Research & reports

Tony Ngwenya, Pfano Mashau · Problems and Perspectives in Management · South Africa (Durban)

This study investigated institutional support for youth-owned Small, Medium, and Micro-Enterprises (SMMEs) in Durban's urban agribusiness sector using a quantitative methodology. Findings indicated that CSR interventions had not yielded a fundamental impact, and there was a lack of tangible, result-driven institutional support from policymakers and authorities. Furthermore, targeted technological transfer was a constraining factor, and a lack of monetary and non-monetary access hampered the SMMEs' competitiveness and profitability.

Nisa Maidah Rahmawati, Joko Winarno, Agung Wibowo · · Indonesia (Jakarta)

This study investigated community empowerment activities through urban farming in Marunda flats, North Jakarta. The flats' irrigation has deficiencies and group working is not yet fair, leading the society to choose to do agriculture activities by themselves. The research identified external factors (natural resources, environments, group dynamics, networking, human resources, policy, facilities and infrastructure) and internal factors (skill, non-formal education, and income) that obstruct empowerment activities.

Noriah Othman, Siti Zabeda Mohammad, Nurhayati Abdul Malek, Mohd Ali Waliyuddin A. Razak · Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal · Malaysia

This study was conducted in Malaysia to identify deterrent factors hindering "community buy-in" in urban farming projects and to understand how to overcome these problems. The research aims to identify these factors to achieve and sustain community buy-in in urban farming projects in the future.

Jongwoo Kim · · South Korea

This study aimed to propose activation measures for school-based urban agricultural education in South Korea, using focus group interviews with teachers and literature analysis. Teachers reported a lack of school gardens, particularly open-field plots, and difficulties in management, highlighting the need for personnel. They also noted the use of container gardens to compensate for the lack of space and the selection of crops for student harvesting experiences.

Kyle Richardville · Purdue e-Pubs (Purdue University System) · United States

With Purdue University's campus and much of its surrounding area classified by the USDA as a food desert, this study surveyed graduate students using a voluntary 33-question online Qualtrics survey distributed campus-wide, to identify barriers to purchasing and consuming fresh produce and to participating in local urban agriculture, and to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic affected food access and motivation for healthy eating and community garden engagement. Results show many Purdue graduate students face both individual and structural barriers to accessing fresh fruits and vegetables, with international students particularly vulnerable to structural barriers; lack of access to a personal vehicle was the primary predictor of vulnerability, especially during the pandemic. Students expressed interest in participating in local urban agriculture initiatives but most were unaware such initiatives existed. A second objective of the study tested whether leaf mold compost could improve degraded urban soils.

Wendy Johanna Murcia Gulumá, Óscar Andrés Pérez Soler, Sindy Rodríguez Rodríguez · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This study provided advisory support to an urban garden in Bogotá, Colombia, named "Guerreros y Guerreras Unidos en Accion," which had been operating empirically since 2005 without formal legal status or strategic planning. The garden, primarily involving individuals over 50 without formal employment, sought to formalize its activities by establishing a foundation. The intervention aimed to guide the garden's members through the legal and administrative steps for formalization.

Alexandra Rodríguez Dueñas · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Ecuador (Quito)

Quito’s Participatory Urban Agriculture Project (AGRUPAR), launched in 2002, supports vulnerable populations by providing technical assistance, capacity building, and microcredit for urban farming, aiming for food security and employment. While integrated into local government and recognized with the Future Policy Silver Award 2018, the program faces significant challenges including administrative changes, budget cuts, and restrictive land-use legislation.

Mawuna Donald Houessou, B.G.J.S. Sonneveld, Augustin K. N. Aoudji, Fréjus THOTO, Smith A. R. Dossou, D. J. Snelder, Anselme Adégbidi, Tjard de Cock Buning · Sustainability · Benin

A study explored and compared international standards of prevailing organizations and their functioning among 261 urban gardeners in two cities in Benin. It found that a vast majority of urban gardeners are members of a cooperation. However, their membership is largely titular because gardeners mostly behave semi-autonomously, and few decisions are taken collectively. The obvious economic advantages of leveraging bargaining power, reducing transaction costs, and increasing possibilities for loans are seriously underutilized.

Ashenafi Tilahun Hailie · IGI Global eBooks · Global

This chapter assessed the benefits of urban agriculture in a study area, using qualitative and quantitative analysis aligned with a sustainable livelihood framework. Findings indicated that urban agriculture is sustained by sex indiscrimination, migrant dominancy, poor educational status, and agricultural background. While assets like land access and fertile soil were promising, skills, knowledge transfer, labor ability, and good health were found insufficient. Identified vulnerabilities included population explosion, absence of good governance, frequent natural calamities, land tenure insecurity, and seasonality of prices.

Jan Hassink, Lenneke Vaandrager, Yvette Buist, Simone R. de Bruin · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Global

A global study characterized nature-based adult day services (ADSs) for people with dementia (PwD) in urban areas and identified challenges. Interviews with 17 ADS providers revealed five types of services: social entrepreneurs, nursing homes, social care organizations, community gardens by citizens, and hybrid initiatives. General challenges included the availability of green urban spaces and acquiring funding. Specific challenges varied by type, including a lack of commitment among nursing staff in nursing homes, difficulty finding knowledgeable volunteers for community gardens, and work culture differences in hybrid models.

Jazmin Gomez · ScholarsArchive (Brigham Young University) · United States (New York City)

A narrative set in Harlem, New York City, follows three teenagers investigating an attack in a community garden. Their investigation uncovered valuable secret paintings and a politician's plot that threatened to ruin their neighborhood. The friends risked their lives to save both the rare masterpieces and their community's livelihood from this plot.

Virginia L. J. Bolshakova, John Gieng, C. Sheena Sidhu, Mary Vollinger, Lorena Gimeno, Jessica Guild · Journal of Youth Development · United States (California)

The "Healthy Living Ambassador" school garden program in low-income communities integrated resources from schools, community programs, and the University of California Cooperative Extension. This program utilized culturally competent teenagers as teachers to educate elementary school youth on healthy living. The successes and challenges of the program development were discussed, revealing that public schools often lack the resources and support to establish sustainable garden-based programming.

Michael J. Roy, Neil McHugh, Stephen Sinclair · Stanford Social Innovation Review · United Kingdom

Published 1 May 2018. The authors argue that Social Impact Bonds look like an ideology-neutral financing fix but carry significant technical problems and a troubling ideological shift. At the time of writing the UK had 32 SIBs; government had put in $28 million in 2012 and a further $113.4 million through the Life Chances Fund in 2016, with the UK market predicted to reach $1.4 billion by 2020, while the US had at least 10 SIBs and 19 more existed across 14 other countries. The Peterborough prison SIB's initial result was an 8.4 per cent reduction in reoffending. They find little evidence that SIBs encourage innovation, note the heavy administrative burden, and contend that prioritising investor returns over service users turns citizens into commodities.

Nadia Belinda, Dian Rahmawati · Jurnal Teknik ITS · Indonesia (Surabaya)

This study in Semampir District, Surabaya City, Indonesia, aimed to develop urban farming based on community preferences. It identified potentials and problems using theoretical descriptive techniques, identified community preferences using confirmatory factor analysis, and formulated development directions using qualitative descriptive analysis. The study found that urban farming activities in Semampir District had not developed optimally due to the suboptimal role of the community and local institutions.

Colleen Hammelman · CABI eBooks · Colombia

In Medellín, Colombia, displaced women utilize urban gardens as a survival strategy amidst food insecurity and tenuous support from local government. Urban planning permits these gardens under the guise of supporting displaced families, but also for preserving open space and halting the growth of informal settlements. This chapter provides a clear example of how urban planning impacts the critical survival strategy of growing food.

Never Mujere · CABI eBooks · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This case study in Harare City, Zimbabwe, examined an urban irrigated agriculture project's contribution to household food security and poverty alleviation, including crop types, productivity, and farmer challenges. It found that while urban irrigated smallholder agriculture contributes to livelihoods, numerous socio-economic factors impede greater participation. Furthermore, some participants withdrew due to security threats from perceived political affiliations.

Florence Chimbwanda · Journals & Books Hosting (International Knowledge Sharing Platform) · Zimbabwe (Masvingo)

This study investigated participants' attitudes and perceptions toward urban gardening in Mucheke town, Masvingo, Zimbabwe, using questionnaires, focus group discussions, and field observations with a sample of 40 participants. It found that urban gardening is important for the community and income generation, with participants reporting benefits like additional income, family consumption, and socialization. However, participants identified challenges including theft, dilapidated canals, a single water point, and limited market access.

Rúbio José Ferreira, Cláudio Jorge Moura de Castilho · Ateliê Geográfico · Brazil (Recife)

This text examines the place of urban agriculture and its practitioners in the urban planning process in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. The main results indicate that urban agriculture and urban farmers are not effectively considered by Recife's urban planning technicians. This may be due to urban agriculture being a social practice used by people from the "lowest layers" of society in a marginal area of the local urban economy.

Nyasha Chaminuka, Peter Makaye · Global Journal of Human-Social Science · Africa

This paper analyzes urban agriculture in Mkoba, Gweru, as a survival strategy for residents facing food insecurity and poverty, despite opposition from city authorities. It argues that urban agriculture is a resilient practice that has become a significant feature of urban livelihoods, often increasing the burden on women. The paper suggests that city authorities are losing the contest over urban spaces and should reform legislation to accommodate urban agriculture.

Walter Belik · Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional · Brazil

This article discusses the use of the Food and Nutritional Security concept in Brazil's Fome Zero Project and its implementation through various programs initiated in the past decade. It concludes by calling attention to the need to improve programs related to supply, food and nutritional education, and urban agriculture to enable the functioning of an integrated Food and Nutritional Security system.

Yang Feng-x · · China

A field investigation with detailed records examined the safety of park green spaces in major parks and community gardens in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China. Measured against a "people-oriented" guiding principle and a "select the auspicious, avoid the inauspicious" principle, the study identifies several safety hazards and unreasonable plant arrangements present in these park green spaces as irrational, and proposes methods and countermeasures to address them.

National Audit Office · National Audit Office (NAO) · United Kingdom

An investigation published by the UK National Audit Office on 29 October 2015. The children's charity Kids Company received at least £46 million of public funding over fifteen years, £28 million of it from the Department for Education. In 2008 it took 20 per cent of the funding available under one programme, and in 2011 it received over twice the amount given to any other grant recipient. Officials raised sustainability concerns in six separate briefings between 2002 and 2015, yet funding continued outside competitive processes; the charity closed insolvent on 5 August 2015 and around 1,900 cases were passed to local authorities.

Georgia Graham · Channel 4 News · United Kingdom

A fact-check on Kids Company, the charity founded in 1996 that operated in London and Bristol. It claimed to reach 36,000 children by 2015 and had received £46 million of public money over fifteen years — £44 million from central government, £28 million of that from the Department for Education. Its 2013 annual income was £23 million, 20 per cent from government and 77 per cent from private donations. The piece notes that government oversight relied on the charity's own self-assessments, with no independent verification of outcomes or beneficiary numbers.

Tim Cashion, I. Forbes, Irena Knežević · · Canada

This preliminary study in Nova Scotia, Canada, explored the initiation and sustainability of community food initiatives through in-depth interviews with coordinators. The research identified that these initiatives are in a precarious state due to reliance on volunteers, land ownership issues, and a lack of consistent funding. Despite these challenges, they persist through community support and coordinator dedication.

Kirstie Cadger, Thembela Kepe · Development in Practice · Botswana

Challenges facing community garden initiatives among the San of Botswana were analyzed through semi-structured interviews and participant observation in two San communities. The study found that the failure of the gardens related to how the San are treated and how they view their situation as destitute people. Forced resettlement, historical livelihood disruption, and government and NGO policies of development through welfare neglecting genuine empowerment were concluded to be responsible for the limited success of the community gardens.