Research & reports

Glaros A., Newell R., Pizzirani S., Newman L. · Urban Transitions · カナダ・ブリティッシュコロンビア州ローワーメインランド（都市圏）

Using the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada as a case study, this paper defines and assesses the tradeoffs across six common scenarios for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) implementation. Land use considerations and operational priorities define the scenarios and weight the modelling criteria. Geospatial modelling estimates the share of the population within walking distance of potential CEA sites that could be supplied with their daily intake of leafy greens, alongside associated yields, energy use, water use and potential land sparing. Across all scenarios, between 4% and over 100% of nearby populations could be served, demonstrating both the promise of hyper-local food provisioning and how sharply outcomes swing with siting and operational goals.

Kanosvamhira T.P., Magidi M. · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · 南アフリカ・ケープタウン／ジンバブエ・ノートン

A qualitative case study comparing the motivations, operational dynamics, land access challenges and legislative contexts of urban agriculture in two contrasting cities — Cape Town (South Africa) and Norton (Zimbabwe) — through stakeholder interviews and policy analysis, guided by social capital theory. In Cape Town urban agriculture is semi-institutionalised, backed by governmental and civil society actors and framed within wider food justice and community development agendas, yet practitioners face significant constraints from land access, urban policy fragmentation and competition over space. In Norton it is largely informal, a survivalist response to persistent socio-economic hardship with minimal formal support but relatively flexible regulation, where land-tenure insecurity and the threat of eviction are the pressing concerns. The paper argues that context-specific legislative frameworks, secure land rights and inclusive urban planning are the enabling conditions, situating urban agriculture within debates on land governance and urban informality.

Kissoly L. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · タンザニア・ダルエスサラーム

An exploratory qualitative case study and policy analysis of urban agriculture's current landscape and possible futures in rapidly urbanizing Dar es Salaam, drawing on targeted literature and document review, a policy and regulatory scan, and 52 key informant interviews with municipal actors, urban farmers and food-system practitioners conducted between April and September 2025. Urban agriculture is valued for household food supplementation, small-scale income and fresh-food provisioning through short-cycle vegetable production close to consumers, but remains shaped by tolerated informality, insecure land access, fragmented regulation, contamination risks, weak institutional coordination and pressure on peri-urban land. Five evidence-informed trajectories are proposed — managed river-corridor cultivation; sacks, buckets and roofs for dense-ward micro-production; institutional land clusters; peri-urban foodshed belts with circular-resource hubs; and small-scale aquaculture with insect-based feed — presented explicitly not as tested feasibility models but as differentiated options requiring further technical, environmental, spatial and economic assessment. The paper argues the future depends not on a single large-scale model but on risk-sensitive, institutionally grounded forms of support.

Coyne D., Nyambura E.I., Atandi J.G., Obebo F., Alam M.J., Kumar S., Arro E.A., Adimassu Z., Bihon W., Schreinemachers P. · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities · エチオピア・アディスアベバ／ケニア・ナイロビ／バングラデシュ・ダッカ／フィリピン・メトロマニラ

A comparative multi-city case study of urban and peri-urban vegetable seedling systems — a neglected component of urban agriculture — in four rapidly growing cities: Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Dhaka and Metro Manila. Data came from 154 stakeholders including urban farmers, nursery operators, seedling suppliers, agro-input dealers and government officers, complemented by secondary literature. Across all four cities urban vegetable production was dominated by small-scale intensive systems growing predominantly leafy vegetables, while seedling systems remained underdeveloped: informal nursery operations, weak quality assurance, open-field propagation, limited technical capacity and fragmented market linkages, driving widespread reliance on direct seeding and low-quality planting material despite strong demand for quality seedlings. Identified opportunities include improved propagation technologies, certification systems, digital marketing, commercialization of indigenous vegetable seedlings and stronger public-private partnerships. As one of the first cross-continental assessments of urban vegetable seedling systems in low- and middle-income countries, it positions seedling systems as a critical but overlooked part of resilient, nutrition-sensitive urban food systems.

Huq F.F., Deacon L. · Discover Sustainability (Springer), 6:696 · Global

A systematic review of 37 studies examining how community gardens affect food access, urban resilience, and community well-being, with research interest peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies inequitable access and weak policy integration as key barriers and calls for inclusive, interdisciplinary, long-term planning.

· 日本建築学会計画系論文集 90巻832号 pp.1219-1230 · Japan

A paper clarifying the value of community gardens created on vacant land and the factors that generate that value; focusing on intergenerational exchange and collaborative activity, it analyzes the effects of reusing vacant spaces in complexes and neighborhoods on local community.

· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

A thematic review synthesising global trends, innovations, governance frameworks and pathways to sustainability in urban agriculture, mapping the field's current state and future directions including citizen participation, policy support and environmental challenges.

Chen H., Wang H., Bora F., Hu Y. · Cities 166:106226 · United States

Analyzes 1,874 community gardens across 24 US cities. Neighborhood race and poverty predict garden presence, but most gardens lie outside designated food deserts, limiting their capacity to address food access gaps.

さいたま市 · さいたま市 農業統計・振興報告書 · Japan

Saitama's annual agricultural report summarising publicly supported urban agriculture including the urban agriculture council, land-coordinator programme and 79 public/private citizen farms with supply statistics.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 統計調査 · Japan

MAFF nationwide survey of citizen farm counts, plots, area and operator-type trends, providing baseline statistics on publicly and institutionally supported urban gardening across Japan as of March 2025.

Liu Q., Chen T., Zhang N., Lin Z., Ye Z., Jiang K., Gao Y., Guo Y., Weng A. · Energy (Elsevier), 320:135191 · China (Yangtze River Delta)

A quantitative assessment of rooftop agrivoltaics (RAV) — co-locating solar PV and crops on building rooftops — against the SDGs. For the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (~10,720 km² of rooftops) it estimates ~93.1 TWh/year of electricity (6.3% of regional demand), ~43.6 Mt/year of lettuce, large job creation, and ~127 Mt/year of CO2 reduction, positioning RAV as a multifunctional urban land-use that pairs 'zero food miles' food production with clean energy.

Mallick S., Paul S., Rout S., Behera R.N. · Frontiers of Urban and Rural Planning (Springer) · Global

A quantitative systematic review of five decades of peri-urban research, mapping its growing integration into urban planning and the diversity of its definitions, and positioning peri-urban agriculture's contribution to sustainable planning as a future direction.

Tesfay S.M., Alem G., Ayele D.G. · Land (MDPI) 14(7), 1483 · Global

Theoretically revisits peri-urban land transformation in the Global South, organizing the change in agricultural land use around three vectors: capital, governance and revival (return to farming).

Takahashi Y., Yoshida T., Johnson B.A., Shigeto S., Yamagata Y. · Sustainability Science (Springer) · Japan

Uses structural equation modeling on national survey and geospatial data to demonstrate the relationship between urban-to-rural migrants' quality of life and natural capital (farmland, greenspace), providing evidence for the effectiveness of rural in-migration policy.

Ashikuzzaman M., Swapan M.S.H., Zaman A.U., Song Y. · Landscape and Urban Planning · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

Analysis of 187 YouTube videos reveals urban rooftop farming in Dhaka is a growing grassroots movement with fragmented institutional oversight; farmers in mixed land-use neighborhoods show the strongest motivation and seek government policy guidelines.

Yapp E.H.T., Jamil N., Lee L.S.G., Chooi Y.T., Chen C.O. · Cogent Food & Agriculture, Vol. 11, Article 2448601 · Malaysia (Penang, Johor, Sabah)

A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with urban farmers in Penang, Johor, and Sabah found that hydroponic and vertical farm operators face persistent challenges from government regulations, volatile markets, financial constraints, and environmental factors despite existing subsidy programs.

Liu Y., Chanse V., Chicca F. · Urban Science (MDPI), Vol. 9, No. 8, Article 305 · New Zealand (Wellington)

This study quantifies Wellington, New Zealand's community gardens' capacity to meet post-disaster vegetable demand in terms of weight and nutrient content, finding current gardens insufficient alone but identifying substantial potential through expanded urban agriculture land use.

Shimelis G., Kim D., Yimer F., Tadesse M. · Science of The Total Environment · Africa (Ethiopia)

2025 study estimating compost production potential from municipal organic waste and human excreta in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with projections through 2050. Quantifies economic benefits (compost sales, fertilizer cost reduction), soil carbon sequestration, and greenhouse gas mitigation. Demonstrates feasibility of organic waste-to-compost systems for urban agriculture in African cities.

Global research network · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Australia, Canada, China

Bibliometric analysis of 710+ articles on urban food resilience, documenting evolution of connections between urban-planning-environment clusters and food-agriculture systems globally.

(Open Research Community) · ResearchGate, Discover Sustainability (Springer Nature) · Global

2025 review article examining urban agriculture's contribution to food security and mechanisms of achievement. Analyzes through empirical evidence the benefits and challenges, income generation effects, and improvements in fresh food access for low-income households.

Soumya Keefe, Jean Lee · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United States (Washington)

Using an urban agriculture farmer-training program in Washington, United States, this case study examines how such programs support sustainability transitions in the food system, applying the multi-level perspective and social practice theory. It finds the program creates a space for social learning and shifts graduates' collective practices and narratives, but their capacity to change the broader food regime is curtailed without intentional state and local policy support.

Kristida Chhour, Maya Carrasquillo · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United States (San Francisco East Bay)

This mixed-methods case study of the water-scarce San Francisco East Bay maps 91 urban agriculture sites, interviews 34 stakeholders, and analyzes regional plans to examine water management and urban agriculture's resilience potential. It finds growers were the main water managers while municipalities and utilities were minimally involved, that land access shaped water access, and that institutional support to stabilize long-term land and water access is needed for greater water and food-system resilience.

Ashley Gripper, Tori Cowger · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · United States

Using exploratory factor analysis on 363 respondents recruited from U.S.-based agricultural networks, this study developed a survey-based scale to capture what Black- and Brown-led food justice organizations value most about community farming and gardening. The analysis supported a five-factor structure—termed "Agricultural Community Power" (AgCPS), covering collective self-determination, community care, land-based spiritual wellbeing, embodied Earth care, and Ubuntu/interdependence—with adequate reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.93).

· Journal of Urban Planning and Development · China (Xi'an)

Analyzes the interactions and synergies between urban agriculture and urban–rural integration through a case study of Xi'an, China.

· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · China (North China Plain)

Analyzes urban expansion and loss of potential crop yield in the North China Plain (1980–2020) and its implications for regional food security, noting much new urban land came from converted farmland.