Research & reports

Paula Fernandes de Brito, William John Hester, Tomé de Almeida e Lima, Lorena Monteiro dos Santos, Luísa Pinheiro, Jonathan Henrique da Silveira de Barros · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil

This paper reports on a 2016 pilot project at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) to structure a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiative. The project involved farmers and the academic community, aiming to foster agroecological knowledge through weekly food basket deliveries. A key finding was the limitations in attracting diverse groups from the academic community, despite the interest shown by participating farmers, staff, and "prosumers."

Miguel A. Altieri, Clara I. Nicholls · Agro Sur · Global

Although urban agriculture (UA) is estimated to provide 15-20% of global food, its significant contribution to city food self-sufficiency is questionable due to low yields in most existing urban farms. Agroecology can enhance UA's productive potential by offering key principles for designing diversified, productive, and resilient urban farms. This paper describes principles and practices for increasing soil quality and enhancing plant health.

M.K. Saleh, Azher Mustafa · Journal of Agricultural Extension · Nigeria (Kaduna State)

This study investigated food security and productivity among 213 urban farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria, using interviews and statistical analysis. Results showed that 54.5% of households were food insecure. A regression model predicted that the probability of urban farming households being food secure was 51%, indicating a limited effect on food security despite urban farming efforts.

Celile Özçiçek Dölekoğlu, Sema Gün · Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology · Global

Urban agriculture, practiced by 800 million people globally, offers economic, social, and environmental benefits but also carries risks and adverse effects. This study presents developments in urban agriculture in Turkey and worldwide, discussing all aspects of its effects and outcomes.

Fika Mayrlina Anggrayni, Dini Ririn Andrias, Merryana Adriani · Media Gizi Indonesia · Indonesia (Surabaya)

This observational study, conducted in Surabaya, Indonesia, analyzed differences in food security and coping strategies between agriculture and fisheries urban farming households. Among 62 households, 64.7% of the agriculture group were food secured, while 75% of the fishery group were food insecure with severe hunger. There was no statistical difference in household food security between the agriculture and fisheries urban farming groups (p=0.255). However, a difference in coping strategy was found (p=0.021), with agriculture urban farming households being more food secure and rarely employing coping strategies compared to fishery urban farming households.

Christine Hvitsand · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Norway

This article explores why Norwegian producers and consumers engage in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), identifying distinct values and motivations related to environmental protection, justice, health, participation, and communication. While CSA demonstrates transformational power in the agri-food system through sustainable practices and power reallocation, the challenge remains to upscale these actions and prevent the dilution of core values and agroecological practices.

Araceli Calderón Cisneros · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Mexico (Chiapas)

This qualitative study analyzed the role of family urban agriculture in urban sustainability in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, using open and structured interviews. The visited agricultural systems showed characteristics favoring resilience and sustainability, such as low use of external inputs and recycling of domestic waste. However, a limitation found was that the contribution of own production to family consumption is very low, despite existing food, environmental, and socio-cultural motivations for its continuity.

Simon Hazell, Victoria Delbridge, Beatrice Conradie · UR UCT Undergraduate Research · South Africa

A study in Lavender Hill, Cape Town, South Africa, interviewed 50 participants in the Mothers Unite programme to assess the benefits and constraints of homestead-based urban agriculture. Despite the potential for food gardening to alleviate food insecurity and free up 11% of household income, two-thirds of the group had not tried it. Barriers to adoption included lack of space and limited cash flow, with respondents showing little concern for water or compost costs.

Zulfadhli Nasution · · Indonesia (Jakarta, Bandung, Bogor)

This study investigated the relationship between urban farming communities and food sovereignty in Jakarta, Bandung, and Bogor, Indonesia. The findings suggest that the discourse of food sovereignty has not been exposed to urban farming communities. This is attributed to urban farming having different historical roots and social and political characteristics compared to the food sovereignty movement.

Klaus Lorenz · Soil Science · Global

Urban agriculture (UA) engages approximately 800 million people globally and covers over 67 million hectares of urban cropland. While UA contributes to food security, growing food in urban ecosystems, particularly on degraded urban soils, presents challenges. Past research on UA has focused on social sciences, and although studies on urban soils have increased, many urban areas remain neglected. Further research and dissemination of knowledge are needed on how to maintain or enhance urban soil fertility through soil and land-use management practices.

Alan Hallsworth, Alfred Wong · International journal on food system dynamics · United Kingdom (Portsmouth)

This empirical case study examined the potential for urban gardening to contribute to individual food security. Focusing on Portsmouth, England, the study found that prevailing economic and social structures hamper the likelihood that urban gardening can offer much greater food security. Realistically, contemporary urban gardening most closely resembles a middle-class pursuit for personal enjoyment, rather than a significant contributor to food security.

Zulfadhli Nasution · · Indonesia (Jakarta)

A case study in Jakarta, Bandung, and Bogor, Indonesia, examined the engagement between urban farming communities and food sovereignty. Findings indicate that the food sovereignty discourse has not significantly exposed urban farming communities due to differing historical backgrounds and social/political views between urban farming and rural peasantry-based movements. The study suggests prerequisites for strengthening food sovereignty among urban food advocates, including building consumer consciousness and urban-rural solidarity.

E.J. Veen, P.H.M. Derkzen, A.J. de Visser · Food and Foodways · Netherlands

This article compares food acquisition habits among participants in four Dutch urban food-growing initiatives: two allotments and two Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). Allotment gardeners integrate gardening into daily routines and easily use harvests, while AFN members, who primarily engage in shopping, struggle to regularly consume urban-grown food due to competition with supermarkets. The study concludes that involvement in shopping versus growing significantly impacts urban-grown food consumption, indicating a limited effect of motivations to change the food system when confronted with everyday routines.

Ranka Junge, Andreas Graber · Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften digital collection (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) · Global

This paper discusses the need for practical tools and a stronger scientific base for sustainable urban farming, noting that visionary schemes often lack current practical application with available technologies. It identifies requirements for urban food production, including high quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness, and suggests innovations in planting, pest control, irrigation, and integration with existing building infrastructures. Aquaponics is presented as having the potential to contribute to all these aspects.

Nobuhle Sebata, Clifford Mabhena, Mkhokheli Sithole · IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science · Zimbabwe

A qualitative study in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, using data from 30 women, 5 key informant interviews, and 2 focus groups, examined urban agriculture's role in women's poverty resilience. While urban agriculture significantly improved food availability and access, its nutritional contribution was low due to a focus on maize, and income generation remained very low due to subsistence production.

Katherine Luke · D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) · United States (Pittsburgh)

This study used a door-to-door survey in six Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhoods to measure the impact of community gardens on residents' perceptions of food access. It found that many gardeners do not consider gardening to improve their personal food security, and despite geographic proximity and expressed interest, community garden participation rates were low. Social and emotional barriers, including lack of gardening knowledge and racial prejudice, appeared to prevent residents from becoming active participants.

Jonathan Crush · · Global

This article argues that cities of the Global South are experiencing a deepening crisis of food inaccessibility, marked by growing food poverty, hunger and malnutrition, lack of dietary diversity, child wasting and stunting, increased vulnerability to infectious and chronic disease, and a growing obesity epidemic. It states that this urban crisis remains largely invisible to the policy and research communities concerned with global food security, noting that there was more research and policy debate on urban food insecurity in the 1990s, when the Global South was less urbanized than today, and that concern with urban food security has since been displaced by the new international food security agenda and its pervasive anti-urban bias. It observes that the only aspect of urban food security currently commanding significant attention is urban agriculture, which it describes as widely, but improbably, seen as the key to achieving food security in cities of the Global South.

Terri Evans, Christiana Miewald · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global

Community gardens and other local food initiatives are insufficient strategies to replace the quantity and efficiency provided by contemporary globalized food systems for supplying cheap food to urban populations.

Evan Weissman · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (New York City)

This essay refutes the claims by Hallsworth and Wong (2013) that the benefits of urban food gardening are exaggerated and that it cannot deliver fresher or lower-cost foods. It states that Hallsworth and Wong's assumptions are incorrect and that urban gardening plays a significant role as public space, an economic development strategy, and a community-organizing tool, contributing to household food security. For example, a 0.2-hectare urban farm project in Brooklyn, New York, "East New York Farms!", produces over USD20,000 of fresh produce annually, with over 70% of transactions made through SNAP, reaching high-need community members.

Marijke D’Haese, Nick Vink, Tharcisse Nkunzimana, Ellen Van Damme, Johan van Rooyen, Anne-Marie Remaut, Lotte Staelens, Luc D’Haese · Development Southern Africa · South Africa

Food insecurity remains high in rural KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. This study collected data from 390 beneficiary households in 2010 to assess the perceived impact of the Empowerment for Food Security Programme, launched in 2007, on food security. Findings confirmed that experience-based food insecurity levels were still high, despite the agricultural support program and government income transfers. However, respondents attributed improved dietary diversity and better access to resources to the program.

Marc van lersel · · Global

Agriculture faces the 21st-century challenge of feeding a growing, urbanizing population while minimizing negative environmental impact. Urban farming has been presented as a potential solution to perceived problems with conventional agricultural production, but its effectiveness as a comprehensive solution is questioned.

Kevin Wonch · Hope College Digital Commons (Hope College) · United States (Detroit)

This study examines urban farming in Detroit, a city experiencing rapid decline with a population under a million, limited access to fresh food stores, and extensive vacant land. While arguing for modern urban farming as a foundation for sustainable practices and positive development, it notes that some political and business analysts question its ability to make a significant impact on the city’s future.

Mary Caesar, Jonathan Crush, Trevor Hill · Scholars Commons (Wilfrid Laurier University) · South Africa (Msunduzi Municipality)

A study on food security in Msunduzi Municipality, South Africa, was part of AFSUN's baseline survey across eleven Southern African cities. The survey found that urban poor in Msunduzi are significantly worse off than those in Cape Town and Johannesburg, with one-third of households reporting frequent food shortages. Urban agriculture is not particularly significant in Msunduzi, and while supermarket supply chains dominate the food system, they do not meet the needs of the poor.

Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne, Wade Pendleton · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · Sub-Saharan Africa

A paper on rapid urbanization and rising urban poverty shifting the historical locus of food insecurity from rural areas to the cities of Africa uses baseline survey data from the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN), carried out in 11 cities in 9 southern African countries in 2008-2009, to demonstrate extremely high levels of urban food insecurity. It finds that lack of access to food results primarily from household poverty, high unemployment, and limited income-generating opportunities rather than any absolute food shortages. The paper also shows the growing importance of supermarkets, and finds that urban agriculture plays a relatively insignificant role in the food sourcing strategies of the urban poor.

Les Levidow, Katerina Psarikidou · · United Kingdom

In Manchester, England, environmental and health issues have been folded into a wider agro-food strategy aimed at making the city "more sustainable." With support from state bodies and charities, several initiatives have expanded access to fresh, healthy food, particularly in "food deserts," mobilizing resources, skills, and voluntary labor through "community engagement" to create "community spaces" for social inclusion. Manchester's agro-food networks shorten supply chains by linking peri-urban agriculture more directly with urban consumers and by promoting urban agriculture grounded in local resource mobilization and personal trust, offering an alternative to conventional agro-food chains; food relocalisation is described as helping overcome socio-economic inequalities and health problems, with Manchester initiatives cooperating to build environmentally sustainable, socially just, healthy communities and reconstructing local identities and social commitments, within a national policy context that advocates food relocalisation but provides little actual support. Despite that activity, the larger food system in Manchester remains dominated by conventional agro-food chains, and community food initiatives play only a marginal role, leading practitioners to discuss how to overcome these limitations; from 2010 onward, the UK government's austerity regime is described as undermining state support further, making community engagement even more important for mobilizing resources.