Research & reports

F.P. Huibers, O. Moscoso, Álvaro Ocampo Durán, J.B. van Lier · CABI Publishing eBooks · Bolivia

A study examining wastewater use in urban and peri-urban agriculture in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Both vegetable and fodder crops are irrigated with polluted water — diluted or partly treated municipal and industrial sewage — containing high concentrations of pathogens, heavy metals, and salts. In the downstream La Mayca area, where farmers have an agreement with the municipal water and sewerage company, soil degradation has forced them to increasingly replace vegetable crops with more salt-tolerant fodder crops. In other areas around the city, cultivators deny using wastewater and point to nearby wells as their water source, but many of these wells are likely also polluted and do not yield enough water for the irrigated area they serve. Farmers report no specific health problems related to using polluted water, which contradicts reports from local health workers. Because surface water flow and rainfall are low while industrial pollution is high and wastewater treatment capacity is limited, most of the water available to farmers is of poor quality. Options identified for improvement include reducing industrial pollution, increasing treatment capacity, and adopting integrated water management that blends good-quality groundwater with wastewater — but strong traditional water rights, lack of urban planning, and weak institutions are cited as constraints on improving wastewater management in Cochabamba.

Cary J. Trexler · ˜The œAgricultural education magazine · Global

An essay on action research in agricultural education discusses its concept and value, citing organizing a community garden and determining best practices for it as one example of an action-research project, alongside after-school recreation programs and rural-community documentation efforts. It characterizes the researcher's vested personal interest in the outcome as the defining feature of action research, and frames "teacher research" — an educator's systematic reflection on their own classroom, shop, SAEs, or FFA activities — as one form of it, drawing on Schön (1983) and Mundy and Russell (1994) on knowledge embedded in practice. The piece presents no empirical data.

Jrène Rahm · Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks · Global

A theoretical book chapter examines community gardens and science laboratories as "texts" that mediate the development of science literacy. Drawing on sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, Wertsch), it frames texts not merely as transmitters of information but as tools for dialogue and meaning-making, introducing the notion of texts as dynamic "participants" that change and grow with their users as the analytical basis for reading environments as texts.

Zavisca J.R. · Slavic Review · Russia

An ethnographic study showing that dacha food cultivation among urban Russians serves as a discursive arena for debating the rationality and morality of the post-Soviet transition to capitalism, not merely an economic survival strategy.

Pallot J., Nefedova T. · Journal of Rural Studies · Russia (Moscow Oblast)

Examines the diverse forms and micro-geography of personal food plot production in Moscow Oblast, revealing how geographic, historical, and structural factors shaped household farming during the post-socialist transition.

Premat A. · European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies · Cuba (Havana)

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Havana (1999-2001), this article examines urban garden parcelas as sites revealing tensions between private and public domains, finding that revolutionary values around food security and community persisted in post-Soviet Cuba despite assumptions of growing individualism.

Miura S., Kunii O., Wakai S. · International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition · Philippines (Davao City)

A structured survey of 152 mothers in two poor urban communities in Davao City examined home gardening and dietary diversity, finding limited but notable impact of garden produce on micronutrient intake. The study assessed a community-based approach promoting home gardening to address iron and vitamin A deficiencies.

Jac Smit, Anne C. Bellows, Katherine Brown · · Global

This handout, prepared by Anne C. Bellows, Katherine Brown, and Jac Smit, summarizes a fully cited article on the health benefits of urban agriculture. The original article is available for free from the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC).

Amy Damin, James Palmer · · Denmark (Copenhagen)

This paper investigates the history and social life of allotment gardens with small cottages in Denmark, which offer a partial rural lifestyle in urban areas. These gardens allow urbanites to coexist with nature for several months annually through temporary living and plant cultivation. The study specifically examines the Sano garden near Copenhagen.

Thilak T. Ranasinghe · International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology · Sri Lanka

Through experience in the Western Province of Sri Lanka, the "Family Business Garden" concept justifies the necessity of urban agriculture amidst limited urban infrastructure, environmental conditions, and socio-economic situations. This concept, by properly mixing environmental and commercial agricultural concerns, not only addresses family food requirements but also opens the way to produce for markets under liberalized economies by promoting agro-entrepreneurship and social capital development in urban communities.

Mariama Diop, Aminata Sow, Ibrahima Ndiaye · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Senegal (Dakar)

This research in Dakar's slums used a mixed-methods approach to study the link between community gardens and educational outcomes among school children. A preliminary analysis indicated that students participating in community gardens showed a 15% improvement in reading comprehension scores compared to non-participants. While further statistical testing is needed, the findings suggest a positive correlation between urban agriculture and educational outcomes for low-income children.

Jitsuo Saito · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Global

This article explores the concept of green community tourism for urban citizens, discussing the ambivalence towards community and the role of green money in fostering green prosumerism. It suggests that green tourism can build communities that integrate both market and non-market economies, strengthening relationships between urban and rural communities and supporting Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The article also references the Japanese Organic Certification Rule announced in 2000.

Darcy Varney · Children Youth and Environments · Paraguay

In the summer of 2000, Plan International introduced vegetable gardening to 48 rural primary schools in Paraguay's southern provinces. This program aimed to improve children's health through nutrition and equip them with skills to share with their parents. Plan provided seeds, tools, fencing materials, and technical support to help children and community members build gardens.

Neil S. Brantley · San José State University ScholarWorks (San Jose State University) · Global

This research project aims to provide a framework of relevant information for developing sustainable urban agriculture systems as a tool to improve the quality of life for the urban poor. Two different infrastructure contexts are presented, with the intent of relating the applicability of urban agriculture initiatives to enhancing destitute urban communities in both developed and developing worlds, referencing successful case studies. Urban agriculture is beginning to be recognized by the world community as one viable urban development option.

Todd A. Randall, Cameron J. Churchill, Brian W. Baetz · Environment and Planning B Planning and Design · Global

A prototype decision support tool, coded as an ArcView GIS extension, is described for managing existing green spaces and establishing new ones in suburban neighborhoods. It suggests techniques like naturalization of parks and increased street foliage, and allows modeling and evaluating future scenarios for sustainable community development. The tool's applications are discussed to illustrate benefits of neighborhood greening strategies.

Steffen Adler, Stephanie Fung, G. Huber, Lee Hoon Young · Organic Eprints (International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems, and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) · Sweden

Case studies were conducted on three alternative producer-consumer links in Sweden: Stockholm Farmers Market, Ramsjö Community Supported Agriculture, and Järna Initiative for Local Production. An adapted SWOT analysis identified key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and constraints from multiple perspectives including producers, consumers, the organization, environment, and society. The research assessed how these links might affect surrounding ecosystems and social aspects of the agri-food system, and identified six components contributing to agri-food system development.

Derek Wall · · Global

The Green movement has historically been defined by ruralism, concerned not just with environmental quality but with promoting a way of life close to the land, with calls for radical land reform by figures like John Ball and Fergus O’Connor. Modern remnants of this "back to the land" campaign include allotments and city farms, often situated in depressed urban areas.

María Caridad Cruz, Roberto Sánchez Medina · · Cuba (Havana)

This book details a three-year research project by a multidisciplinary team of 15 professionals on the history and current state of urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba. The project assessed the long-term potential of integrating urban agriculture into Havana's social economies and city-wide environmental management programs. The findings are relevant for authorities considering how to transition emergency food production into sustained support for urban agriculture, aiming for food self-reliance and environmental improvement.

Colin Crawford · · Cuba

This 2003 law-review article examines the land-use planning implications of Cuban urban organic agriculture, placing the Cuban experience in international context, evaluating the advantages of urban agriculture for urban living, describing Cuba's efforts to formalize what began as an informal practice, and examining the formal and informal work of Cuban lawyers and planners in securing a place for urban agriculture within long-term land-use planning before and after the U.S. embargo.

Zhang Luxiang · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · Global

A conceptual paper discussing the relationship between urban agriculture and the ecologic city. It positions urban agriculture as an advanced stage of agriculture and the ecologic city as an advanced phase of the city and its ideal model, with both embodying the pursuit of sustainable development. The paper notes that urban agriculture has many modes of expression and the ecologic city contains many connotations, characterizes the relationship between the two as one of "paragenesis" (co-occurring, symbiotic development), and argues that the relationship between exploring urban agriculture and constructing the ecologic city must be harmonized, following scientific planning and highlighting the distinct characteristics of each when developing both.

Helen Woolley · · Global

A book chapter on domestic urban open spaces—those physically closest to home—covering spaces integral to housing areas, private gardens, community gardens, and allotments. Community gardens are physically shared but their use is not necessarily a shared experience; they nonetheless offer opportunities for small groups to gather. Allotments are framed as an extension of, or replacement for, a private garden, where individuals or families grow vegetables, fruit, and flowers; despite physical distance from home, they carry a practical and emotional tie to it, and children can learn cultivation there much as they would in a private garden. The author argues that, despite the shared nature of community gardens and the physical separation of allotments from the home, both count as domestic urban open spaces because their predominant use is domestic in scale, while acknowledging they also verge toward a neighborhood-group character—with allotments having potential to develop into an alternative neighborhood community, alliances, and rivalries included. The chapter is a conceptual discussion without empirical data.

Alberto Gurovich Weisman · Cuadernos del Cendes · Chile

This paper examines the creation and persistence of a state territorial intervention model called Worker and Family Orchards, tested from 1929 and legitimized in 1941 through the Caja de la Habitación Popular. The Caja acquired the La Pintana estate in 1942 and built housing on 500 half-hectare plots, opening the first stage in 1946 and further stages in 1950 and 1957. During the critical settlement period of 1979-1985, the number of resident families rose by 327.73%, equivalent to 12.94 times the average for Greater Santiago.

Regina Day Langhout, Julian Rappaport, Doretha Simmons · Urban Education · Global

This article discusses the tensions faced in facilitating the relationship between teachers and community members while working on a community garden project. The authors adopt an ecological model for effective classroom-community collaboration and discuss how this process unfolded in the current setting. The evaluation includes a discussion of common and disparate goals of teachers and community members and how differences are navigated in the current milieu.

Marianne E. Krasny, Rebekah Doyle · Journal of Extension · Global

This study applied participatory models to an inter-generational program aimed at having youth document ethnic gardening practices in urban community gardens. Outcomes for educators included professional development and the opportunity to expand programs to urban audiences, while youth learned about gardening, developed positive relationships with elders, and enhanced academic skills. Developing relationships with youth was an important outcome for gardeners.

Mandima Bangala, Kamitombo Mbwata, Tshibangu Minko · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Ghana

This study investigated the impact of school garden programs on adolescent nutrition in Ghanaian schools using a mixed-methods approach with surveys, qualitative interviews, and linear regression analysis. A significant positive correlation was found between the number of school garden programs and improved adolescent dietary diversity. The findings suggest these programs can enhance nutritional outcomes, particularly dietary diversity, among participants.