumar, Devaganesh A, Janani N, K. Arunadevi, Balaji Kannan · Madras Agricultural Journal · Global

This review explores vertical farming, a method that uses stacked layers in controlled environments for year-round crop production with reduced resource use. It assesses the environmental and economic advantages of vertical farming, while critically examining its limitations, including high energy demands and limited crop diversity. The study highlights that despite its potential, vertical farming faces challenges regarding economic viability due to high energy consumption.

Imran Ali Lakhiar, Haofang Yan, Tabinda Naz Syed, Chuan Zhang, Sher Ali Shaikh, Md Rakibuzzaman, Rahim Bux Vistro · Horticulturae · Global

A systematic review of soilless farming (SLF) systems globally identified their role in enhancing horticultural resilience in urban and peri-urban settings. SLF offers advantages like water conservation and increased yield, but faces significant challenges. High setup costs, substantial energy demands, and the requirement for specialized technical expertise continue to limit its widespread adoption.

Amjad Aljuhani, Rahaf Baghdadi, Wafaa Alzahrani, Deemah Aljuhani · · Saudi Arabia

This study examined the feasibility of vertical farming in Saudi Arabia, using mathematical optimization to identify optimal locations. A mixed-integer linear programming model, developed with AIMMS software, incorporated infrastructure compatibility, water availability, and energy consumption. Results identified seven optimal locations across five cities—Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Tabuk, and Khamis Mushait—ensuring efficient lettuce production at minimized costs. However, challenges such as high energy requirements and initial investment costs persist.

Muḥammad Iqbāl, Nurmelati Septiana, Ana Fitrotun Nisa · Frontier Agribisnis · Indonesia (Banjarbaru)

A qualitative descriptive study was conducted from May to December 2024 on the Cempaka Berkah group in Cempaka District, Banjarbaru City, Indonesia. This research aimed to analyze communication practices and patterns in the implementation of an urban farming program. The results indicated that active participation by group members led to a generally well-functioning communication process, though it still faced some communication barriers. The dominant communication pattern used by the group was a wheel pattern, where one person served as the information hub.

Sadiq Ur Rehman, Muhammad Adeel Mannan, Muhammad Ahsan Shaikh, Muhammad Uzair · Memoria Investigaciones en Ingeniería · Pakistan

In Pakistan, an IoT-based solar-powered smart vertical farming system was proposed to address agricultural challenges like water scarcity. A six-week trial cultivating cherry tomatoes showed the system achieved a 60-65% yield increase, 40% energy saving, and 28.57% water consumption reduction compared to traditional methods. However, limitations included the small trial size and lack of long-term environmental impact data, and scalability challenges such as cost, maintenance, and local restrictions need to be addressed for wider adoption.

Belghachi Mohammed · Advances in environmental engineering and green technologies book series · Global

Smart irrigation systems, integrating AI, machine learning, sensors, and IoT, aim to revolutionize agricultural water management by optimizing water usage tailored to crop needs and environmental conditions. While these systems offer benefits such as water conservation and improved yields, their implementation faces significant challenges including high costs, the need for technical expertise, data management complexities, and connectivity issues. Future prospects focus on advanced AI models, better sensors, renewable energy, and policy support to enhance the effectiveness and accessibility of these systems.

Nagwa Babiker Abdalla Yousif, Shadia Abdel Rahim Mohammed, Enaam Youssef, S. Behari · Sustainability · Sudan (Khartoum State)

An interview study was conducted with 100 female farmers in Omdurman’s Algamwai area, Khartoum State, Sudan, from 2022 to 2023. This research examined the intersection of gender, technology, and socioeconomic equity in digital urban agriculture. It showed that despite structural inequalities, including 45% restricted land ownership, 5% limited credit access, and inadequate extension services, female farmers are driving innovation and sustainability. Digital urban agriculture provides income opportunities (76% rely on it) and serves as a platform for equitable participation, though systemic disparities need to be addressed.

Abdulrazaq Kamal Daudu, S. A. Aderinoye-Abdulwahab, Oyedola Waheed Kareem, Alhassan Abdul‐Wakeel Karakara, Latifat Kehinde Olatinwo, Halimah Olayinka Egbewole · Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship · Nigeria (Southwest Nigeria)

This study surveyed 420 urban farming households in Southwest Nigeria to explore how gender influences access to e-logistics platforms and their impact on farm sales. Findings revealed significant gender gaps, with male-headed households more likely to use and benefit from e-logistics than female-headed households. Women faced additional constraints like limited credit and mobility, and while e-logistics improved overall farm sales and benefited poorer farmers relatively more, gains for women remained smaller than for men.

Peng Gao, Shuochen Xiao, Fara Diva Mustapa · Climate Risk Management · Global

This comprehensive review synthesized research on urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) globally, specifically within the context of its advantages, challenges, and climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, including technological innovations and policy frameworks. The review demonstrated UPA’s ability to advance social interactions, improve urban microclimates, mitigate the urban heat island phenomenon, and provide essential ecosystem services. However, UPA is limited by scarce land resources and soil contamination, along with water management challenges and regulatory frameworks.