Research & reports

Anne Kerber, Ivana Guarrasi, Hsinhuei Sheen Chiou, Sabrina Ehmke, Kristi Oeding, Sachi Sekimoto · Health Communication · United States

Drawing on the Garden EngAGEment community garden project at Minnesota State University, Mankato, this article develops the concept of "artful place-making" as an alternative, experiential approach to organizing and teaching care for people with Alzheimer's and related dementias, using arts-based research, place-based education, and sensory studies. It describes the interplay of knowing, making, and being in the garden as fostering a new culture of care in health professions training, multi-sensory connection, and personal, relational, and community transformation.

Ada Baldi, Nicolas Lucio Gallo, Anna Lenzi · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · Italy

Semi-structured interviews with participants in the "social gardens" of Prato, Italy — plots the municipality assigns to individual pensioners or unemployed people for growing vegetables for home consumption — examined demographic and socio-economic characteristics, cultivated crops, and plot areas. The typical gardener was male, retired, averaged 74 years old, and had a low level of education. A 50 m2 plot with 40% of its area cultivated was estimated to yield about 90 kg of vegetables per year, roughly 61.5% of one person's fruit and vegetable needs. Tomatoes occupied more than 80% of the cultivated area. Vitamin C and Vitamin A showed the highest nutrient contributions, while calcium and sodium showed the lowest.

Iman Mamnoon · GeoFocus Revista Internacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Información Geográfica · Global

Using a GIS-based risk assessment methodology, this study develops a quantitative food-insecurity scale for the most vulnerable urban populations, calculating risk as a combination of social vulnerability and hazard (difficulty of access to food distribution), and applying the model to two case studies: southeast Washington, D.C., in the United States and Puente de Vallecas in Madrid, Spain. A Social Vulnerability Index was computed from average income, education level, unemployment rate, and age, while hazard values were derived from proximity to supermarkets. The analysis identified high-risk food-insecurity areas in both neighborhoods requiring urgent intervention measures. In Puente de Vallecas, census tract 07913143 was identified as a high-risk hotspot with a Social Vulnerability Index of 1.646495 (range 0.901–3.223) and a risk value of 3 (range 3–10); in southeast D.C., tracts 7601 and 7605 were selected as high-risk zones for further study, with Social Vulnerability Index values of 2.221 and 1.737 (range 1.040–3.525) and risk values of 2 and 5 (range 0–10), respectively. The study also identifies a general shortage of areas combining residential and commercial use and limits on public transport availability in the food-insecure urban areas studied.

Tatiana Hlinka · Journal of Student Research · United States

In New Jersey, 50 food desert areas face the most severe food insecurity across both rural and urban contexts. This study identified nine barriers to implementing urban agriculture initiatives in New Jersey's urban food deserts, using a sequential quantitative analysis combining a survey of food systems professionals with a GIS-based spatial analysis to identify the most prevalent barrier. Working in partnership with New Jersey urban agricultural organizations, the study found that lack of funding was the most commonly cited barrier to expanding urban agriculture initiatives. The GIS-based spatial analysis found that high-priority barriers varied by region, but that all organizations identified funding, or lack of access to funding, as a significant barrier regardless of whether they operated in a low- or high-income neighborhood. The study concludes that policymakers must reevaluate the role of urban agricultural organizations in New Jersey's urban food deserts.

Charlie M. Shackleton, Peta Brom, Nanamhla Gwedla, Abraham R. Matamanda, Mallika Sardeshpande, Sopna Kumar-Nair · Cities · South Africa

Using South Africa as a case example, the study scored six types of urban green infrastructure (UGI) — amenity spaces, blue infrastructure, natural/semi-natural lands, urban parks, urban agriculture and verges — against five dimensions of poverty alleviation: cash or non-cash income, skills development and learning, physical and mental health, reduced vulnerability and risk, and participation in decision-making, rating current and future potential alongside the degree of change required. Urban agriculture was scored as having the highest current potential to contribute to poverty alleviation and verges the lowest, while parks and amenity spaces offered the greatest returns per effort and verges were identified as key sites for pro-poor intervention due to their wide distribution. Overall, the study concluded that greater investment and changes in the attitudes of authorities would have a bigger impact on poverty alleviation across all UGI types than changes to policy and procedure.

Ni’matul Istiqomah, Magistyo Purboyo Priambodo, Nur Anita Yunikawati, Wahjoedi Wahjoedi · International Journal of Community Service Learning · Indonesia

This report describes a hydroponic-farming training program for 35 women members of the PKK family-welfare movement in Kauman Kelurahan, Malang, Indonesia, aimed at upgrading skills in hydroponic cultivation on narrow land and reviving community activity that had stalled during the Covid-19 pandemic. The training combined socialization with hands-on demonstrations covering both standard hydroponic equipment (such as pipes) and methods using everyday household items, and it reports increased knowledge and skill in hydroponic cultivation among participants.

Chernet Assefa, Addisu Getahun, Endale Mekonnen · Middle East Research Journal of Economics and Management · Ethiopia

A participatory demonstration conducted in three districts of the Akaki Kaliti sub-city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the 2021/22 production year, in which a total of 61 farming households (47 male-headed, 14 female-headed) benefited, covering 14 hectares of bread wheat and 30 hectares of teff. The demonstrated technologies produced an average grain yield of 56.66 quintals/hectare for bread wheat and 22.16 quintals/hectare for teff, both higher than the national average. The study concludes that boosting agricultural production requires stakeholder attention to disseminating and adopting improved crop varieties with full production packages, using cluster farming to reduce poverty and ensure food security.

Laurence Bhérer, Pascale Dufour, Françoise Montambeault · Urban Affairs Review · Canada

A two-level analysis tracing the trajectory of urban gardening and dumpster diving/food recuperation practices in Montréal, Canada, from grassroots emergence to inclusion within institutional frameworks. Rather than treating citizen-led initiatives as either co-opted by formal institutions under austerity or as pure "spaces of resistance" to neoliberalism, the study shows that individuals and loosely organized collectives involved in these practices are embedded in complex relationships with local institutions and third-sector organizations, which in turn structure the practices and their consequences. It describes this institutionalization as occurring gradually, through practitioners' interactions with each other and with their social and institutional environment.

Arta Kusumaningrum, Didik Widiyantono, Uswatun Hasanah, Dyah Panuntun Utami, Istiko Agus Wicaksono, Isna Windani · Surya Abdimas · Indonesia

Describes a community-service (pengabdian) activity introducing the concept of urban farming using limited urban residential space — pots arranged on walls and fences — to a Women Farmer Group (KWT) at Perum Pepabri Borokulon in Purworejo Regency, Indonesia. The activity combined secondary data collection, key-informant interviews, focus group discussion, extension training, implementation of urban farming, and monitoring and evaluation. It reports that urban farming proved suitable for implementation in this urban residential setting and that it could supply food at the household scale and increase household income for members of the women farmer group.

Bambang Tri Kurnianto · West Science Nature and Technology · Global

A review article examining urban farming practices — including rooftop gardens, vertical farms and community gardens — as approaches to the land scarcity and food-security pressures of rapid urbanization. Drawing on case studies from cities worldwide, it discusses their reported role in improving food access, reducing carbon footprints and fostering social cohesion, and argues for integrating urban agriculture into urban planning together with supportive policy and community engagement. The article does not report original data, a defined study site, or quantified outcomes.

City of Johannesburg, Department of Social Development · City of Johannesburg · South Africa

A 2024 policy document adopted by the City of Johannesburg's Department of Social Development, stating that approximately 9.6% of households in the city are indigent households constantly threatened by food insecurity (StatsSA, 2018), and citing a 2021 estimate that 30.9% of people are threatened by food insecurity (Rudolph et al.). It outlines interventions including regional agricultural resource centres, farming hubs, and food parcel distribution.

Alcaldía de Medellín (Secretaría de Inclusión Social y Familia) · Alcaldía de Medellín · Colombia

An article on Medellín's municipal Social Inclusion and Family Secretariat program supporting home gardens for household self-consumption through training workshops, provision of agricultural supplies, and technical visits. The program benefits 670 households, who must attend at least 5 of 7 scheduled educational sessions to receive materials and products.

· LCR Diario Digital · Argentina

A regional Argentine newspaper report on the national Ministry of Human Capital's March 2024 discontinuation of ProHuerta, the national program providing free seed kits for household gardens. In the Villa Regina area of Río Negro province, the local Comisión de Fomento of Valle Azul stepped in to purchase and freely distribute 100 seed kits for the spring-summer season, while INTA (the national agricultural technology institute), though no longer funded to buy seeds, continues to offer free technical advice on soil improvement and pest control.

Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario, Provincia de Buenos Aires · Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario, Provincia de Buenos Aires · Argentina

The official page for the Buenos Aires Province Urban Garden Programme, launched by the provincial Ministry of Agrarian Development in the second half of 2024. It offers training, seedlings and technical support for community gardens of at least 40 square meters run or planned by schools, hospitals, clubs and civic organizations, and supports municipalities in setting up or strengthening local seedling nurseries; its first edition worked mainly with school, hospital and organizational community gardens.

Tracey D., Gray T., Sweeting J., Kingsley J., Bailey A., Pettitt P. · Health & Social Care in the Community (Wiley/Hindawi), 2023:5570089 · Global

The first systematic review to summarize the benefits of community gardening for vulnerable populations such as low-socioeconomic-status and culturally diverse groups. Analyzing 33 studies, it finds social connection, health, education, and nutrition to be the most frequently reported benefits, supporting social inclusion and welfare.

Goralnik L., Radonic L., Garcia Polanco V., Hammon A. · Land, 12(1):68 · United States

A qualitative study of a food-bank-run community garden in Lansing, Michigan, examining what fosters inclusion for refugee and immigrant gardeners. It shows how garden management practices promote inclusion that builds social capital, an outcome important for refugee and immigrant wellbeing.

農と親しみ江東区の共生社会を考える協議会, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Grant case study creating a children's farm-contact space in Toyosu, Koto Ward, using urban farmland creation support — a report on ward-council-business collaboration for vacant-land farming, food education and an inclusive community.

独立行政法人都市再生機構（UR都市機構） · UR都市機構 西日本支社 ニュースリリース · Japan

A news release from UR (Urban Renaissance Agency) reporting the completion of the PARK BAR facility at 'Minna no Uen PARK Minatogawa' on UR land in Kobe, introducing the farm-plus-park social experiment for community exchange, childcare and welfare.

Chang Y., Si Z., Crush J., Scott S., Zhong T. · Urban Governance · China (Wuhan, Nanjing)

Examines central, provincial, and municipal government responses to ensuring stable urban food supply during zero-COVID measures in Wuhan and Nanjing, China.

Haase · People and Nature · Germany (Berlin)

Assesses the social–environmental values of urban gardens for both gardeners and the wider public, using Berlin as an example.

· Wellbeing, Space and Society · Denmark

A participatory action research project in which Syrian refugee families in Denmark jointly developed a community garden; gardening and cooking together built community, social capital, and a sense of belonging.

· Local Environment · United Kingdom (Aberdeen)

Based on interviews with food-growing project participants in Aberdeen, UK, finds unexpected wellbeing effects of urban food activism, notably heavy burdens on volunteer coordinators of community gardens.

· Local Environment · United Kingdom

Uses grassroots visual storytelling to explore how community food-growing activities build community bonds through emotional attachment and placemaking.

· Cogent Economics & Finance · Tanzania

Analyzes household participation in agri-food based livelihoods across urban and peri-urban contexts of Tanzania.

· City · Austria (Vienna)

Examines how greening-oriented planning policy shifts in Vienna interact with gentrification pressures, analyzing whether municipal planning instruments mitigate or inadvertently enable green gentrification in a social-democratic housing context.