Research & reports

Sandra A. Balch, D. L. Auld · HortScience · Global

This article discusses methods for communicating composting information to the public, noting that many potential composters lack expertise, information, and support. It finds that hands-on instruction and active involvement in ongoing programs, as well as integration into established programs like community gardens, are effective methods for conveying composting information.

Chris Lovell, E. Mazhangara, G. Mtetwa, Timothy Dube, Douglas Thompson, David Macdonald, C.H. Batchelor · NERC Open Research Archive (Natural Environment Research Council) · Zimbabwe

This report details the progress of a pilot project in Zimbabwe (October 1994 - March 1995) on small-scale irrigation using collector wells. Nine wells now provide domestic water to 1515 families, and 731 families have allotments in associated community gardens. The first scheme yielded a gross margin of Z$18903 per hectare in its fourth winter season, with an average of Z$22932 per hectare per year over four years. Initial results from five pilot schemes showed similarly high returns, averaging Z$23798 per hectare.

Beacon Mbiba · Environment and Urbanization · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This review examines local government responses to uncontrolled urban cultivation in Harare, Zimbabwe, covering both the colonial period and post-independence since 1980. The study finds that local authorities struggle to manage urban agriculture effectively and sustainably. It suggests new directions for policy and research to address these difficulties.

Daniel Maxwell, Samuel Zziwa · Ecology of Food and Nutrition · Uganda (Kampala)

This study examines urban agriculture in Kampala, Uganda, as an adaptive response to economic hardships. It identifies significant constraints, including institutional obstacles to accessing underutilized urban land, municipal bylaws that suppress urban agriculture, and urban officials' indifferent to hostile views. The study found that these bylaws and views are based on misleading or false generalizations about urban agriculture.

L. J. A. Mougeot · PubMed · Global

A news account covering the satisfaction of urban food needs where retail costs are prohibitively high in developing countries, reporting that 50-80% of average income is spent on food in nearly half of developing countries' largest cities, a range of 60-80% confirmed by late-1980s surveys, with urban food costs 10-30% higher than for rural dwellers. Urban household food production is described as a practice dating to Aztec, Inca, and Mayan cities, with records of Javanese and Tigris-Euphrates city dwellers growing their own food; Asian policymakers promote urban food production as critical to urban survival, and its extent is shaped by factors including rapid urbanization, ineffective agricultural policies, inadequate food distribution, subsidy withdrawal, wage reduction, inflation, unemployment, lax urban regulation, civil strife, and drought, with government agencies sometimes acting as obstacles by outlawing the practice. Recent government support is reported in ten Asian, six African, and six Latin American countries; worldwide, 200 million people are reported as urban farm workers and 700 million as beneficiaries of urban agriculture, while 25% of US urban households engaged in urban food production during the 1980s. The account calls for better comparative and longitudinal research on urban poverty and its links to nutrition, income, employment, waste, and environmental issues, states that urban planners may need to incorporate city farming into conventional land-use planning if cost-benefit analysis finds a positive impact, and notes that street food vending is an important income source particularly for women, while urban farming requires efficient use of space and knowledge of relevant technology and planning.

Jac Smit, Joe Nasr · Environment and Urbanization · Global

This article describes how urban agriculture can transform cities from mere consumers of food and agricultural products into sustainable generators of these products. It focuses on using wastes and idle land and water bodies as resources to achieve resource conservation and health improvement.

James W. Roberts, C Wood · · Global

This paper proposes a three-way study for 1992, building on previous case studies in Milton Keynes (UK) and Almere (NL) that noted substantial differences in travel behavior due to land use. The proposed study would cover Manchester, Berlin, and a low-density, car-dependent suburb in Melbourne, examining travel habits under diverse demographic and land use conditions. It suggests potential changes in travel modes and trip lengths following planned urban structural alterations, such as reduced car space in Manchester, S-Bahn and airport extensions in Berlin, and light rail near Melbourne.

· PubMed · Global

This paper emphasizes the need for technological infrastructure to maximize the value of medicinal plants within primary health care (PHC). The WHO Programme on Traditional Medicine highlights the importance of appropriate drug availability in PHC and recommends cultivating medicinal plants in home or community gardens. It advocates for strengthening data gathering and analysis capabilities for economic mapping of medicinal flora in developing countries and for clinical research on the safety and efficacy of herbal medicines used by traditional health practitioners.

Joel Flagler · HortScience · Global

An overview of horticultural therapy, describing how trained therapists prescribe and administer planting and gardening activities for people with physical, mental and social disabilities in hospitals, geriatric centers, schools, rehabilitation facilities, community gardens and prisons. It states that research measuring effectiveness in clinical and correctional settings, and databases documenting the benefits, are underway, without giving specific figures or results.

Johan Pottier · Africa · Rwanda

This article explores the themes of knowledge, ignorance, and power in the context of a Rwandan development project, demonstrating how ignorance is generated through agricultural extension. It argues that agronomic services rely on power structures reminiscent of social inequality, and assesses whether the project-induced creation of ignorance leads to the displacement of local knowledge and the adoption of new methods.

Michael S. Jamison · Sociological Quarterly · Global

This study assesses the organizational cultures of collectives and bureaucracies within the urban gardening movement, finding serious underlying differences despite government assistance. Although government agencies provided resources and established projects, collectives and bureaucracies interpreted the urban gardening experience differently. This divergence in understanding the benefits and structuring the experience reveals a source of potential bureaucratic/collectivist conflict.

Allan Bunch · Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication · Global

A short 1984 review (Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication) of the third edition of the "Community festivals handbook," published by Community Projects Foundation. The review describes the handbook as a practical guide to organizing local, day-to-multi-day community festivals, covering committees, publicity, legal and site-management aspects, and notes it is also relevant to other community-based activities such as barbecues, fundraising, adventure playgrounds, or "setting up a city farm." The review does not report any study, data, or findings specific to urban farming.

H. B. Tukey · HortScience · Global

Urban horticulture is defined as a scientific field focused on the functional uses of plants to maintain and improve urban environments. These functional uses extend beyond aesthetics to include screening against wind and views, influencing climate, reducing noise, combating air pollution, providing food, and enhancing human well-being in densely populated areas. The audience for urban horticulture includes landscape professionals, plant societies, and amateur horticulturists.

· Nutrition & Food Science · Global

The Institute of Biology held a symposium to assess the value of vegetables for feeding people and livestock. The symposium considered the energy, labor, and monetary inputs required for vegetable production across various scales, from allotments to large market gardens. Discussions also included the role of traditional and unconventional animal species within vegetable growing systems.

Sibo Chen · Stream Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication · Global

This record announces the MA thesis defense of Gonen Steinberg, titled "Cultivating Resistance? Urban Sustainability, Neoliberalism, and Community Gardens," which took place on March 25th, 2015. The abstract provided is the title of the thesis itself.

Rayna Sharova · Soviet Education · Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, labor education was introduced into general schools shortly after World War I, with manual training for boys and handwork and domestic science for girls. After 1921, "Subotniks" (Sundays) were organized for pupils to perform mass work, including harvesting on school property, planting trees in drought-ridden lands, and cultivating school gardens and flower beds.

Aleksandr Filatov · Soviet Education · Russia (Moscow)

This text suggests that school garden areas in large industrial centers like Moscow should be integrated into the city's green spaces, functioning as well-planned squares within their district subdivisions. It asserts that this integration does not conflict with the garden's designated role as a living laboratory for the school.

Congreso Nacional de Chile · Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (Ley Chile) · Chile

This Chilean law, signed by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda on February 5, 1941 and published in Official Gazette No. 18903 (Ministerio del Trabajo) on March 4, 1941, directs the Caja de la Habitación Popular to allocate 30% of its annual funds to establishing worker and family orchards/gardens (huertos/jardines obreros y familiares) and 5% to developing home industries (Article 1). It requires gardens to be established in groups of no fewer than 20, with an area no smaller than 5,000 square meters (Article 8), and prohibits transferring, mortgaging, or subdividing a garden without the Caja's authorization until its price is fully paid (Article 17).

Congreso Nacional de Chile · Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (Ley Chile) · Chile

This Chilean law, signed on October 8, 1936 and published in Official Gazette No. 17589 (Ministerio del Trabajo) on October 10, 1936, creates the Caja de la Habitación Popular under the Ministry of Labor to promote the construction of low-cost, sanitary housing and worker/family gardens (huertos obreros y familiares), among other purposes (Article 1). Its capital includes 25 million pesos allocated annually by the State (Article 3). The law requires the Caja to devote at least 15% of its annual income to replacing conventillos (slum tenements) and at least 5% annually to promoting family gardens and home industry (Article 20).

Diana Paola Betancurth Loaiza, Natalia Sánchez Palacio, Jorge Lino Moreno Aricapa · Repositorio Universidad de Caldas · Colombia

This report details the experience of implementing the Urban Community Garden in the Villa Juanita neighborhood. The project focused on fostering urban agriculture as a strategy to improve food security and promote sustainability within the community. The garden became a space for community participation where diverse sustainable agricultural practices were integrated. Through this project, social cohesion was strengthened, environmental education was promoted, and spaces for interaction and collective learning were generated.