Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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Critical findings
4122 results(148 / 165)
Thinking on the development of urban agriculture and vegetable basket project in Tianjin
2010Juan Yun · Guangdong nongye kexue · China (Tianjin)
This article provided suggestions for the development of urban agriculture and the "vegetable basket project" in Tianjin, China. The recommendations included constructing urban agriculture in mountainous areas and the Tianjin Binhai new developed area, improving vegetable transportation and fresh-cut vegetable wholesale markets, and establishing retail auction supermarkets and market information websites. These suggestions were based on Tianjin's current agricultural and market levels, geography, and urban construction status.
Urban–rural linkageEconomicsPolicyTows Matrix Analysis on Developing Urban Agriculture in the Pearl River Delta Area
2010Wang Cheng-yong, Wang, Cheng-Yong · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · China
This study analyzed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of developing urban agriculture in the Pearl River Delta area, China. Strengths included natural resources, geographic, and technological advantages. Weaknesses involved land resources, labor costs, industrial scale, and personnel quality. Opportunities were identified in potential clients, favorable policies, and markets, while threats included conceptual factors and the urban-rural income gap. Based on this analysis, countermeasures and suggestions for urban agriculture development were proposed.
EconomicsPolicyUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceA Study on the Development of Korean Kleingarten Model in Terms of Japanese Kleingarten
2010Jung‐Min Choi · Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning · South Korea
This study conducted basic research for the development of a Korean-style community garden (Kleingarten) model, referencing Japanese Kleingarten, in response to increased demand for green tourism. Theoretical research and interviews with site surveys of Kleingarten in Japan were carried out. Results indicated that, from a hardware perspective, facilities and size should be adapted to Korean conditions and long-term green tourism demands, including adequate lodging facilities. From a software perspective, administration needs to make efforts to obtain understanding and cooperation from local residents.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageThe Quantitative & Comprehensive Appraisal of Urban Agricultural Sustainable Development in Shanghai
2010FU Li-hua · 自然资源学报 · China (Shanghai)
A study of Shanghai, China, building an evaluation index system reflecting the characteristics of sustainable urban agricultural development, using a combination of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the information entropy method to determine index weights, and applying it to time-series data from 1993 onward to produce a quantitative, comprehensive appraisal. The results comprise three findings. First, the population subsystem progressively became a main obstructive factor for sustainable urban agricultural development, the economic subsystem gradually became a main contributing factor, and the social subsystem grew more important in raising development capability, while cultivated land resources became increasingly scarce and continued to decrease, constraining improvement, and the heavy burden of agricultural production's self-pollution had a negative effect on the overall upgrade of development capability. Second, the resource (R-D) composite index was not high and declined significantly, averaging 1.9090 over 1993-2006 and falling 6.00% per year from 2.5336 in 1993 to 0.5541 in 2006, indicating growing resource pressure; the environmental (E-D) composite index was smaller and changed little, remaining around 1.0000 in most years, with environmental pressure staying high but stable. Third, after earlier wave-like fluctuations, the overall composite evaluation index entered a sustained, steady climb, with a significant increasing trend in development capability.
Environmental trade-offsPeri-urban agriculturePolicyClimate changeThe challenges to urban agriculture in the Sydney basin and lower Blue Mountains region of Australia
2010John Merson, Roger Attwater, Peter Ampt, Howard G. Wildman, Rosalie Chapple · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · Australia
This paper presents an overview of a four-year project examining the western edge of the Sydney basin in Australia — historically a major source of fruit and vegetables for Sydney markets — where rapid urban development expansion has caused a significant reduction in the number of small farms and market gardens. Urban and peri-urban agriculture in the region also serves as an important buffer between urban development and the neighboring Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, with urban expansion and economies of scale identified as contributing to the decline of urban agriculture. The project explored options for supporting these vulnerable farming communities in terms of regulatory factors and economic and environmental sustainability, and investigated the role of agri-industries as landscape buffers to the neighboring World Heritage Area in relation to resilience, communities of practice, and ecosystem services. Working with targeted representative landholders, the study developed tools including an integrated bio-system approach using organic waste conversion and landscape function analysis to help address erosion, nutrient loss, and inefficient water management.
EconomicsPolicyCommunityBiodiversityAgriculture and livestock at the urban margin: fertile ground for collective action
2010Adam Shiloh Moates · · Uruguay
This 2010 dissertation is a comparative ethnographic study of agricultural and livestock production strategies in peri-urban Montevideo, Uruguay. It examined the factors shaping urban and peri-urban agricultural and livestock enterprises, the conditions under which growers organize collective action, and how municipal politics and institutional linkages affect production practices. The study focused on three populations: displaced urban working-class residents known as neo-pobres, waste-collector communities called clasificadores, and family-run organic grower organizations. The analysis found that all three groups strategically form organizations and collective-action strategies to raise their institutional visibility, secure and improve access to urban resources, and contest or resist municipal land-use policies and the push to "regularize" informal settlements. The research also points to the effects of large-scale political and economic forces on the urban margin and the difficulty of implementing policy there.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsMathematical modelling of the effects of urbanization and population growth on agricultural economics
2010Suhrit K. Dey, Chanchal Pramanik, Charlie Dey · Intellectual Economics · Global
A mathematical model built from three interacting ordinary differential equations links population growth, urbanization and food production, with population assumed to grow independently while urbanization and food production both depend on it. Solving the system shows that without an added food-supply term — representing sources such as food substitutes, urban gardening or imports — uncontrolled population growth and urbanization lead to a catastrophic food shortage; the authors note that food affordability, not just availability, remains a separate, unresolved issue.
EconomicsPolicyPeri-urban agriculture and water quality. Phosphorus pollution in Lake Massaciuccoli
2010Nicola Silvestri, E. Bonari · CINECA IRIS Institutial research information system (University of Pisa) · Italy
Focusing on the area around Lake Massaciuccoli in Tuscany, Italy, this paper discusses the relationship between the management of peri-urban agricultural land — the transition zone between city and countryside — and the lake's eutrophication problem. It argues that proper management of the extensive agricultural areas within this heavily anthropized territory could contribute significantly to resolving the lake's eutrophication through management and structural interventions, while noting that partially reorganizing existing agricultural models carries both cost and difficulty.
Environmental trade-offsPeri-urban agriculturePolicyAssessing the local food supply capacity of Detroit, Michigan
2010Kathryn Colasanti · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (Detroit)
Using Detroit, Michigan as a case, this study developed a methodology based on secondary data to estimate the acreage needed to supply, as far as seasonally possible, the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed by city residents, and compared these requirements against a catalog of publicly owned vacant parcels in the city. Using high-yield, biointensive growing methods, 31% of seasonally available vegetables and 17% of fruit currently consumed by 900,000 people could be supplied on less than 300 acres, without extraordinary postharvest management or season-extension technology.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsUrban Farming in Buffalo: Economic Development and Climate Change Strategy
2010Michael Raleigh · eCommons (Cornell University) · United States
This essay argues that the U.S. food system, being heavily industrialized, consumes large amounts of fossil-fuel energy — citing an estimate that it takes 10 calories of energy to produce one calorie of food — through fossil-fuel-powered planting, spraying, fertilizing, irrigation, tilling, harvesting, processing and transport, all of which generate greenhouse gases and make the food system a major contributor to climate change. It positions the development of urban farms in Buffalo as a necessary strategy to "de-carbon" the food system, on the grounds that urban farms use human labor in place of oil-powered machines and, being smaller than industrial-scale farms, can be managed with fewer machines, with home gardens and small urban farms claimed to be more productive per unit of land and energy than large-scale farms despite their low-tech approach.
CommunityEconomicsClimate changePolicyThe History and Future of Allotment Garden in the United Kingdom
2010Qian Xiong Jin · Chinese Landscape Architecture · United Kingdom
An overview of the history and future of the allotment garden in the United Kingdom. It originated in the subsistence needs of people who had lost their land during urbanization, grew steadily under legislative promotion, and peaked during the two World Wars and the Great Depression driven by national mobilization, before declining during the postwar period of economic recovery. Since the 1990s it has shifted character from allotment garden to leisure garden, and in the context of a pluralistic contemporary society it has become recognized as an important cultural heritage due to its unique social significance and long history, gradually recovering within the framework of sustainable development strategy and the 21st Century Agenda.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceCultivating the Commons An Assessment of the Potential for Urban Agriculture on Oakland’s Public Land
2010Nathan McClintock, Jenny Cooper · PDXScholar (Portland State University) · United States (California)
Between summer 2008 and spring 2009, an inventory identified open space owned by public agencies within the city limits of Oakland, California, that could support urban agriculture. The project mapped Oakland's public commons land to inform food, health and environmental policy decisions and to help nonprofits and city officials identify candidate sites for urban agriculture programs.
CommunityPolicyDIAGNÓSTICO PRELIMINAR DA COMUNIDADE QUILOMBOLA DE TABACARIA NO MUNICÍPIO DE PALMEIRA DOS ÍNDIOS, AL
2010Leonardo da Fonseca Barbosa, José Pedro da Silva, Gabriela Vieira Junges, Weverton de Goes Duarte, Cícero Luiz Calazans de Lima, Jakes Halan Queiroz Costa · REVISTA ELETRÔNICA EXTENSÃO EM DEBATE · Brazil
A preliminary diagnostic study of agricultural and environmental conservation activities in the Tabacaria quilombola community, located in the rural zone of Palmeira dos Índios, Alagoas, Brazil, the only such community officially recognized by the state, used monthly participatory meetings, a questionnaire, and site visits to assess potential locations for a community garden. The diagnosis found an absence of technical assistance or guidance from any public agency and a lack of information reaching the community. Agriculture remained subsistence-based, centered on cassava, corn, beans and fava beans, with ecological soil and water management practices practically nonexistent. The study calls for awareness-raising and information activities to address these gaps and for the development of sustainable agricultural practices.
CommunityPolicyWelfarePENGEMBANGAN PERTANIAN PERKOTAAN IMPIAN MEWUJUDKAN KOTA YANG BERKELANJUTAN
2010Ratnawati Yuni Suryandari · · Indonesia
An essay arguing that in developing countries, including Indonesia, the fastest urban growth is occurring in city centers, and that unequal income, poverty, poorly functioning food distribution systems and shrinking farmland make food sources especially critical for the urban poor. It cites World Bank figures stating that 360 million urban residents in developing countries suffer chronic malnutrition, that five of six urban households in India spend 70% of income on food, and that in Kuala Lumpur 45–50% of residents' income goes to food, twice the share in the UK. The article frames urban agriculture as a holistic approach to meeting urban poor residents' needs and improving urban environmental quality, discussing urban agriculture's issues and challenges in Indonesia through the case of Jakarta and its surroundings.
PolicyFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsCommunityAn assessment of the concentration levels of toxic chemicals within and around Gweru dumpsite in Zimbabwe
2010Mark Matsa, Thomas Marambanyika · Journal of Environmental Extension · Africa
A study assessing concentration levels of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and sulphides (SO2) within and around Gweru's sole official waste dumpsite in Zimbabwe. Harsh economic conditions in the city have driven further expansion of urban agriculture on open spaces, with residents growing staple food crops such as maize and sweet potatoes for subsistence on numerous plots surrounding the dumpsite; the study states that ingesting crops grown near the dumpsite is likely to put residents' lives at risk. Soil sampling points along transects on and around the dumpsite were randomly selected using ArcView GIS, with sulphide concentrations measured by Leco machine and lead and cadmium by atomic absorption spectrometer. Independent t-test results showed the concentration levels of the three pollutants were significantly elevated from one sampling point to the next, within and around the dumpsite.
Contamination & food safetyPolicyWelfareResearch and Analysis of Qingdao Agricultural Structure and Layout
2010Zhigang Wei · Journal of Qingdao Agricultural University · China
A comprehensive survey of agricultural structure and layout in Qingdao, China. It states the sector has achieved transformation and upgrading, with growing agricultural industrialization and increasingly optimized layout of agricultural areas approaching cluster-scale planting and breeding industries. However, it reports that further adjustment of planting structure faces major bottlenecks due to limits on arable land and food security: the traditional small-scale fish-farming model seriously restricts further development of animal husbandry and aquaculture, and fluctuating agricultural product markets combined with a lack of competitiveness are affecting the agricultural industry's layout. It concludes that crop structure needs further adjustment, that production should be scaled up, specialized and standardized, and that urban agriculture should be emphasized to expand agricultural functions.
Economic viabilityPolicyUrban–rural linkageEconomicsPeri-urban agricultureGestão do território e a pratica da agricultura urbana na cidade de Natal (RN - Brasil).
2010Celso Donizete Locatel, Francisco Fransualdo de Azevedo · Revistes Científiques de la University of Barcelona (University of Barcelona) · Brazil
A study of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, analyzing the practice of intra-urban agriculture and the municipal government's response to it. It states that agriculture within the urban fabric is not hard to identify, yet municipal legislation does not formally recognize the practice, despite its significant importance to hundreds of families in peripheral areas; most people involved in the activity have no voice or participation in urban planning and management. The study aims to analyze the importance of urban agriculture for farming families' income and to examine the extent to which the municipal government has factored this phenomenon into territorial decision-making in Natal.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageBuilding synergies to promote urban agriculture in Gampaha, Sri Lanka
2010Priyanie Amerasinghe · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Asia
A chapter in the edited volume "Cities, poverty and food: multi-stakeholder policy and planning in urban agriculture" (Dubbeling, de Zeeuw and van Veenhuizen, eds., Practical Action Publishing), addressing efforts to build stakeholder synergies for urban agriculture in Gampaha, Sri Lanka. The available record consists only of this bibliographic citation; no further findings or methods are given in the abstract.
CommunityPolicyUrban Agriculture Development from the Perspective of Circular Economy
2010Tianyi Zhang · Anhui nongye kexue · China
A paper examining the connotation and development of circular economy and circular agriculture from a circular-economy perspective. It uses the replicable Sino-Singapore Eco-City in Tianjin as a case study, analyzing the background, significance, and features of its construction, and identifies a sustainable development orientation of "harmony and three capabilities," along with implications for Tianjin's urban agriculture development in terms of water-saving, land-saving, and energy-saving. Under circular economy theory, enhancing the economical use of agricultural resources and the resource utilization of agricultural waste is said to have positive effects on improving the urban environment, including decentralizing organic solid waste from the sewage cycle system, further studying the physiological and biochemical mechanisms behind increasing yield and income in ecological agriculture, and incorporating urban agriculture into city land-use and development planning.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyOptimization of structure and layout of urban agriculture-related construction land in rapid urbanization
2010Xueming Li · Journal of University of Science and Technology Liaoning · China
Using statistical analysis, a study of Ganjingzi District in Dalian, China, examined the features and problems of construction land during rapid urbanization. It found that both urban and rural construction land scales are expanding simultaneously, that rural residential land use has serious problems, that current traffic land use results in low efficiency of the traffic network, and that profits from urban construction land need to increase. The study proposes an optimized design for the structure and layout of urban construction land.
PolicyPeri-urban agricultureFood sovereignty & justiceLow carbon pattern features and types and policy proposals of development of urban agriculture.
2010Zhifeng Chen, Guohua Lin, Liu Rongzhang, Lin Shu-wen · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · Global
This paper analyzes the significance of low-carbon patterns in urban agriculture development from economic, aesthetic, ecological, and philosophical perspectives, examining low-carbon patterns characterized by high-value industry structures, high resource efficiency, ecological safety, and mechanism innovation. Based on a city's natural resources, agricultural resources, and low-carbon technology, it summarizes low-carbon patterns of urban agriculture spanning multiple regions, scenic areas, and types, and proposes that local governments should actively create conditions to support and develop low-carbon industrial patterns of urban agriculture.
PolicyCommunityClimate changeEconomics着力推动农业转型升级 加快建设现代都市农业--关于鄞州区农业转型升级的调查与思考
2010蔡元杰 · 浙江现代农业 · China
This survey report covers Yinzhou district, China, which borders central Ningbo and benefits from a favorable location and strong overall economic capacity, describing local efforts to transform and upgrade agriculture around reliance on the city, service to urban areas, and increasing farmer income. It states the district has built modern industrial and support systems and achieved positive results while maintaining rapid, healthy agricultural development, but presents no specific quantitative data.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityThe Application of Sustainability Assessment: A Community Garden Assessment tool
2010Danielle Nipper · D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) · United States
A methods paper (D-Scholarship@Pitt, University of Pittsburgh, 2010) proposes applying the Sustainability Assessment Modeling (SAM) framework—which quantifies stakeholder values, perceptions, and economic and environmental costs—to develop an assessment tool for community garden longevity and sustainability, motivated by evidence that community gardens often struggle with discontinuation. The paper reviews SAM-related literature and its methods, strengths and limitations, and proposes a participatory assessment process using indicators of organizational strengths, weaknesses, and success such as longevity, without presenting empirical test results of the tool itself.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsDesign and Key Technology of Gardening Information Management System Based on Data Center
2010Xi-Guang Wang, Wei-Hua Lin, Wen Zeng · Journal of Geographic Information System · China
Focused on urban gardening (green-space) administration in China, this paper (2010) argues that agencies need a gardening information management system to provide a scientific basis for garden planning, project construction, maintenance, and social service. Based on a needs analysis of gardening-sector requirements, it discusses key technologies for building the system and proposes a flexible construction approach using a secondary-development design and runtime environment built on a data-center integration platform, stating that the system supports daily management work and plays a role in improving the urban ecological and investment environment.
PolicyDigital agricultureCultivating the City and Its Citizens: The Creation of Corporation Allotments in York
2010Ross Wilson · The International Journal of Regional and Local Studies · United Kingdom
The year 2008 marked the centenary of the UK's 1908 Small Holdings and Allotments Act, which significantly shaped the landscape of urban and rural Britain by placing a new obligation on local authorities to provide allotment gardens where residents wanted them. This article focuses on the creation of corporation-owned and -operated allotment gardens in York in the early twentieth century, examining how the era's debates over poor housing, unemployment and the condition of the working classes were reflected through the allotment movement. Allotment gardens represented an important resource for residents of the city's deprived areas, while local politicians and councillors viewed the sites as significant tools for social reform.
CommunityPolicy