Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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Critical findings
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Changing perceptions and conservation policies on agricultural lands remaining in Japanese mid-sized cities
2021Seiji Tange, Keisuke Sakamoto, Takahiro Yamazaki, Akiko Iida, Makoto Yokohari · Toshi keikaku hokokushu/Toshi keikaku houkokushuu · Japan
This 2021 study analyzed 13 municipalities in regional (non-metropolitan) Japan that operate the production green space (seisan ryokuchi) system, examining how changing perceptions of the value of farmland within urbanization-promotion areas led to expanded designation of production green space. It found that rising tax burdens on farmland in urbanization-promotion areas triggered the spread of production green space designation even in regional cities. It also found that, beyond this economic factor, the 2015 enactment of the Basic Act for the Promotion of Urban Agriculture prompted a movement to assign farmland new roles and values—such as land for disaster-prevention cooperation and sites for food and farming experience—which further contributed to the expansion of designation.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsOpportunities and challenges of peri-urban agriculture on the fringes of the Metropolis of Rabat, Morocco | JBES 2021
2021Fatiha Hakimi, Mohamed Brech · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Africa
A survey of 50 purposively and stratified-randomly sampled farmers in the Metropolis of Rabat, Morocco, used field observation, interviews, chi-square tests and Principal Component Analysis to assess peri-urban agriculture practices. The main practices found were horticulture (fruit and vegetables), crop farming and livestock rearing (beef, sheep, poultry), contributing income, employment and food supply to the city; farmers face legal constraints — no laws regulating the activity and obligations to pay housing taxes — plus technical constraints including insufficient and costly labor, difficult irrigation access, and lack of training and technical support.
CommunityPeri-urban agricultureExploring Secondary Metabolites in Coffee and Tea Food Wastes
2021Mariana Cecilia Grohar, Barbara Gacnik, Maja Mikulič-Petkovšek, M. Hudina, Robert Veberič · Horticulturae · Global
A laboratory study measured caffeine content and phenolic profiles across three types of tea and coffee waste through two successive solvent extractions. The first extraction was far more efficient overall, though green tea retained high flavanol content and mate tea high phenolic-acid content in the second extraction, black tea had the highest caffeine content across both extractions, and water proved the most effective solvent in nearly all cases — a simple, accessible extraction method the authors note is relevant to urban horticulture as a potential alternative to conventional pesticides.
CommunityFood lossOrganic cycleSENTRA PERTANIAN PERKOTAAN (URBAN AGRICULTURE) DENGAN PENDEKATAN ARSITEKTUR EKOLOGI DI SURABAYA
2021Nurinda Rahma Ardiasari, Purwanto Setyo Nugroho, Wiwik Setyaningsih · Senthong · Indonesia (Surabaya)
A qualitative-descriptive design study developed an architectural concept for an urban agriculture center in Surabaya, Indonesia, applying ecological architecture principles through field observation and literature analysis. The resulting design covers activity and spatial planning, site processing, building design, vegetation selection and building utilities, framed as a response to shrinking irreversible farmland and weak food security amid rapid urban population growth.
CommunityBiodiversityClimate changeExtension’s Potential to Respond to Suburban Food Insecurity
2021Daniel Remley, Glennon Sweeney, Julie Fox, Laquore Ja Meadows · Journal of Human Sciences and Extension · United States
U.S. Cooperative Extension is positioned to address suburban food insecurity, citing data that low-income populations in the country's largest metro-area suburbs grew twice as fast as in primary urban cities between 2000 and 2013, and that a 2018 Pew Research Center report found poverty rising more sharply in suburbs than in urban or rural counties. Stigmatization of food assistance, lack of transportation, limited access to food pantries and limited community gardens are identified as challenges specific to suburban poor communities, with Extension proposed to address the problem through community-engaged research and education across family and consumer sciences, community development, agriculture and natural resources, and 4-H youth development.
CommunityWelfareFood educationUma abordagem metodológica ecosófica aos (AGRO) ecossistemas Urbanos através de intervenções Eco-Artisticas-Digitais
2021Isabel Cristina Carvalho, Raquel Luz Sousa, David Leite Viana · Americanae (AECID Library) · Brazil
The informality of urban agroecological space is examined through methodologies from transdisciplinary border zones, particularly the arts, framing the practice of gardening as an act of creation. Ecosophical, aesthetic and artistic concepts (community eco-art practices and digital eco-art) are integrated with socio-economic-political concepts (strengthening production, citizenship and digital literacy) in the context of informal urban agriculture, sketching an application scenario for inclusive community-resilience methodologies.
CommunityDIYOrganic cycleDigital agricultureCOMMUNITY GARDENING AND THE CAPACITY TO ENRICH SOCIAL BONDING IN URBAN NEIGHBOURHOODS
2021Shahida Mohd Sharif, Norsidah Ujang · INDONESIAN JOURNAL OF URBAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY · Indonesia
Noting that more than 50% of the population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050, and that urban migration raises the risk of insufficient social support leading to individualism, social isolation, and loneliness, a conceptual framework is proposed for investigating the level of social bonding among participants in community gardening activities. The paper argues that the choice of urban green space type is critical for wellbeing, positions community gardens as an intervention strategy for reintegrating socially isolated people into community life, and suggests that urban designers and policymakers adopt community gardens as safe public spaces for social interaction.
CommunityHealthWelfareCulture-Led Plan for Peri-Urban Agricultural Sustainability: A Case of Pu’an Village in China
2021Wei Li, Yang Zhou, Zhanwei Zhang · Land · China
A study analyzing rural planning through policy analysis and focus-group interviews in Pu'an Village, a peri-urban village near Changzhou city in China's Yangtze River Delta. It examines the process of identifying the bulrush as a local multifunctional cultural symbol and proposes a "bulrush + creative industry" framework, with a creative processing industry as the core and creative planting and creative tourism as two extended industries. The research emphasizes participation by local villagers, outsiders and urban tourists, and the creative class and entrepreneurs, stressing the revival of local rural culture in peri-urban villages.
PolicyPeri-urban agricultureCommunityNature-based interventions for bereavement care: a scoping review protocol
2021Anne Cleary, Julie Dean, Danielle Pollock, Lisa McDaid, Frances M. Boyle · JBI Evidence Synthesis · Global
A protocol for a scoping review aiming to understand the types of nature-based interventions currently used in bereavement care and to map the theories of change explaining how such interventions may support bereavement care. It notes bereavement can be associated with adverse psychosocial health outcomes, describes this as an emerging research field, and states there is a need to explore the literature on different types of nature-based interventions used in bereavement care, including animal-assisted therapy, care farming, therapeutic horticulture, and community gardens, and to identify the underpinning theories of change. Inclusion criteria cover studies or reviews of participants who experienced bereavement following the death of a loved one and took part in a nature-based intervention, across all nature contexts and geographic locations. The planned method searches eight databases—Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Social Science Database (ProQuest), PTSDpubs (ProQuest), and Research Library: Health and Medicine (ProQuest)—plus manual reference-list and keyword searches, extracting data on intervention type, target sample, health outcomes, measures and methods, and theory of change, to be presented in tabular format with a narrative summary.
CommunityHealthWelfareStatus of Rooftop and Homestead Gardening in Bogura
2021M. G. Morshed, SB Rahman, MA Rahman · Journal of Environmental Science and Natural Resources · Bangladesh
A survey conducted in Sadar upazila, Bogura district, Bangladesh, found that 66% of rooftop gardeners and 70% of homestead gardeners cited producing healthy, fresh food as their reason for gardening. Rooftop gardens contained about 80 plant types and homestead gardens 87, comprising fruits (97%), vegetables (86%), spices (72%), flowers (64%), medicinal plants (64%), ornamentals (23%) and plantation crops (12%). Time invested ranged from under 30 minutes to about an hour a day. Only 28% of homestead gardeners had received training from government agencies or NGOs, while most rooftop gardeners learned from agriculture-focused television programs, and just 18% of rooftop gardeners and 24% of homestead gardeners gardened primarily for economic return.
CommunityFood educationThe Transforming City: Exploring the Potential for Smart Cities and Urban Agriculture in Africa
2021Gerelene Jagganath · The Oriental Anthropologist A Bi-annual International Journal of the Science of Man · Africa
Against a backdrop of rising poverty and food insecurity in African cities, this paper offers an overview of urban agriculture's evolving presence in two smart cities, Cape Town, South Africa, and Arusha, Tanzania. The first part sets out conceptual background on smart cities and urban agriculture in the African context, and the second provides an overview of the smart-city development of Cape Town and Arusha specifically.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityDigital agriculturePENGEMBANGAN UNIT PENGELOLAAN LIMBAH SISTEM MANAJEMEN LIMBAH (SIMALIM) DENGAN SMART URBAN FARMING DALAM MENGELOLA LIMBAH ORGANIK DI KAMPUS USU
2021M. Ichwan, Ameilia Zuliyanti Siregar, E Yusni, Tulus Ikhsan Nasution · ABDIMAS UNWAHAS · Indonesia
As a community-service program run from August to December 2020 at Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU), Indonesia, this project set up a waste management unit called SIMALIM, combining smart urban farming methods, at USU's waste disposal site and the rooftop garden of its integrated laboratory, to handle organic waste from campus canteens and nearby residents. It combined black soldier fly (BSF) larvae rearing, eco-enzyme production, and aquaponics (catfish/gabus, tilapia/nila and lele species alongside organic vegetables), training students to participate as eco-campus ambassadors and members of USU's UI GreenMetric team. The project is framed as a model for generating income-producing products from proper organic waste management and improving USU's UI GreenMetric ranking.
CompostOrganic cycleFood educationCommunityThe Impact of COVID-19 on Urban Agriculture in São Paulo, Brazil
2021André Ruoppolo Biazoti, Angélica Campos Nakamura, Gustavo Nagib, Vitória Oliveira Pereira de Souza Leão, Giulia Giacchè, Thaís Mauad · Sustainability · Brazil (São Paulo)
Amid a COVID-19 outbreak that caused 15,587 deaths in São Paulo city through December 2020, this study examined effects on urban agriculture from April to August 2020, drawing on two government surveys (2,100 farmers in São Paulo state, 148 in São Paulo city) and two qualitative surveys of volunteers from ten community gardens and seven urban farmers. Fifty percent of farmers reported being affected by the pandemic through drops in sales, particularly those who depended on intermediaries, and 22% said obtaining inputs had become difficult. No municipal support was provided to urban agriculture in São Paulo, and pre-existing problems worsened; activity in community gardens declined, though none closed permanently.
Economic viabilityEconomicsPolicyCommunityKontribusi Community Supported Agriculture untuk Gerakan Agraria di Indonesia: Pelajaran dari Jerman
2021Gusti Nur Asla Shabia · BHUMI Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan · Indonesia
Drawing on an ethnographic study of Garten Coop, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group in Freiburg, Germany, and comparing it with CSA studies in other countries, this paper examines how CSA could contribute to Indonesia's agrarian movement. It finds that CSA reorganizes management of production resources in a more democratic, autonomous and equal way, provides farmers income certainty through consumer commitment and a solidarity economy, and fosters independence through sustainable agriculture principles — thereby indirectly supporting the agrarian movement by helping farmers maintain their land and farming operations and by creating a forum for organizing farmers and consumers.
CSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsCommunityInovação social no contexto da agricultura urbana em Florianópolis: o caso do Centro de Estudos e Promoção da Agricultura de Grupo
2021Luciana Francisco de Abreu Ronconi, Bernadete de Lourdes Bittencourt, Gabriel Bertimes Di Bernardi Lopes · Revista Ibero-Americana de Ciências Ambientais · Brazil
This qualitative study analyses social innovation in urban agriculture in Florianópolis, Brazil, using the Centro de Estudos e Promoção da Agricultura de Grupo (Cepagro) as its case. It finds that Cepagro, through networks of diverse actors, has placed urban agriculture on the public agenda and produced significant social innovations linking urban agriculture, food security and community development, contributing to the drafting and implementation of public policy and participating in the city's public policy councils.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicySemi-peripheral financialization and informal household solutions
2021Ágnes Gagyi, Csaba Jelinek, Zsuzsanna Pósfai, András Vígvári · · Europe
This chapter examines the 2000s housing financialization wave in Hungary, analysing financial over-inclusion and exclusion -- alternating dynamics of reaping gains and externalizing costs. It shows that "intermediate" rural-urban transitional zones are prime areas for high-risk mortgage lending while also containing spaces excluded from institutionalized housing finance, using as its case study an allotment garden where households combine formal jobs and mortgage repayment with informal dwelling to reduce housing costs, arguing that such informal reproductive solutions function as a resource for capital accumulation through inclusion and exclusion.
Economic viabilityCommunityWelfareEconomicsSTEAM Una guía de análisis de relaciones entre Sostenibilidad-Tecnologías y Educación: Propuestas para el Siglo XXI
2021Paulo Germán García Murillo, Laura Belkis Parada Romero, Juana Yadira Martín Perico, Julio Ernesto Rojas Mesa, Bernardo Garibello Suan · · Colombia (Bogotá)
This paper reports a research project on urban agriculture aimed at fostering scientific citizenship, carried out with fifth-grade students and teachers at the El Carmelo school in Teusaquillo, Bogota, Colombia. Focused on raising awareness of STEAM (environmental, technological, pedagogical and artistic) competencies, it designed two at-home experimental practices using easily obtained cargamanto bean seeds, addressing sustainability, STEAM and learning competencies while surfacing issues such as food security, nutritional culture, a culture of prototyping and strengthened scientific citizenship, and reports that the pandemic unexpectedly extended the project's reach from students to their families.
CommunityFood educationPolicyConnecting consumers to producers to foster sustainable consumption in international coffee supply – a marketing intervention study
2021Hanna Weber, David D. Loschelder, Daniel J. Lang, Arnim Wiek · Journal of Marketing Management · Germany
An intervention study with 136 consumers, recruited at a fair for sustainable products and lifestyles in Germany, compared three experiential marketing interventions—a promotional video, an in-person presentation, and a mindful tasting experience—designed to connect consumers with the producers of Teikei Coffee, an international Community Supported Agriculture coffee partnership. All three interventions, to varying degrees, created connections between consumers and producers and thereby fostered sustainable consumption behaviour.
CSA & TeikeiFood educationCommunityDegrowing circular cities: emerging socio-technical experiments for Transition
2021Cristina Visconti · TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment · Global
A paper examines how the circular economy applied to urban contexts, within a growth-oriented neoliberal paradigm, tends to focus on environmental performance while overlooking socio-political implications. Analyzing three socio-technical assemblages—Transition Towns, Repair Cafes, and Community Gardens—as cases, it develops a counter-perspective grounded in degrowth debates and identifies the effectiveness of urban practices where circularity extends beyond purely economic interactions or eco-efficiency parameters, outlining the potential for a 'degrowing circular city' based on inclusiveness, social justice, and reciprocity.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceImpact of Covid-19 Outbreak and Lockdown Measures on Urban Agriculture and Food Security
2021Nur Surayya Mohd Saudi, Mohd Nor Yahaya, Muzafar Shah Habibullah, Baharom Abdul Hamid, Muhammad Amirul Azlan, Mohd Haizam Mohd Saudi · Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry · Malaysia
A study on Malaysia's Movement Control Order (MCO) noted the extension may effectively contain the pandemic's spread but is expected to have a devastating impact on food security, and proposed urban farming as a means of generating household income and food security for the low-income B40 group. Econometric modeling of the effect of lockdown measures and COVID-19 on selected vegetable prices found that not all vegetables reacted uniformly to lockdown measures; price increases were associated with reduced household purchases and income, denying people access to food security. While the substitutability of vegetables allowed some switching to cheaper options, the study states that higher food prices themselves deny people access to food security.
Economic viabilityFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityEconomicsAdequate conditions of environmental management: lack of pathogens in community vegetables / Condições adequadas de manejo ambiental: ausência de patógenos em hortas comunitárias
2021Denise Junqueira Matos, Fernanda Pinto Ferreira, Natália Ingrid Pezzoti, Luana de Melo Scardovelli, Italmar Teodorico Navarro, Letícia Santos Balbino, Gabrieli Dutra Gonçalves, Kátia Denise Saraiva Bresciani · Brazilian Journal of Development · Brazil
A 2021 study examined environmental management conditions and the occurrence of Escherichia coli in irrigation water, helminths in vegetables, and protozoa (Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia spp. and Toxoplasma gondii) in soil, fertilizer, water and vegetables from community gardens in Araçatuba, São Paulo State, Brazil, covering all six gardens registered with the city's Agro-industrial Development Secretariat. An epidemiological questionnaire was administered to garden workers, and each garden was sampled for 40 liters of treated water or 10 liters of untreated water, about 10 g of soil, 10 g of fertilizer, and one bunch each of lettuce and another vegetable. E. coli in irrigation water was detected using the Colilert Kit (IDEXX Laboratories); helminths and their eggs in vegetables were assessed by optical microscopy; and Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia spp. and T. gondii were assessed by PCR in water, soil, fertilizer and vegetable samples. Results showed that an urban location, use of treated water, absence of open pits, area limits set by walls or fences, and absence of domestic animals in the community gardens were together sufficient to prevent detection of E. coli in irrigation water, helminths in vegetables, and Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia spp. and T. gondii in water, soil, fertilizer and vegetable samples.
HealthCommunityOrganic cycleGrowing your own in times of crisis: the role of home food growing in perceived food insecurity and well-being during the early COVID-19 lockdown
2021Bethan R. Mead, Jessica Davies, Natalia Falagán, Sofia Kourmpetli, Lingxuan Liu, Charlotte A. Hardman · Emerald Open Research · United Kingdom
A cross-sectional online survey conducted during the UK national lockdown in March–April 2020 measured home food growing, perceived food insecurity, well-being and opinions of urban agriculture (UA). Participants were 477 UK-based adults (369 female, mean age 39.57 ± 13.36 years), of whom 152 had been engaged in home food growing before the pandemic; responses were compared with a separate sample collected before the pandemic (N=583). Participants who engaged in home food growing had lower food insecurity (U=19894.50, z=−3.649, p<0.001, r=−0.167) and higher well-being (U=19566.50, z=−3.666, p<0.001, r=−0.168) than those who did not grow food at home. Perceived food insecurity partially mediated the relationship between home food growing and well-being. Opinions of UA showed no difference compared with the pre-pandemic sample. Home food growing may have had a protective effect on perceived food security and well-being in the early stages of the pandemic, and opinions of UA remained positive and unchanged relative to pre-pandemic levels.
Food sovereignty & justiceHealthCommunityModern practices for wastewater reuse in urban agriculture
2021Aman Tejaswi, Saket Anand, Manoj Kumar Tiwari · WEENTECH Proceedings in Energy · Global
Reuse of wastewater is becoming progressively more common, but comes with a set of risks and challenges (2021). This paper analyzed and evaluated various non-conventional treatment options and on-site farm management practices for wastewater-fed irrigation aimed at growing safer produce, with fit-for-purpose treatment and effective farm practices seen as ways to enhance benefits and reduce risks. Treatment techniques assessed ranged from simple sedimentation ponds to sandbag, fabric-based and bio-sand filtration, natural and synthetic adsorbents, and microfiltration, with the advantages, risks, applicability and limitations of each system evaluated. Farm management practices, including various irrigation methods, were likewise assessed. Wastewater-fed drip irrigation was identified as a much safer practice, especially for producing leafy vegetables.
CommunityOrganic cycleClimate changeCommunity gardening and the geographies of everyday lives in the city
2021Elia Apostolopoulou · · Europe (Greece)
Focusing on the two largest Greek cities, Athens and Thessaloniki, this study examines why urban community gardening surged after the 2008 financial crash, drawing on urban political ecology, radical social and urban geography, and qualitative social research. Greece is treated as a distinctive case: it saw this post-2008 increase in community gardening without having a prior long history of the practice, unlike parts of the Global South. The author concludes that the creation of community gardens is tied to rising inequality in European cities in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, functioning both as an act of disobedience against the grabbing of public land and as a demand for reclaiming the urban commons.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyLa agricultura urbana como herramienta para los actores políticos
2021Santiago Restrepo Vélez, Jairo Mauricio Velásquez Posada · Revista de la Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Políticas · Global
A paper presenting the experiences and results of a research project titled "Design and creation of urban agricultural garden practices and systems." It frames urban agriculture as a tool for institutional and non-governmental political actors, and concludes by analyzing the role gardens have played during the COVID-19 period.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justice