Research & reports

Wendpouiré Léticia Nadège Nonguierma, Jean-Marie Dipama · Afrique contemporaine · Africa

A study of the "Ceinture verte" (Green Belt) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, as a nature-based response to climate adaptation. Established in 1976 and relaunched in 2018, the initiative combines forestry development with urban agriculture, aiming to contain urban sprawl, improve the local climate and strengthen the capital's resilience. The study combined a diachronic analysis of Landsat imagery from 1984-2024 with interviews of institutional actors, associative partners and direct beneficiaries. Results show significant contributions — expansion of dense vegetation in some areas, a perceived improvement in air quality, the creation of income-generating market-gardening activities, and the inclusion of vulnerable populations — but also reveal strong constraints: illegal occupations covering a significant share of the land, fragmented governance, limited access to water, security fragility, and still-limited involvement of local residents. The study discusses the feasibility of a trajectory to 2050 between an optimistic scenario conditional on structural reforms and a critical scenario underscoring current limits, and offers lessons transferable to urban adaptation policies in other Sahelian metropolises.

Resa Ramadhan, Fatimah Azzahra, Syifa Fauziah · JURNAL ILMIAH MAHASISWA AGROINFO GALUH · Indonesia

A quantitative study of Karangmukti Village, Bungursari District, Purwakarta Regency, Indonesia, analyzing the influence of livelihood capital on the livelihood resilience of farming households. The village has been undergoing agricultural land conversion: the agricultural land area was about 206 hectares before the change, roughly 30 hectares were converted in 2025 (mainly for industrial and residential development), leaving about 176 hectares, and further conversion is planned for 2026-2027, which may further reduce the amount of productive agricultural land. Samples of farming households were drawn using the Slovin formula and cluster sampling, with data collected via questionnaires, interviews, observation and documentation, and analyzed using quantitative descriptive analysis and Smart-PLS. The results show that livelihood capital among farming households was at a moderate level, with natural capital as the most dominant component, and livelihood resilience was also categorized as moderate; livelihood capital was found to have a statistically significant positive influence on livelihood resilience.

Siti Hadianti, Nurhasanah Nurhasanah, Teguh Prakoso, Hidayah Hidayah, Siti Hadianti · Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat · Indonesia

A community-service report on a community-based organic waste management program in Kurungkambing Village, Banten Province, Indonesia, aimed at improving environmental quality and supporting sustainable rural tourism. Despite the village's agricultural and tourism potential, unmanaged household and agricultural organic waste had been contributing to environmental degradation and limited community awareness of sustainable waste practices. Using a participatory, empowerment-oriented approach, the program was implemented in three stages: (1) community needs assessment and stakeholder consultation, (2) training and mentoring on composting and herbal plant cultivation, and (3) environmental improvement through school garden development and compost use. The program reported increased community awareness of organic waste management, improved practical composting skills, and active participation in greening activities involving residents and schools, as well as strengthened collaboration among the university, local government and community groups that contributed to cleaner public spaces and more sustainable village conditions.

Taira KAGAMI, Yoshiyuki Uchikawa · 農村計画学会誌 · Japan

A study of Minowa Town, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, investigating the attributes of allotment garden users and how former users progressed toward independent home vegetable gardening on farmland. Set against an increasing proportion of nonfarmers in the rural population and rising demand for allotment and home vegetable gardens, Minowa Town established an allotment garden with a beginner-level cultivation course and also encourages residents to lease farmland for vegetable gardening. The study found that user attributes were diverse, comprising both landowning nonfarmers and relocators who had newly leased farmland — a combination not reported in earlier studies — and that some former users continued to cultivate their own land or newly leased fields after completing the gardening course. Based on these findings, the study concludes that rural allotment gardens serve a different role from existing urban gardens: providing a place for landowning nonfarmers to learn vegetable cultivation for use on their own fields, and providing relocators an opportunity to acquire farmland and establish home vegetable gardens, suggesting that in rural areas where farmland is relatively accessible, allotment gardens can help expand home gardening within local communities.

AltTech LLC & Subsidiaries, The People's Coalition of Planet Earth · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · United States

This paper presents Project Ubuntu's "Big Green Web," a proposed nationwide U.S. framework of interconnected, renewable-energy-powered community-governed food forests intended to provide free, open-access food production for communities of color, drawing on principles of food sovereignty, environmental justice and mutual aid; the paper examines the framework's theoretical foundations and operational structure as a proposed model rather than reporting outcomes from an implemented program.

Kulesh Bhandari · Open MIND · India

This first entry in a species documentation series on wild food forests in tribal Jharkhand, India, part of a Pollination Project-funded initiative, presents a field-based profile of Clerodendrum viscosum, a shrub of the Santhal Pargana uplands, recorded on a semi-open granite-laterite rise at 210 m elevation under conditions of 27°C, 30% relative humidity, a 15°C night low and wind gusts to about 35 kph. The profile documents microhabitat characteristics, morphology (bud, calyx, corolla, stamens), ethnobotanical use among Santhal-Paharia communities, and the species' ecological role as a pollinator-supporting, upland-stabilizing plant.

Rana Sukarieh · · Global

This chapter examines two solidarity economy initiatives in Lebanon — Nohye El Ard, a community garden in Saida, South Lebanon, and Dekkan El Mazraa, an experimental solidarity grocery — as case studies of how communities responded to the country's overlapping political, economic and social crises, arguing that this polycrisis has generated new prefigurative initiatives that form communities of resistance.

Christine Jie Li, John H. Schulz, Sa Tun Bo Bo · Journal of Community Practice · United States

Semi-structured interviews with 18 Burmese refugees in the United States explored their experiences across three types of community-assisted garden programs — individual backyard gardens, personal-use community gardens, and enterprise community-assisted gardens. The interviews produced three broad themes (benefits, challenges, and issues with recruitment and support), with reported benefits including strengthened family relationships, access to culturally relevant and fresh organic vegetables, reduced food budget spending, and improved social relationships, alongside challenges that the study describes as a complex mixture affecting refugees' nutritional, economic and social well-being.

Swayangsiddha Nayak, Lalita Dhal, Sheri Dorn, Julie H. Campbell · Urban forestry & urban greening · United States

A longitudinal qualitative participatory action research study conducted between 2023 and 2024 at a Southeastern U.S. university examined how international students engage with an autonomous, student-led campus community garden, using Berry's Acculturation Theory to explore motivations and the physical, social and psychological barriers they encountered. The study found a cyclical acculturation process in which the garden's autonomy fostered belonging through growing culturally relevant produce and intercultural exchange, while limited institutional support generated uncertainty, mistrust and communication barriers that caused students to oscillate between feelings of integration and separation, eventually prompting self-advocacy and co-leadership structures among the students.

Asra Jabeen, Vaijanatha ., Kiran Lakshmikant Kadam, Kalyan . · International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development · India

A study in Medchal-Malkajgiri District, Telangana, India examined ICT utilization among urban farmers, the relationship between farmer profile characteristics and ICT use, farmers' attitudes toward ICT tools, and constraints on their use. It found smartphones, WhatsApp, YouTube and agricultural mobile applications were the commonly used information sources, with education, age, digital literacy, income and training exposure significantly influencing usage, while constraints including lack of technical knowledge, poor internet connectivity and inadequate training limited effective use of ICT tools.

Magdalena Raftowicz, Mirosław Struś · Sustainability · Poland

An empirical study in Poland, based on a critical literature review and a 2024 CAWI (computer-assisted web interview) survey of CSA producers, examined whether social capital theory explains food producers' engagement in Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) and whether this holds in practice. It found that social capital theory does explain the mechanisms underlying CSA engagement, with implications for local food system and small-farm policy, but that because of Poland's low level of social capital, the CSA model there remains only a niche complement to traditional agriculture, functioning primarily for a narrow group of socially and environmentally conscious consumers and small producer clusters.

Roberto Arturo Berríos Zepeda, Jorge Vírchez · OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development · Canada

A 2026 article examines the city of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, as a case of sustainable transformative economy at the municipal level. Historically defined by intensive mining and severe ecological degradation, the city has pursued environmental restoration and socio-economic change through combined efforts of local government, industry, universities, nonprofit organizations, and grassroots initiatives. It describes examples including the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee, Earth Care Sudbury, the Good Food Box, and the Sudbury Community Garden Network, and how civic participation and inter-institutional collaboration have reoriented local development toward ecological stewardship, food security, and social equity.

Mitsuhito HOSAKA, Mitsuyo UEMATSU, Hironori Yagi · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Japan

A 2026 qualitative longitudinal case study interviewed nine farmers in Tokyo who use real-time image sharing (RTIS) for direct-sales marketing, assessing their information resources, market orientation, and firm performance before and after adopting RTIS. It finds that RTIS use helps farmers accumulate information resources and subsequently adopt a more market-oriented approach, with shipping efficiency improving especially among farmers who initially had limited information resources but some degree of market orientation. Farmers also developed process innovation integrating information resources and market orientation, and those who adopted process innovation after RTIS implementation saw improved farm stand sales through optimized shipping.

Joshua Garcia, Mariel Mondragon-Becerra, Ivan Moya martinez, Connie Tsz Fai Wong, Zoe Caron, Katherine Kravitz, Elaine Owyang, Olukayode Jegede, Rebecca Ryals, Cristina Lazcano · Discover Sustainability · United States

A 2026 study conducted with Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont (LEAF), a small urban farm in the San Francisco Bay Area, US, tests whether regenerative agriculture can support soil health and biodiversity in an urban landscape, comparing uncultivated soils, soils managed regeneratively for four years (Regen.4), and soils managed regeneratively for 10 years (Regen.10). Soil chemical properties such as pH, electrical conductivity, and lead concentration differed significantly between plots, likely reflecting each plot's management and land-use history. While total soil carbon did not differ between plots, Regen.4 had a higher proportion of labile carbon than the uncultivated plot along with a greater abundance of soil microorganisms and nematodes, and Regen.4 soils also showed improved physical properties — higher aggregate stability and lower compaction — compared with both the uncultivated plot and the Regen.10 plot.

K. C. Sahu · Open MIND · India

This study surveyed urban farmers in Bhubaneswar, a planned smart city in India, using direct-contact interviews and questionnaires. It covers forms of urban agriculture practiced according to building position, including rooftop gardens, balcony gardens, terrace gardens, vertical farming, Z-farming, aquaponics, hydroponics, and aeroponics. Data were collected from respondents through semi-structured interviews and tabulated for analysis. Regarding the distribution of family members involved in urban agriculture, the study found that female participation was greater than male participation.

Rakindra Putri Ardhini, Jasmine Tifani Claudia Arisayu, Ida Syamsu Roida, Adi Candra · Jurnal Abdi Masyarakat Indonesia · Indonesia (Surabaya)

This community outreach report describes a four-month support program for KWT Kedurus Asri, a women's farmer group operating an urban-agriculture-based production business in the Kedurus neighborhood of Surabaya, Indonesia, aimed at developing a visual identity (logo, color palette, typography), improving product packaging, and building digital marketing capacity through social media and online marketplaces. Methods included observation, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, participatory design workshops, and ongoing mentoring. The program reports that the group achieved a more cohesive brand identity, packaging meeting food labeling standards, and active social media accounts with planned promotional content, with sales volume increasing by 35% during the support period.

Fernando Adrihel Sarubbi-Baltazar, Iván López-García, Guillermo López-López, Marbella Sánchez-Soriano · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

A conceptual paper on territorial food governance argues that territorial food networks function as governance structures rather than mere exchange channels, sustained day to day by women's labor, knowledge transmission and coordination — work typically classified as informal or subsistence-based and denied political recognition. It contends these networks are structurally low-carbon because of their socio-productive organization rather than any explicit climate strategy, and frames women's role as collective, local governance leadership rather than individual participation.

María José Mayorga Ases, Iveth Carolina Abril Ruiz, Byron Stalin Zamora Flores, Evelyn Gissela Bedón Durán · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Global

A mixed-methods study of Ecuadorian secondary education students found moderate entrepreneurial competencies overall, with strengths in collaborative work and responsibility but limitations in initiative and autonomy, and identified regional variation: Quito concentrates 25% of ventures in technology and social enterprise, Guayaquil 22% in commerce and logistics, and Ambato 18% in family and artisanal business. It identified five effective educational innovations — community projects, school gardens, innovation fairs, educational technologies and interdisciplinary projects — while noting a persistent gap between idea generation and execution, and 8% of rural localities developing enterprises with less infrastructure.

Mohammed El-Hajj · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

This conceptual paper proposes the Urban Agriculture Digital Twin (UA-DT), a four-layer cyber-physical framework combining IoT sensing, cloud infrastructure and hybrid mechanistic/AI models for real-time monitoring and city-scale food-system simulation, with logical feasibility demonstrated through an illustrative software simulation (Eclipse Ditto, Azure IoT, Python) for a community rooftop garden. The paper cites benchmark ranges — 20–40% water savings, 15–25% fertilizer reduction, up to 30% post-harvest loss reduction, and 3–7 day early-warning lead time — as literature-derived projections that a fully validated UA-DT deployment would be expected to approach, explicitly noting these are not empirical findings of this study.

Fitri Mahyudi, Husinsyah, Yarna Hasiani · INSPIRASI JURNAL PENGABDIAN KEPADA MASYARAKAT · Indonesia

A community activity in Desa Sungai Batang, Martapura sub-district, Banjar regency, South Kalimantan, aimed at building a self-sufficient food village by integrating urban farming with budikdamber (catfish farming in buckets). The method used fieldwork, direct observation, and interviews. The resulting budikdamber setup could supply local residents with animal protein from self-managed cultivation, while a simultaneously applied aquaponic technique for growing water spinach (kangkung) produced a vegetable supply that could become a long-term source for residents.

Tomoki Fujii, Christoph Waibel, Xinyi Du, Zhongming Shi · CABI climate change series. · Global

A book chapter reviewing Singapore's changing urban agriculture landscape and recent progress toward its "30-by-30" goal of 30% food self-sufficiency by 2030, discussing land constraints, high production costs, and resource limitations. It examines building-integrated agriculture (BIA)—using rooftops, façades and balconies for food production—as a potential way to raise self-sufficiency through simulation, but concludes that practical issues including regulatory concerns and infrastructure limitations must be addressed before BIA can be implemented at scale.

Ivonne M. Leiwakabessy, Novalien Syauta, Lili Sarce Joi Sapari, Joni Penda, Denny Petta, Dormauli Br Gultom, Dwi Indah Widya Yanti, Melisa Masengi · Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat dan Riset Pendidikan · Indonesia

A community-service report from Pulau Soop, a small island in Indonesia, aimed at strengthening household food security by using home yards and plastic bottles as planting media in response to limited land and increasing plastic waste. Students at SMP Negeri 9 Pulau Soop were trained to convert plastic bottles into planting containers and to cultivate vegetables, gaining knowledge and practical skills in recycling, appropriate technology and simple cultivation methods. The program resulted in improved student understanding and active participation, and led to the establishment of a school mini garden as an urban farming model, supporting environmental education, reduced plastic waste, and yard-based food security in the small island community.

Justina Walker-Mohamed, Stephanie Johnston, Silvia Sarapura, Charlotte Potter, Tristan Cook, Paul Benalcazer, Red Rock Indian Band, Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg, Biinjitiwaabik Zaagging Anishinaabek, Niigaaniin (Mamaweswen) · Rural Review Ontario Rural Planning Development and Policy · Canada

This poster presentation describes knowledge translation and transfer (KTT) practices in the Braiding Food Systems (BFS) project, a community-based agri-food research initiative with First Nations in Canada spanning community gardens, seed lodges and youth engagement. The approach centers relationships, mutual and reciprocal learning and sharing, and equal value for diverse forms of knowledge, co-developing place-based KTT strategies and materials, and is intended to open a conversation on community engagement and participation in KTT for Indigenous agri-food and rural research. No specific outcomes or measured results are reported.

Subin Babu Neupane, Pedro F S Toledo, Katerina Velasco-Graham, Felipe N. Soto‐Adames, Arash Kheirodin · Journal of Integrated Pest Management · United States

This is the first report documenting the invasive thrips species Thrips parvispinus, native to Southeast Asia, in Texas, USA. Samples collected from 12 locations across Texas -- including greenhouse facilities, large retail outlets and community gardens -- from plants showing foliage injury confirmed the species' presence in November 2025, and detections across multiple counties suggest it has been introduced to multiple locations and may be widely distributed in the state.

Wei-Chun Chuang, Ching‐Pin Tung, Wan-Yu Shih, Wen-Ray Su · 網際網路技術學刊 · China

This study examines the spatial equity and socio-spatial implications of urban agriculture by analysing the distribution of community gardens under Taipei's Garden City Program (TGCP) in relation to neighborhood-level income growth, using unsupervised machine learning (DBSCAN) combined with spatial statistics (Moran's I and LISA). It finds that garden service density is highly concentrated in central districts with significant service gaps in peripheral areas, while at the citywide scale no significant correlation is found between garden density and income growth -- consistent with the "just green enough" view that low-cost, small-scale, decentralized community gardens are less likely to trigger conventional green gentrification -- though several local areas do show potential spatial coupling between garden presence and income change, pointing to a need for policy attention to distributional equity.