Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
4122 results(139 / 165)
Perspectives on The Effectiveness of NGO Initiatives in Urban Agriculture In Zimbabwe
2012Batanai L Sammie, Charles Nyamutowa, Munyaradzi Gwazane · International Journal of Scientific Research · Zimbabwe
This study used FGDs and case studies to identify perceived causes of failure of NGO urban agriculture initiatives in Zimbabwe. The study identified the principal-agent relationship between NNGOs and LNGOs as the epicenter of all initiative failures.
Governance failurePolicyCommunity对西宁市川浅村庄发展“城郊都市型”农业的调查与思考——以湟中县拦隆口镇泥隆台村为例
2012Hua Zhu, 杨军 · 青海社会科学 · China (Xining)
This paper studies the current status, existing problems, and development countermeasures for peri-urban agriculture in Xining City's Chuanqian villages. By analyzing agricultural development in Nilongtai Village, it discusses development models and policy suggestions for peri-urban agriculture in Chuanqian villages. Xining City's Chuanqian villages are a key area for urban agriculture development during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period.
Urban–rural linkagePolicyResearch on the Dynamic Model for the Urban Agriculture Planning——Take the Dutch City of Delft as an Example
2012Lijie He · · Netherlands (Delft)
This study investigated urban agriculture development within city planning, using the Dutch city of Delft as a case study. It developed a dynamic model for land allocation in urban agriculture by applying Multi-criteria Evaluation (MCE) to assess its relation to other city development factors. MCE and Geographic Information System (GIS) were integrated to create suitability maps, providing references for urban agriculture land utilization for planners and policymakers.
PolicyUrban Agriculture in Post-Industrial Landscape: A Case for Community-Generated Urban Design
2012Mahbubur Meenar, Jeffrey P. Featherstone, Amy Laura, Julia McCabe · · United States
A paper examining urban agriculture in United States post-industrial cities, which since the mid-20th century have experienced dramatic loss of population, community resources, and economic growth even as their wider metropolitan areas continued to grow, and which are characterised by high levels of crime, substance abuse, unemployment, poverty, food insecurity, vacant land, and urban blight. Many such communities rely on urban agriculture as a means of food security and sustainability as well as community resilience, vacant-land remediation, and neighbourhood development, yet the paper argues that urban agriculture has been treated as a temporary, informal land use, with land tenure conflict causing the untimely demise of many projects. In terms of urban design, it further argues that urban agriculture projects in many cities have developed as a "patchwork," lacking physical connectivity to other gardens, open spaces, and community infrastructure.
CommunityPolicyResearch on the Internal Mechanism for Discipline Building and Characteristic Collection of Urban Agriculture Colleges
2012Hui Wang · Anhui nongye kexue · China
This paper examines the internal mechanism for discipline building and characteristic collection at urban agriculture colleges, and proposes a technical approach for constructing characteristic collections.
Food educationPolicyLearning from Netherlands and Developing China's Urban Horticulture
2012Kai Zhang · Journal of Changjiang Vegetables · China
This paper analyzes the Netherlands' experience in developing modernized, specialized, and marketized urban horticulture, and discusses development goals for the horticulture industry in China's metropolitan suburbs on that basis. Drawing on the concept of modern agricultural development, it proposes strategies including developing advanced technology and equipment, innovating greenhouse production technology, optimizing the organizational forms of agriculture, improving industrial systems, increasing overall benefit, and achieving agricultural modernization.
PolicyEconomicsPeri-urban agricultureOf Backyard Chickens and Front Yard Gardens: The Conflict Between Local Governments and Locavores
2012Sarah Schindler · Faculty publications · United States
This article addresses the conflict between local governments and "locavores" seeking to use private property to produce food — for personal use and for sale — and municipal zoning ordinances that separate agriculture from residential uses. It examines the police power rationales behind ordinances disallowing urban homesteading in urban and suburban communities, then argues that public health, civic virtue, and free market principles can justify ordinances expressly permitting these activities. It discusses problems associated with industrial agriculture — food insecurity, food deserts, obesity tied to processed foods, monoculture-induced environmental harm, harm to animals, and greenhouse gas emissions — that could be partly alleviated through urban agriculture, noting that some local governments have already begun passing ordinances expressly allowing gardens, chickens, and the sale of produce in residential areas.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsA Demographic Portrait of Urban Open Field Cultivators in Gweru, Zimbabwe
2012Batanai L Sammie, Munyaradzi Gwazane, Charles Nyamutowa · International Journal of Scientific Research · Zimbabwe
A 2012 questionnaire survey of 40 cultivators in Gweru, Zimbabwe, collected baseline demographic information on urban open field cultivation. It found that 58% of field owners were men, 76% were between 25 and 65 years old, and children contributed 35% of the labor; education levels were 15% tertiary/university, 5% "A"-level, 48% "O"-level, and 27% primary. The study concludes that open field cultivation is a family practice engaged in across all social classes and recommends legitimizing urban agriculture as an integral part of Zimbabwean urban life.
CommunityPolicy충청북도 생활권 공원녹지 현황과 확충 방안
2012배민기 · 충북 FOCUS · South Korea
A 2012 policy report reviews the state of neighborhood parks and green space in Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, and argues for strategic planning to expand and improve them. Noting that since 2005 the quantity of park and green space has increased but its variety remains limited and its distribution regionally uneven, it recommends actively expanding park-type urban agriculture (housing-based, neighborhood-based, downtown, farm-and-park, and school-education urban agriculture parks), expanding roadside green strips and street greening, closing service gaps in park and green space provision, rooftop greening tied to building characteristics, soft measures such as box gardens, seedling distribution, and urban ecosystem education programs, and using green-space-use contracts, "green owner" systems, ordinance development, and budget allocation.
PolicyCommunityFood educationSocial Capital and Community Gardens: A Literature Review
2012Keith Sterling Miller · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota) · Global
This literature review was conducted to support the design of a Community Garden Social Impact Assessment Toolkit. Its first section reviews key literature defining social capital, including its forms, distinctions, and conceptual limits; its second section reviews the most relevant research literature on social capital and community gardens. The review played three roles in developing the toolkit: providing a conceptual foundation for social capital, informing an interview guide used with community garden stakeholders, and shaping reflection exercise questions within the toolkit. To make the toolkit accessible to a wide and diverse audience, it deliberately avoids the phrase "social capital," instead using language that captures its essence and meaning as defined in the literature.
CommunityFood educationPolicyStudy on the Problems and Countermeasures of Land Use in Urban Agriculture of Changsha City
2012Wang You-hui · Hubei nongye kexue · China
Land-use issues in urban agriculture in Changsha City, China, were examined by analyzing and comparing the city's annual statistical data alongside data from related government departments, given the close relationship between land use and the healthy development of urban agriculture. The results indicate that Changsha's urban agriculture land-use planning needs to be formulated and completed, the land-use system needs to be completed, the land-use structure needs to be optimized, and land-use functions need to be expanded, with corresponding countermeasures proposed for these issues.
PolicyPeri-urban agricultureAgricoltura, cittŕ e stili di sviluppo nell'evoluzione dell'agenda istituzionale mondiale
2012Andrea Calori · TERRITORIO · Global
The essay traces how agriculture has long been part of the urban planning policies of many cities and international institutions, while noting that agriculture and rural development only recently entered planning debates, delayed as part of the broader development of planning shaped by the 'overcoming of the rural' made explicit by 'modern' development. It connects several key turning points in how the role of the rural has been reconstructed globally in recent decades, offering new content for future action plans.
PolicyCommunityPeri-urban agriculture金融业支持大都市“三农“发展研究——以北京市为例
2012楼文龙 · 农村金融研究 · China (Beijing)
A Chinese policy study examining how the financial sector can support the development of the "three rural issues" (agriculture, rural areas, farmers) in a major metropolis, using Beijing as the example. Drawing on the coordinated practices between Beijing's banking sector and related parties, and on a review of relevant policy measures, the author presents a preliminary analysis.
PolicyEconomicsChallenges and Opportunities in Developing Beijing Modern Urban Agriculture
2012LI Weishu, Lingxian Zhang, Zetian Fu, Ren Xi, Li, Wei-Shu, Zhang, Ling-Xian, Fu, Ze-Tian, Ren, Xi · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · China (Beijing)
This study analyses the development situation of Beijing's modern urban agriculture in terms of agricultural distribution, agricultural foundation and agricultural industrial system. It identifies challenges including resource shortages, environmental deterioration and high production costs, alongside opportunities such as a large market space and advanced agricultural industrial experience, and sets out development directions for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, including strengthening the agricultural foundation, orienting toward mid- to high-end market demand, building a unique product brand, and raising the added value of agricultural products.
PolicyEconomicsOrganizing for value creation
2012Sofie Engberg · · Global
This study takes a corporate perspective on urban farming to identify factors enabling value creation, using a qualitative approach combining a literature review with a case study -- document analysis and interviews -- of an urban farming corporation that uses greenhouses for production. Drawing on stakeholder theory, triple-bottom-line theory and hybrid organisation theory, it concludes that urban farming can generate economic, environmental and social value simultaneously, that enabling factors include favourable resource availability and active stakeholder dialogue, and that greenhouse cultivation allows for minimal use of pesticides and fertilizers.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceAgricoltura urbana: un dibattito indisciplinato
2012FALLETTI, MADDALENA · TERRITORIO · Italy
This 2012 introductory piece for the Italian journal TERRITORIO reorganizes contributions on urban agriculture by subject matter to surface several contradictory aspects of the ongoing debate. It offers three interpretive keys: the first reproduces the debate within its own sealed compartments while attempting comparison through juxtaposition of contrasting attitudes; the second highlights a transverse conceptual dichotomy with strong implications for planning — urban agriculture as a remedy for city problems versus the urban countryside as a new form of urban plan; the third examines the debate in the specific context of Milan.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justice台湾における農村活性化策略
2012Zilian LIN, K. Akiyama · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Taiwan
A study examining the progress of Taiwan's rural planning policy, implemented by the government for more than five decades, from the perspective of community building. As a case study focused on seven points, the analysis finds that an industrial-prosperity policy supporting rural communities, carried out in cooperation with relevant authorities, resulted in rural community promotion. Residents were generally satisfied with the implementation of the plans, but the study also identifies remaining issues, including strengthening a direct-sales system, better grasping residents' needs, coordinating with broader-based plans, maintaining urban agricultural land, and government support services.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceR/Urban trends in Beijing. Three cases from the city's peri-urban periphery
2012Annelies De Nijs, Pei-Chun Wen, Di Wu · TERRITORIO · China
In contemporary China, where the evolution of productive land relates to specific government policies and the nation's changing spatial conditions, a paper describes urban agriculture — particularly developed in the friction zone between the ever-growing urban and threatened rural territories — through three cases in Beijing's peri-urban periphery: Liuminying, Xiedao, and Taihu. The first two, Liuminying and Xiedao, show a major concern for sustainable production and agro-tourism but a weaker embedding in their local contexts, while the Taihu project is more rooted in its locale and provides a stronger response to the site's ecological sensitivity. The paper argues the Taihu case exemplifies an alternative to China's ever-booming and seemingly randomly placed agro-tourism sites.
CommunityPeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomics도시농업의 도시열섬현상 저감효과에 대한 계량화 평가연구
2012엄기철, 정필균, So Hyun Park, 유성녕, 김태완 · · South Korea
A study quantitatively evaluated the effect of vegetation on urban heat island mitigation across six cities in South Korea, analyzing climate change data over 30 years (1979-2008) and estimating evapotranspiration (ET), CO2 uptake, O2 emission and ozone concentration. The hottest period was late July to early August, and the highest 10-day average urban ambient air temperature (UAAT) over the 30 years was 35.03°C. The mean maximum ET of rice and soybean in urban areas was 6.86 and 6.00 mm/day, respectively. Rice and soybean cultivation lowered UAAT by 10.5°C and 3.0°C in Suwon, while the differences between UAAT and canopy temperature at urban paddy and upland fields in Ansung were 2.6°C and 2.2°C. Urban gardens in Suwon lowered UAAT and building surface temperature by 2.0°C and 14.5°C, respectively. CO2 uptake by rice and soybean was estimated at 20.27 and 15.54 kg CO2 per 10a per day, and O2 emission at 14.74 and 11.30 kg O2 per 10a per day. During the hottest summer period, ozone concentrations were estimated to be reduced by 21.0, 8.8, and 4.0 ppb through rice cultivation, soybean cultivation, and urban gardening, respectively.
CommunityClimate changePolicySocial Reform and Allotment Gardening in Twentieth-Century York
2012Ross Wilson · Journal of Urban History · United Kingdom
A historical study using archive material and newspaper reports examines the development of allotment gardens in the northern English city of York in the early twentieth century. Applying Giddens's structuration theory, it investigates how relationships between citizens and the York City Corporation developed, and reexamines allotment gardens as a lens for understanding wider urban life in Britain. It argues that although allotment gardens have featured only partially in studies of civic reform, identity and governmentality, their centrality to working-class life in Britain warrants greater scholarly attention.
CommunityPolicyHealth and Environmental Hazards Posed by Urban Livestock
2012Anthonia N. Asadu, E. M. Igbokwe, Jane M. Chah, I A Enwelu · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Nigeria
A study of Enugu Urban, Nigeria, examining farmers' perceptions of the health and environmental hazards posed by keeping livestock in urban areas, and the implications for climate change mitigation. Seventy-five heads of household were freely sampled and interviewed, with data analyzed using percentages and means. Most farmers kept improved chicken breeds under an intensive system. All respondents were aware of health and environmental implications of urban livestock keeping, but only 4.0% were aware that livestock could contribute to climate change. Reported environmental issues included crop destruction (89.3%), filth in urban areas (89.3%) and noise (88.0%); health issues included disease spreading (50.7%), accidents (46.7%) and bad smell (86.7%). Perceived control measures included proper waste disposal (mean 1.79), seeking veterinary services (mean 1.85), regular shed cleaning (mean 1.80) and provision of extension services (mean 1.85). The study recommends integrating urban agriculture into urban health and environmental policy and having extension services raise awareness of livestock's climate impact among urban keepers.
HealthCommunityPolicy¡Nos plantamos! Urbanismo participativo y agricultura urbana en los huertos comunitarios de Madrid
2012José Luis Fernández de Casadevante, Nerea Morán Alonso · Hábitat y Sociedad · Spain
This article examines community allotment gardens as an emerging phenomenon in Spanish cities, focusing on Madrid. It describes how allotments have arisen through the efforts of neighbourhood associations, social groups, and ecologists, in a dynamic that has proliferated over the preceding six years, building a critical discourse around urban sustainability and forming coordinated structures able to introduce the topic into the public sphere and the political agenda. These allotments are spaces articulating experiences of reflection and participative intervention around the city, public space, group identities, and procedures of spatial appropriation. The initiatives are also described as approaching the notion of food sovereignty as a strategic issue for the future of cities.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyDiversity in community gardens: Evidence from one region in the United Kingdom
2012David Pearson, Chris Firth · Biological Agriculture & Horticulture · United Kingdom
A profiling study of community gardens in one region of the United Kingdom, which found that gardens differ in how and when they were established, how they are managed and funded, their size, and who uses them and for what purposes. The two most common objectives cited by organizers were community development through food-related activities and contributing to environmental sustainability. On longevity, one third of the community gardens in the study region were found to be no longer active, indicating that survival is not assured. To improve durability, the study suggests gardens need to build a sense of ownership within the local community and be managed in ways consistent with their funding source's conditions and volunteers' expectations.
CommunityPolicyPeri-urban agriculture and population growth : the case of Asmara, Eritrea
2012Tesfamichael Fessahaie · · Africa (Ethiopia)
A thesis examining peri-urban agriculture in Asmara, Eritrea, within an analytical framework of urban population growth encompassing natural population increase, rural-urban migration, and outward movement linked to urban expansion. It draws on primary field data collected with research assistants, secondary data from Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Public Works reports, and focus group discussions. Respondents in the context of natural population growth were found to make a viable living from peri-urban agriculture, but also to face considerable challenges. Three sub-groups of farmers were identified; poultry farmers were the most vulnerable, owing to high input costs, uncertainty from avian flu, and an undeveloped distribution network. Vegetable producers had a sophisticated marketing network but low levels of education, large households, and an impending shortage of land and water. The abstract's description of agriculturalists who migrated to Asmara is cut off before stating a conclusion.
Peri-urban agriculturePolicyCommunityThe C. H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa
2012Robert Connolly, Samantha E. J. Gibbs, Mallory L. Bader · Museums & Social Issues · United States
This paper examines the outreach program that the C.H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa, located on the grounds of a prehistoric earthwork complex in Memphis, Tennessee, has run toward the surrounding African-American community over the past decade. The archaeological site was first investigated, and the museum was founded, as a byproduct of 1930s Jim Crow-era segregation policies; since its founding, the site and museum have functioned as a place of academic privilege that ignored the surrounding community. Transparency and a commitment to community engagement are described as central to the outreach program, whose highlights include installing an African-American Cultural Heritage exhibit, hosting community events, establishing a community garden, and collaborating with community partners on service projects. Based on a participatory model, the museum has moved to position itself as a social asset and stakeholder in the Southwest Memphis community.
CommunityWelfarePolicy