Research & reports

Pastory Salvatory Thomas, Wilbard Kombe, Aldo Lupala · International Journal of Social Science Research and Review · Tanzania

In-depth interviews with 60 purposefully selected respondents in the Daraja Mbili and Lemala wards of Arusha City, Tanzania, examined how diverse stakeholder perceptions of urban agriculture affect its governance. Farmers and agricultural officers viewed urban agriculture positively because their livelihoods and professional interests were tied to it, while urban planners and environmental officers were skeptical, citing a lack of evidence for its value, and implementation and enforcement of related policies and bylaws had not succeeded. Farming in environmentally sensitive areas violated bylaws, yet encroachment by farmers with no alternative land continued. The study concludes that urban agriculture cannot be effectively governed, even where policy and bylaws exist, as long as the actors involved perceive it negatively.

Abdelkarim Hamrita, Daniel Ferrer Jiménez, Hichem Rejeb · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities · Africa

A 2022 study analyzed the peri-urban agrifood system of the Sousse urban agglomeration, one of the most important in Tunisia, from a landscape perspective. It finds that clearly deficient regulations combined with uncontrolled urban development, together with intersecting political, environmental and economic factors, are threatening the survival of a traditional, largely family-based agricultural model built on mixed or polyculture production with predominant olive groves — a model the study describes as vital to the economic maintenance of many families and to food security. Using the Landscape Character Assessment methodology, the study proposes a landscape-project tool to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of peri-urban agriculture and prevent the loss of landscape heritage. It also points to the importance of integrating green infrastructure into land-use planning and to the need to promote Agricultural Parks, a protected status already recognized in Spain and other countries, putting forward specific proposals for the Sousse peri-urban agricultural landscape while insisting on the need to reform current forms of governance.

Ferdi Gultom, Sugeng P. Harianto · Jurnal Analisa Sosiologi · Indonesia

Using dependency theory, this literature study analyzes the decline of the agricultural sector in urban Indonesia, arguing that the government's focus on industrial-sector development, mediated through a central state-satellite relationship, has drawn in the modern sector at agriculture's expense, manifested in widespread conversion of urban agricultural land. Drawing on news sources and journals and analyzing data with the Miles and Huberman model, the study finds that the urban agricultural sector is fading as farmland is increasingly converted to industry, infrastructure and settlements, and that farmer regeneration has declined due to reduced interest in becoming a farmer.

Sandra Boatemaa Kushitor, Shawn Alimohammadi, Paul Currie · PLOS Sustainability and Transformation · South Africa

An ethnographic study using in-depth interviews and participant observation, conducted April to November 2020 with thematic analysis, examined the role of the informal food sector in food flows in Cape Town, South Africa, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The informal food sector has historically been subject to exclusionary urban policies, and lockdown regulations caused food flows through the sector to cease, resulting in job loss and increased food insecurity. The sector subsequently reshaped food flows through urban agriculture, food aid programmes and community change, though it can also hinder urban modernisation. The study concludes regulatory frameworks need to be more inclusive of the sector.

Bárbara Corneli Colombatto · enREDando · Argentina

Built around interviews with huerteros (urban gardeners), this piece presents both the achievements and the limits of Rosario's urban agriculture: 7 Park Gardens and 6 group gardens involving over 250 people, 25 hectares producing 2,500 tonnes a year, and a $250,000 international prize won in 2021. It also documents organizational fragmentation among gardeners, a lack of secure land-loan agreements (comodatos), the absence of sustained public investment matching the programme's international recognition, and unresolved conflicts with neighbors that the municipality does not intervene in. It cites a regional statistic that only 18% of farms in Latin America and the Caribbean are run by women.

Barbara Sowińska-Świerkosz, Malwina Michalik-Śnieżek, Alicja Bieske-Matejak · Sustainability · Poland

This study analyzed the potential of allotment gardens (AGs) in Poland to be considered nature-based solutions (NBS), examining their use of green/blue infrastructure, problem-solving capabilities, benefits, and economic efficiency. The study identified institutional barriers, irregular distribution of benefits, and deficiencies in economic efficiency as significant obstacles. It concluded that AGs, while a type of unsophisticated NBS, have limited effectiveness.

Dominika Dymek, Agnieszka Wilkaniec, Leszek Bednorz, Magdalena Szczepańska · Sustainability · Poland

This study in Poznań, Poland, examined the significance of allotment gardens in the urban green space system and developed a classification method for urban planning. While over 30% of allotment gardens were found to be of high significance, urban planning documentation indicates plans to reduce their area. Even highly significant gardens are slated for liquidation, highlighting a conflict between their ecological value and current urban development plans.

Chethika Gunasiri Wadumestrige Dona, Geetha Mohan, Kensuke Fukushi · Sustainability · Global

This systematic literature review analyzed 54 articles on urban agriculture, examining socio-economic context, agriculture models, opportunities, and challenges. The review found that academic literature favors community gardens in developed countries and gives comparatively less attention to identifying challenges, benefit groups, and government support for urban agriculture.

Victoria Schoen, Chris Blythe, Silvio Caputo, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Kathrin Specht, Agnès Fargue‐Lelièvre, Nevin Cohen, Lidia Poniży, Konstancja Fedeńczak · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global North

This 2021 paper, based on data collected in summer 2020 from five Global North countries (France, Germany, Poland, UK, USA), examined the effects of COVID-19 on urban farms and gardens. The pandemic presented multiple challenges, including loss of support services, lost income, and reduced output due to labor supply issues. It also created opportunities like new local markets and increased community cohesion, demonstrating how gardens adapted to become more resilient.

Christina Ergas · · Cuba

This chapter examines Cuba's urban agricultural food production, which developed through top-down government initiatives that later decentralized and subsidized local efforts in response to resource scarcity. While Cuban urban farmworkers' cooperatives enable local residents to sell produce at low costs, the program still faces social environmental stumbling blocks despite its successes in achieving high human development with a small ecological footprint.

Gabriela de Azevedo Marques, Iara Rafaela Gomes · Boletim Goiano de Geografia · Brazil

This empirical study analyzed the socio-spatial development of Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (AUP) in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, examining both spontaneous agricultural activities and municipal institutional actions. While AUP holds significant relevance in the city, particularly in peripheral areas, governmental initiatives were found to be sporadic and discontinuous, lacking a broader institutional agenda. The study concluded that despite recent municipal efforts, legal and institutional support for AUP remains weak, leading to the rapid disappearance of productive spaces and indicating that institutional actions have not effectively fostered the socio-spatial development of spontaneous initiatives.

Sònia Callau-Berenguer, Anna Roca-Torrent, Josep Montasell-Dorda, Sandra Ricart · Investigaciones Geográficas · Spain (Barcelona)

This study analyzed the food system behavior in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, Spain, during the initial stage of the Covid-19 pandemic (March-May 2020). Semi-structured interviews with 11 peri-urban entities and institutions revealed shortcomings in the operation and logistics of the metropolitan food system. Findings also indicated complicity between local producers and urban consumers, the role of peri-urban agricultural areas in food supply, and a need for cooperation among food system agents.

Sofia Nikolaidou · Cahiers de la Méditerranée · Greece (Athens)

This article analyzed the role of peri-urban agriculture and alternative food networks (AFN) in the Athens metropolitan area, Greece, using a mixed method approach including qualitative, quantitative research, and spatial data collection. Bottom-up claims for food security positively impacted sustainable food systems and public policies, while informal retail channels and self-production schemes strengthened agricultural resilience. However, poor land management and zoning control are major constraints to sustainable agricultural production and farmers' resilience in the Athens metropolitan area.

Irene Håkansson · Local Environment · United Kingdom (London)

This paper critically examines urban experimentation for sustainability, arguing that urban experiments are often assessed from a diffusion-oriented perspective that over-emphasizes unifying visions and neglects unsuccessful initiatives. Using a novel methodological approach combining a metropolitan geodemographic typology with qualitative data on 166 active and inactive urban agriculture initiatives across London, the paper demonstrates that neglecting the diversity of urban socio-economic, demographic, and physical contexts may lead to the erroneous suggestion that only demographically privileged places can achieve sustainability. It highlights that contextual differences at neighborhood levels significantly influence socio-spatial patterns of experimentation.

Pastory Salvatory Thomas, Wilbard Kombe, Aldo Lupala · Current Urban Studies · Tanzania (Arusha)

This study examined factors characterizing changes in the nature and value of urban agriculture in Arusha City, Tanzania, a rapidly urbanizing city, through in-depth interviews with 60 respondents in Daraja Mbili and Lemala wards. Findings revealed that limited access to ideal urban agriculture areas leads some farmers to acquire small plots in unlawful areas, restricting livestock numbers and crop types, and reducing their ability to meet food needs. While uncontrolled agricultural practices accelerate environmental degradation and pollution, they also support the livelihoods of needy farmers; however, the study concluded that urban agriculture cannot thrive without adequate access to agricultural land and a strong institutional framework.

Akeem Ola · Town and Regional Planning · Nigeria (Ilorin)

This study examined the effects of urban planning practices on urban agriculture (UA) in Ilorin, Nigeria, and its contribution to the city's food shock resilience. Findings revealed that UA contributed 16.9% to meat/fish/egg requirements, 4.5% to yam/cassava/potato, 0.58% to vegetables, 0.6% to fruits, and 0.5% to grain requirements. However, the Respondents’ Agreement Index (RAI) indicated that poor access to finance (0.93), limited land area (0.75), and lack of tenure security (0.44) were dominant variables influencing UA's poor contribution to food security.

Sandra Patricia Montenegro Gómez, Yulian Adalberto Sepúlveda Casadiego · Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia eBooks · Colombia

This paper contextualizes relevant experiences and technical tools for implementing urban and peri-urban agroecological orchards in Colombia. It notes that urban and peri-urban agriculture can alleviate food insecurity and create jobs, but currently, Colombia lacks government policies to support these processes. The study aims to transfer knowledge on crops to communities to strengthen food security through vegetable production.

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore · Southern cultures · United States

This article examines urban gardening practices by women in the New South during the early 20th century, which provided self-sufficiency and profits. It chronicles how urban planners and zoning eliminated most of these urban gardening opportunities by the late 1930s. The study considers these practices through two collages by artist Romare Bearden, focusing on the gardener Maudell Sleet.

Cecília Delgado · RPER · Portugal

This article examines the potential for urban agriculture practices to foster food policy formulation and implementation in Portugal. An inquiry involving 16 local municipalities identified constraints and opportunities for local initiatives. The study argues that Portuguese civil society's relative fragility, compared to other countries, may explain the lack of local public food policies, despite confirming national and local opportunities.

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.

Sandra Schwindenhammer, Denise Gonglach · Politics and Governance · Germany

This qualitative and participatory case study in Germany examined the governance implications of an emerging technology in urban agriculture that connects wastewater treatment and agricultural production for urban hydroponics. The analysis found that while this technology has the potential to facilitate SDG implementation, it simultaneously creates new sector interlinkages between water and food, leading to policy demands that necessitate more integrated policymaking.

Meredith Gaglio · · United States

The "Ecotopia" concept, promoting ecologically and socially responsible American Appropriate Technology (AT), included innovative urban planning like rooftop gardens. However, the expansion and contraction of the intranational Ecotopian network built by former Rainmakers in the mid-to-late 1970s revealed a crisis of purpose within RAIN and signaled a crisis within the AT Movement itself.

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.

Arthur Feinberg, Elena Hooijschuur, Nicole Rogge, Amineh Ghorbani, Paulien Herder · Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation · Europe

This paper presents an agent-based model to explore conditions for sustained participation in urban community gardening projects in Europe, validated with data from Germany and the Netherlands. The study found that not all of Ostrom's Design Principles for collective action lead to higher participation; instead, participation depends on specific combinations of these principles. It also highlights that sanctioning mechanisms are not always beneficial and can be counter-productive in certain contexts for volunteer participation.

Benjamin Selwyn · The Journal of Peasant Studies · Global

This article argues that a Green New Deal (GND) for agriculture must actively combat environmental degradation, social inequality, and labor exploitation, rather than merely aiming to restart capitalist economies. It identifies key areas for discussion and political action, including the reorientation of state subsidies, workers' rights, agrarian reform, the decommodification of food, agroecology, urban agriculture, new technologies, and rewilding.