Research & reports

Guadalupe Del Ángel-Lozano, Martha Elena Nava-Tablada · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Mexico

This study analyzed technical-productive and socioeconomic limitations to urban agriculture adoption within the Urban and Periurban Agriculture Network (RAUP) in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Based on 25 questionnaires from active members and 10 from sporadic participants, both groups agreed that the main constraints are socioeconomic, such as lack of space and limited free time, which are linked to urban lifestyles. Technical-productive limitations were not considered relevant.

Guadalupe Del Ángel-Lozano, Martha Elena Nava-Tablada · Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems · Mexico (Xalapa)

This study analyzed technical-productive and socioeconomic limitations to urban agriculture adoption among members of the Network of Urban and Periurban Agriculture (RAUP) in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Researchers applied 25 questionnaires to active members and 10 to non-practicing participants. Both groups of RAUP participants identified socioeconomic factors, such as lack of space and limited free time due to urban lifestyles, as the main constraints, while technical-productive limitations were not considered relevant.

Nicole Paganini, Stefanie Lemke, Inês Raimundo · ECONOMIA AGRO-ALIMENTARE · Sub-Saharan Africa

This research explored the potential of urban agriculture in Cape Town, South Africa, and Maputo, Mozambique, through two baseline surveys among urban farmers and home gardeners, as well as qualitative in-depth interviews. Findings indicated that urban farmers and home gardeners add nutrients and diversity to their diets and can partly contribute to their income. However, in Cape Town, main challenges included access to local and external markets, fair pricing, and sovereignty in production.

Jessica Cook, Kate Oviatt, Deborah S. Main, Harpreet Kaur, John Brett · · India (Delhi)

This paper explores market-oriented urban agriculture along the Yamuna River in Delhi, India, from the farmers' perspective. Using a multi-method Rapid Assessment Process, the study investigates how urban agriculture is practiced and what factors influence farmers' livelihood decisions. The research argues against assuming the sustainability of urban agriculture, emphasizing the need to understand city-level conditions and their impact on farmers' economic viability.

Catherine Dobbins · Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science · United States (Arkansas)

This mixed-method needs assessment in Arkansas investigated urban agriculture, using interviews with 16 urban farmers and a quantitative survey of County Extension Agents (CEAs) with a 57% response rate. Farmers expressed varied needs, and while they viewed the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) positively, CES lacked specific resources for small-scale sustainable farming. The survey revealed that 70.2% of CEAs reported low or nonexistent concentrations of urban farming in their counties, indicating potential barriers for agents to work with urban farmers.

Michael Osei Asibey, Mohammed Abubakari, Charles Peprah · Cogent Food & Agriculture · Ghana

This paper investigated how urban farmers in Ejisu-Juaben Municipality, Ghana, cope with input and crop price fluctuations. Data from 380 respondents identified four major factors influencing input price volatility (oil prices, exchange rates, cocoa producer prices, and inflation), but farmers had no coping strategies for these. Crop price fluctuations were influenced by natural and demand/supply factors, and farmers coped by adding value to crops and diversifying income sources, among others. However, shifting to cocoa cultivation and farming in flood plains was shown to have adverse environmental and ecological implications.

Glenda Maria Braga Abud, Maria Lúcia Bahia Lopes, Rosália do Socorro da Silva Corrêa, Ruth Helena Cristo Almeida · Revista em Agronegócio e Meio Ambiente · Brazil (Benevides)

A descriptive survey was conducted with 25 producers in Benevides municipality, Pará State, Brazil, to analyze the contribution of flower and ornamental plant production to local development. The activity was found to be essentially subsistence-based, with low articulation among producers and technological and productive limitations. These aspects resulted in a restricted capacity to contribute to development in the studied municipality.

Edgar Ortiz-Mena, Jairo Ricardo Mora-Delgado · Revista de Ciencias Sociales · Colombia (Sonsón)

This hermeneutic study analyzed the Urban Agriculture Program in Sonsón, Colombia, which aims to improve the living conditions of violence victims. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation with 40 elderly beneficiaries over two months, it was found that while 40% improved their diet through broiler chicken training, beneficiaries perceived that the taught production techniques were time-consuming and did not lead to short-term cost reduction or income increase. The study concludes by recognizing the perceptions and adaptation strategies of families facing change.

Lemi Gonfa · · Africa

This paper reviewed the role of urban agriculture in socio-economic and environmental sustainability in Africa, drawing on theoretical and empirical literature. While urban agriculture is recognized for job creation, improved diet, and environmental benefits like urban greenery and biodiversity, challenges such as difficult land access, lack of experience, financial support, training, and credit facilities, as well as low land productivity, animal grazing, and theft, were identified. These factors present potential negative externalities and hinder the development of urban agriculture.

Shawna Holmes · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada

Interviews with school food environment staff across Canada examined how provincial nutrition regulation changes affected food procurement. While the regulations opened opportunities to improve nutrient content and involve local producers or school gardens, some schools struggled to procure nutritionally compliant food because of higher costs of transporting produce to rural, remote or northern communities and logistical problems such as spoilage. Regulations improved food environments in some schools, but others still require more support.

Will Thompson · Plinth · United Kingdom

Published 12 June 2019, this piece estimates that UK charities spend around 15.8 million hours a year on grant monitoring reports, roughly £204 million in staff time. It assumes an average of 40 hours per grant, about 391,280 grants distributed per year and an average grant of around £50,000. Charities with at least one full-time-equivalent member of staff typically juggle five to ten different funders, each asking for similar information in different formats at different times, so the administrative load accumulates without producing learning. The estimate draws on interviews with ten people at small and medium charities reporting to six local authorities and more than fifty funders.

S. Alan Walters, Karen Stoelzle Midden · Agriculture · Global

Vegetable production on green roofs faces multiple challenges, resulting in minimal current activity despite its potential for urban agricultural sustainability. While intensive green roof systems are considered suitable for vegetable production, extensive systems with shallow-rooted crops like lettuce, kale, and radish show the greatest potential for sustained productivity due to building weight restrictions. Deeper-root crops like tomatoes require constant monitoring of fertility and moisture. Green roofs are not presented as a total solution for urban food provision.

Mark Paul · Journal of Agrarian Change · United States (Massachusetts)

This paper evaluates the livelihoods of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts from their perspective. Results indicate that while CSA farmers earn more farm income than other U.S. farms on average, they still earn far below the median national income and generally fail to earn a living wage. Despite these economic findings, farmers stressed the importance of broader social, ecological, and economic benefits to farming. The study concludes that CSA has largely failed to provide adequate livelihoods for farmers to date.

Robert McDougall, Paul Kristiansen, Romina Rader · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · Australia

This study evaluated small-scale urban agriculture systems in Australia using economic and emergy (embodied energy) analyses. While these systems used land efficiently, they were relatively inefficient in their use of material and labor resources. Benefit-to-cost ratios demonstrated that, on average, the gardens ran at a financial loss, and emergy transformity was one to three orders of magnitude greater than many conventional rural farms. Only 14.66% of all inputs were considered "renewable," resulting in a moderate mean environmental loading ratio (ELR) of 5.82.

Fabrice Dossa · Agricultural Research & Technology Open Access Journal · Benin

A study in southern Benin surveyed 60 onion farmers across three municipalities (Grand-Popo, Cotonou, Sm-Kpodji) using quantitative and qualitative methods. It found onion production to be financially profitable, with performance enhanced by age, experience, and producer group membership, and improving socio-economic and food situations. However, significant constraints include financial, institutional, organizational, property, and production-related issues.

Khadija Benis, Rukaia Gashgari, Adnan Alsaati, Christoph Reinhart · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · Saudi Arabia (Riyadh)

The Urban Foodprints (UF) methodology was applied to assess the environmental sustainability of high-yield urban agriculture in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, focusing on tomatoes. While urban production in high-yield greenhouses could reduce Global Warming Potential by 9% and water savings were significant, the energy needs of these greenhouses were considerably higher than the baseline. This indicates a trade-off where environmental benefits are partially offset by increased energy consumption.

Gregory Astill, Darlington Sabasi, Johnson Gwatipedza, Astill, G., Sabasi, D., Gwatipedza, J. · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · United States

This study examined the relationship between direct marketing strategies and technical efficiency among U.S. farmers using stochastic frontier analysis. On average, farmers employing direct marketing strategies were found to be less technically efficient than those who do not. However, for the largest quantile of growers, direct marketing users were more technically efficient.

Georgia Pollard, James Ward, Philip Roetman · Sustainability · Australia (South Australia)

This paper explores the economic sustainability of home food gardens in South Australia using new data from the Edible Gardens project online survey. While saving money is a top motivation for many respondents, the study notes that it remains to be seen whether current gardening practices actually support this aspiration. The paper concludes that more work is needed to measure the full costs of different gardens to better predict their financial accessibility and economic sustainability.

Mitch Rose · Antipode · United States (Detroit)

This paper discusses the Detroit urban farming movement, conceptualizing the economy as an over-productive and wasteful system of energy exchange. It argues that the inefficient, redundant, and wasteful nature of urban farming in Detroit is an appropriation of potentialities within the general economy. The study highlights that diversity is not a result of positive relations but emerges from the prolific nature of the general economy.

Károly Kacz, Ádám Varga · Annals of the Polish Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists · Europe

A survey in the Western Transdanubia region investigated major problems in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) within short food supply chains, involving farmer organizations and consumers. The analysis identified the insufficient market power of CSA organizations as the most influential factor. This finding suggests a significant constraint on the effectiveness of CSA models in the region.

Rodrigo Clemente GOIS, Flamarion Dutra Alves, Evânio dos Santos Branquinho · Geografia (Rio Claro) · Brazil (Alfenas)

This article aims to characterize urban and peri-urban agricultural activities in Alfenas, Brazil, and analyze the encroachment of real estate speculation on these properties. It notes that Alfenas has seen an increase in residential developments occupying areas previously used for livestock and agriculture. The study suggests organic farming as a viable alternative to mitigate socio-environmental problems arising from this encroachment.

Marina Silalahi, Lauresius Sihotang, Sunarto Sunarto, Fajar Adinugraha, Adisti Ratna Puri · · Indonesia (Cianjur)

A survey was conducted among 21 students at Pusaka Junior High School in Cianjur, Indonesia, to assess their understanding of hydroponic farming. Students knew the definition, methods, maintenance, and production of hydroponic plants, but literally interpreted that media like sand could not be used. While many students had experience with hydroponic farming, they claimed it was more expensive than conventional farming.

Annie Svensson · · Sweden

This research investigated the economic sustainability of 14 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in Sweden through interviews. The study found that Swedish CSA farms had difficulties covering labor costs and suffered from inefficiency, indicating weak economic sustainability. The study did not identify specific approaches or business models that were more conducive to higher profitability.

Cristh Ellen Ferreira Pinheiro, Hélder dos Anjos Augusto, Cledinado Aparecido Dias, Fábio da Silva Gonçalves, Marcelo Oliveira · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil (São Paulo)

This study in Montes Claros, MG, Brazil, investigated the reality of urban farmers commercializing vegetable production to propose multidisciplinary extension and research actions. It identified agricultural production regions, the main functions of urban agriculture from the farmers' perspective, and the difficulties faced by these producers. The analysis highlighted the need for multidisciplinary approaches due to the identified demands, implying challenges in economic viability.

Timothy J. Kidd · Great Plains research · United States (Iowa)

Based on qualitative research conducted from 2008 to 2012 in Iowa, this book illustrates the complexities and challenges faced by small farms producing local foods in a commodity-driven state. It provides case studies on the difficulties in balancing small farm profitability and social impacts for those involved in community-supported agriculture, farmers' markets, and farm-to-school produce. The research also reveals that popular assumptions about local food, including consumers becoming informed advocates for sustainable agriculture, are oversimplifications.