Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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Critical findings
33 results(1 / 2)
Agricultural development in the peri-urban areas of Samarkand, Uzbekistan: Challenges and prospects
2025Firdavs Berdikulov, Iroda Orifjonova, Bekhzod Eshboev, Jumanazar Xolmurzayev, Bakhtiyor Abdusayitov · Springer Link (Chiba Institute of Technology) · Uzbekistan (Samarkand)
This study examined agricultural growth in Samarkand, Uzbekistan's peri-urban regions from 2000 to 2024, using government data and predictive modeling. It found that urban populations surged while arable land declined, and the vegetable surplus, though currently meeting demand, began shrinking around 2015, suggesting a tipping point toward shortages. The research indicates that without proactive measures like smarter land allocation and advanced irrigation, Samarkand risks a structural food deficit within a decade.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureFood sovereignty & justicePolicyClimate changePráticas agroecológicas em franjas urbanas do Sul Global
2025Victória Pansani Silveira Maia, Sílvia Aparecida Mikami Gonçalves Pina · Periódico Técnico e Científico Cidades Verdes · Global
This case study analyzed urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) experiences in India (Bangalore, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam) and an agroforestry system in Campinas, Brazil, using literature review, document analysis, and participant observation. The study identified common obstacles to agroecological practices, including land tenure insecurity, real estate pressures, lack of specific public policies, and uneven community engagement. It also highlighted potentialities such as care networks and food resilience, emphasizing the need for institutional support and public policies.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureCommunityPolicyClimate changeEconomicsAs produções agropecuárias na região metropolitana de Buenos Aires: contribuições para a sustentabilidade nas cidades
2025Gabriela Civeira, Florencia Rositano · Conicet · Argentina (Buenos Aires)
This study analyzed the environmental, social, and economic factors of agricultural production in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region (RMBA) across 28 municipalities, using National Agricultural Census data and an adapted ecosystem services (SE) estimation model. Findings indicated that 97.4% of small and medium-sized horticultural producers use conventional management, with only 2.6% employing non-conventional practices. Structural problems identified include informal labor, limited technical access, and urban pressure, highlighting the need for public policies to strengthen more sustainable production systems.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyLand Use Land Cover Analysis of Peri-Urban Area of Murad Memon Goth-Karachi
2024Anila Kausar, Viola Vambol, Sergij Vambol, Saima Sultana Sharfi · International Journal of Economic and Environmental Geology · Pakistan (Karachi)
This study conducted a Land Use Land Cover (LULC) analysis of Murad Memon Goth, a peri-urban area of Karachi, Pakistan, comparing data from 2013 and 2021. The results revealed a 9.6% increase in settlement sprawl, indicating significant encroachment on agricultural lands. Cropland area decreased from 38.86% in 2013 to 26.11% in 2021, highlighting a negative trend for peri-urban agriculture in the region.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureUrban–rural linkagePolicyReview of peri-urban agriculture as a regional ecosystem service
2023Setyardi Pratika Mulya, Heru Purboyo Hidayat Putro, Delik Hudalah · Geography and sustainability · Global
This 2023 global systematic literature review examined peri-urban agriculture (PUA) as an ecosystem service, focusing on urbanization pressures and governance. The review found that PUA is crucial for urban areas in terms of food supply, ecology, biodiversity preservation, disaster mitigation, and recreation. However, massive urban expansion is a primary cause of PUA loss, and sociocultural biases have led to institutional constraints on peri-urban management within existing political and regulatory frameworks.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureBiodiversityPolicyUrban–rural linkageUrban and peri-urban agriculture as a strategy for creating more sustainable and resilient urban food systems and facing socio-environmental emergencies
2022Andrea Fantini · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Global
This paper analyzes the functions of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as a strategy for sustainable and resilient urban food systems and for coping with global emergencies. It identifies various functions of UPA and how they connect, but also discusses obstacles to its large-scale implementation. The paper highlights that despite its potential, significant barriers hinder UPA's widespread adoption.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsThe loss of peri-urban agricultural land and the state-local tensions in managing its demise: The case of Greater Western Sydney, Australia
2022Amy Lawton, Nicky Morrison · Land Use Policy · Australia (Greater Western Sydney)
This study examines the drivers of peri-urban agricultural land loss in Greater Western Sydney, Australia, with a focus on the role of government agencies. It found that competing housing priorities and private market interests continue to take precedence over protecting agricultural land. The research indicates that this trend will persist unless the current pro-urbanization narrative and associated political priorities are altered.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsUrban–rural linkagePeri-urban agriculture and alternative food networks in Athens: Solidarity dynamics, spatial planning challenges and institutional reforms
2021Sofia 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.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityPolicy‘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 linkageTra 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 linkagePeri-Urban Agriculture in the Metropolitan Area of Rabat, Morocco: Potentials and Constraints
2020Fatiha Hakimi, Mohamed Brech · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Morocco
This study assessed the practices, potentials, and constraints of peri-urban agriculture (PUA) in Rabat Metropolis, Morocco, using field observation, interviews, and surveys with 50 randomly selected farmers. While PUA contributes to economic development, employment, and food supply, the study found significant legal constraints, including the absence of regulating laws and the obligation for some farmers to pay housing taxes. Technical constraints such as insufficient workforce, high labor costs, difficult access to irrigation water, and lack of training also hinder PUA growth.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureEconomicsPolicyDiagnostic Agronomique de la Riziculture Périurbaine dans la Commune de Ziguinchor au Sénégal
2019Maurice Dasylva, Ngor Ndour, Bienvenu Sambou, Sara Danielle Dieng · European Scientific Journal ESJ · Senegal (Ziguinchor)
In Ziguinchor, Senegal, the peri-urban rice farming system contributes to food security but is ignored by decision-makers and suffers from urbanization and physicochemical changes in rice field soils. An agronomic diagnosis, based on 180 yield squares (1/4m side) installed in 4 peri-urban valleys, showed average yields of 4.79 ± 0.35 t.ha-1. However, urbanization, silting, acidification, and progressive salinization of soils are the main limiting factors for this production system.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changePolicyMapping and Characterizing the Green Belt of Córdoba: Land Dynamics and the Urban-Rural Transformation Process
2019Nicolás A. Mari, Nicolás A. Mari, Beatriz Giobellina, Beatriz Giobellina, Alejandro Benítez, Alejandro Benítez, Victoria Marinelli, Victoria Marinelli, Victoria Marinelli · Journal of Agronomy Research · Argentina (Córdoba)
A study mapped and quantified urban growth and land use in Córdoba, Argentina's Green Belt. Using remote sensing and GIS, it evaluated urban growth between 1974 and 2014 and land use in peri-urban and rural areas in 2015. The study revealed a 46.5% urban area growth over nearly 40 years, alongside an increase in farm plot size, indicating land ownership concentration and a reduced number of producers. This transformation highlights a conflict between peri-urban horticulture, industrial agriculture, and urban development.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureUrban–rural linkagePolicyBiodiversityLa agricultura en los periurbanos de Buenos Aires (Argentina) y Santiago (Chile): Territorios en transición
2019María Carolina Feito, Sofía Boza, Santiago Peredo · Repositorio Digital Institucional de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (Universidad de Buenos Aires) · Argentina
This study focused on the reality of Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (AUPU) in Latin America, comparing cases in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area and the Santiago Metropolitan Region. Both cities form complex territories strongly related to their periphery, but the debate regarding AUPU's future development model remains open, reflected in contradictions even in public policies. The strong link between family farming and AUPU further complicates the situation due to the intrinsic limitations of family farming.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureFood sovereignty & justicePolicyEconomicsGlobal urbanization and food production in direct competition for land: Leverage places to mitigate impacts on SDG2 and on the Earth System
2019Stephan Barthel, Christian Isendahl, Benjamin N. Vis, Axel Drescher, Daniel Evans, Arjan van Timmeren · The Anthropocene Review · Global
Global urbanization and food production are in direct competition for land. Displacing crop production from urban and peri-urban land due to soil quality issues will demand a substantially larger proportion of the Earth’s terrestrial land surface than the area lost to urban encroachment. This risks triggering distancing effects, unfair social-ecological teleconnections, and amplifying effects within the Earth System, potentially leading to food riots in cities of the Global South. The paper identifies multi-level leverage points, specifically an advisory global policy aligned with regional policies enabling robust common property rights for bottom-up actors in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA), to navigate urban expansion away from fertile croplands.
Governance failurePolicyUrban–rural linkagePeri-urban agricultureFood sovereignty & justiceUrban and Peri-Urban Agriculture as A Pathway to Food Security: A Review Mapping the Use of Food Sovereignty
2018Michelle Tendai. Chihambakwe, Paramu Mafongoya, Obert Jiri · Challenges · Zimbabwe
This review maps the use of food sovereignty principles in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in Zimbabwe, addressing its potential for food security. Despite UPA being ingrained in urban households' livelihoods, institutional arrangements governing the practice remain ambivalent. The review underscores that the failure to involve all stakeholders undermines UPA, leading to heightened food insecurity and unsustainable practices.
Governance failureFood sovereignty & justicePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsPeri-urban agricultural land vulnerability due to urban sprawl – a multi-criteria spatially-explicit scenario analysis
2018Suranga Wadduwage · Journal of Land Use Science · Australia (Adelaide)
A multi-criteria spatially-explicit study in the Adelaide metropolitan area, Australia, investigated agricultural land vulnerability to urban sprawl under opposing policy directions. The study showed higher agricultural land vulnerabilities in “Business-As-Usual” and “Accelerated Economic Development” scenarios, extending into rural areas with a leap-frog effect. This confirms the need to sacrifice farmland uses to maintain land supply for urban development under these conditions.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyUrban–rural linkageSmells like politics: planning and the inconvenient politics of intensive peri‐urban agriculture
2017Andrew Butt, Elizabeth Taylor · Geographical Research · Australia (Victoria)
This paper analyzes planning appeals and media from 2011–2016 in Victoria, Australia, regarding intensive poultry developments, revealing tensions between planning processes and local politics. Planning for intensive farming assumes stability and agricultural primacy, but concerns about agricultural industrialization are live local issues in dynamic peri-urban areas. Code-based planning's certainty does not negate the ongoing, inconvenient politics of intensive peri-urban agriculture.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyCommunityLE MARAICHAGE EN MILIEU URBAIN ET PERIURBAIN : CAS DE LA VILLE DE N’DJAMENA AU TCHAD
2017Alhadj Markhous Nazal, Abdelsalam Tidjani, Yassine Doudoua, Abdourahamane Balla · · Chad (N'Djamena)
This study characterized urban and peri-urban market gardening in N'Djamena, Chad, through a focus group with 92 market gardeners on development constraints and individual surveys of 61 producers on techniques. Producers were mostly men (67.21%) with an average age of 35, operating on administrative reserves (34.43%) and private property (65.57%). While holdings were diversified, leafy greens dominated (47% of products), and many problems were identified as obstacles to the sector's development.
Governance failurePeri-urban agricultureEconomicsCommunityMapeo de la agriricultura urbana y periurbana en el área metropolitana Santa Rosa-Toay: aproximaciones metodológicas para la lectura territorial
2017P. V. ERMINI, M. R. DELPRINO, B. GIOBELLINA · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Argentina (Santa Rosa-Toay)
In the Santa Rosa-Toay metropolitan area of Argentina, urban and peri-urban agriculture is noted for its scarce recognition in urban development policies and food security policies. Despite the region's urbanization, the absence of political recognition as a metropolitan area has hindered planning and management of land use and occupation according to its potential and limitations. This study developed and applied a methodological proposal to generate information on urban and peri-urban agricultural activities, integrating a spatial perspective with participatory procedures.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyHealthFood sovereignty & justiceA systemic methodology to characterize peri-urban agriculture for a better integration of agricultural stakes in urban planning
2017Esther Sanz Sanz, Claude Napoléone, Bernard Hubert, Aruna Popuri · · Global
Existing urban planning documents inadequately consider the specificities of peri-urban agriculture as an economic activity requiring arrangements not always adapted to an urban vision of agricultural spaces. This paper proposes a systemic methodology to characterize peri-urban agricultural spatial units, aiming to provide an inventory of peri-urban agricultural areas tailored to urban planning practitioners' constraints. The approach seeks to focus public action on areas where it is most likely to be efficient within a territorial project.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsImplementing the Urban Farming Master Plan in Horsley Park, Western Sydney: From Planning to Reality
2016Yolanda Gil, David Kirkland, Rocco Sergi · Water science and technology library · Australia (Sydney)
This chapter outlines the process of developing and implementing a master plan for urban farming in Horsley Park, Western Sydney. The case study highlighted that the implementation of the master plan has a number of challenges, including legislative and regulatory processes, and environmental and social matters. This suggests difficulties in transitioning from planning to the reality of farming in the Sydney region.
Governance failurePolicyPeri-urban agricultureProyectos de agricultura urbana del Jardín Botánico de Bogotá "José Celestino Mutis" analizados desde la perspectiva de la educación ambiental (2004 - 2016)
2016Katherine Alexandra Herrera Hernández, Yohanna Marcela Pinzón, Ruth Zamira Herrera Rincón · · Colombia (Bogotá)
This project aimed to contribute to the study of Urban Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) in Bogotá by describing projects led by the José Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden from 2004 to 2016, analyzed from an environmental education perspective. Using a qualitative methodology, the study investigated fundamental elements in education-management development, such as participation, the construction of the concept of environment, and the strengths and weaknesses in achieving these projects within the framework of successive city governments during that period.
Governance failureFood educationCommunityPolicyPeri-urban agriculturePlanning tools for strategic management of peri-urban food production
2016LE Wynne, Dana Cordell, Joanne Chong, Becky L. Jacobs · UTS ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney) · Australia (Sydney)
This report, using Sydney as a case study, examines land-use planning on the urban fringe for peri-urban food production. It finds that for many cities, including Sydney, a large proportion of peri-urban food production has already been lost due to conversion to residential and infrastructure uses. The report reviews various planning responses to address threats to peri-urban agriculture.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsClimate changeAssessing supply-demand balance of nitrogen toward local-scale organic material circulation: a case studyof suburban residential district in Metro Manila
2014Yuki Sampei, Yuji Hara, Akinobu Murakami, Armand PALIJON, Kazuaki Tsuchiya, Makoto Yokohari · Journal of The Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture · Philippines (Metro Manila)
The nitrogen supply-demand balance in compost and vegetable production on vacant lots in suburban residential districts of Quezon City, Metro Manila, was assessed. Analysis revealed that almost half of the subdivisions faced nitrogen oversupply, while several were in short supply. Current centralized composting facilities may not adequately support a continuous compost recycling system due to their distribution patterns. It was proposed that existing barangay-based policies on organic waste management and urban agriculture require greater flexibility and attention to coordination systems across subdivision boundaries.
Governance failureCompostOrganic cyclePolicyPeri-urban agriculture