Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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7626 results(149 / 306)
Productivity, resource efficiency and financial savings: An investigation of the current capabilities and potential of South Australian home food gardens
2020Georgia Csortan, James Ward, Philip Roetman · PLoS ONE · Australia
The productivity, resource efficiency, and potential financial savings of home food gardens in South Australia were investigated. Thirty-four citizen science participants measured and recorded garden inputs and outputs, revealing that smaller gardens were more intensive than larger ones, requiring higher inputs but also yielding higher outputs per unit area. Labor requirements were significantly lower than previously estimated, and it was calculated that 65% of the gardens should break even within five years or less and save money.
DIYEconomicsCommunityAlquimias da Terra: uma experiência de usos das ervas medicinais na faxina ecológica
2020Janaina Henrique dos Santos, Clara Fagundes, Beatriz Barbalho, Nicole Massa · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Global
This report details an experience in ecological, medicinal, and biodegradable cleaning using medicinal herbs, developed by two female urban farmers. The farmers, after training, produced cleaning products for personal use and then for commercialization, aligning with agroecological urban agriculture principles. This initiative promotes income generation and women's autonomy through the use of medicinal plants and agroecological cleaning products.
DIYCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceFrom Community Garden to Community Action: Volunteering with Belville Community Garden to address the COVID-19 Crisis
2020John H. McKendrick, Jed Graham · ResearchOnline · United Kingdom
This report presents the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit's (SPIRU) review of the volunteer work undertaken with Belville Community Garden Trust during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 (mid-March onwards).
CommunityWelfareThe Concept of Urban Agriculture – Historical Development and Tendencies
2020Madara Dobele, Andra Zvirbule · Rural Sustainability Research · Global
This study aimed to identify the historical development stages of the concept of urban agriculture and its main research tendencies. Using monographic and descriptive analysis, it revealed that the concept has evolved from an initial stage associated with technical solutions for urban planning to provide food, to current diverse directions including the analysis of agriculture's role in urban areas and its place in sustainable development. Researchers adapting definitions to local characteristics creates a risk of limited possibilities for quantitative comparisons between studies.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityTowards a Community Development Approach to Disaster Recovery
2020Martin Mulligan, Yaso Nadarajah · · Sri Lanka
A broadly based committee formed in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, immediately after a disaster played a crucial role in ensuring survivors received aid and respectful treatment. This study emphasizes the importance of equitable relief aid delivery and long-term assistance needs assessment. It also notes that poor people and communities often create their own coping mechanisms, and that home gardens and community gardens can enhance food security for poor households, particularly during periods of rising food prices.
CommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceVers un systeme alimentaire post-croissance
2020Marie-Soleil L’Allier · Revue Possibles · Global
In recent years, citizen-led agricultural and food innovations, such as urban agriculture, community gardens, collective greenhouses, and food cooperatives, have proliferated. These initiatives operate on a logic distinct from the globalized food system, forming the seeds of a post-growth society that does not depend on economic growth. This study raises the question of how to ensure these social innovations, while holding significant transformative potential, can effectively outline an ecological transition for our food system.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsClimate change13. Black Urban Growers and the Land Question in Cleveland: Externalities of Gentrification
2020Justine Lindemann · New York University Press eBooks · United States (Cleveland)
This chapter explores how gentrification in Cleveland, Ohio, impacts Black urban farmers' and gardeners' access to land in disinvested neighborhoods. It examines the ancillary effects of development on alternative land reuse efforts. The study highlights that despite a seemingly endless supply of vacant lots, gentrification negatively affects land access for these communities.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsSocial Entrepreneurship in the Leadership of Grassroots Innovation Movement: A Case Study of Joglo Tani in Yogyakarta
2020Setiadi Setiadi · Jurnal Humaniora · Indonesia (Yogyakarta)
This case study examines Joglo Tani in Yogyakarta, an organization promoting new agricultural technology and urban farming for local food security. The research, using participatory observation and interviews, found that Joglo Tani's success stems from social entrepreneurship in its leadership and effective networks, which have driven social transformation in rural resource management and agricultural work organization. The study concludes that this bottom-up movement has successfully addressed food supply limitations and fostered sustainable food systems.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceDigital agricultureA Participatory Action Research Study with One Emancipatory School Garden
2020Colleen Saxen · CORE Scholar (Wright State University) · United States
This participatory action research (PAR) explored a school garden program in a historically marginalized community during the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests. School staff and community partners co-created the garden, expressing meanings, values, and visions through photovoice, mapping, and gardening activities. Participants described experiences of love, empowerment, and justice, demonstrating the value of PAR for cultivating school gardens as sites for social justice and the role of an ethic of love in community building.
Food educationCommunityWelfarePolicyUrban realities of engaging with nature in Europe
2020B.H.M. Elands, Bianca Ambrose‐Oji, Annegret Haase, Karin Peters · · Europe
A book chapter examining how citizen engagement with urban green space in European cities addresses the needs of increasingly diverse urban populations, focusing on three forms of engagement: recreation, community gardening, and community-led nature management. Gardening and community-led nature management were found to strengthen existing friendships and build new ones - including across culturally diverse groups - more often than park recreation does. The chapter also notes that addressing cultural diversity can create spaces of exclusion, where one group's use of space excludes others.
CommunityHealthThoughts for urban food: A social practice perspective on urban planning for agriculture in Almere, the Netherlands
2020J.E. Jansma, Sigrid Wertheim‐Heck · Landscape and Urban Planning · Netherlands
A study of the Dutch city of Almere examining, through a social practice perspective, how planning practices came to fully integrate urban agriculture into a new urban area called Oosterwold. Analysing meanings, materials, and competences across four periods over 55 years of planning history, the study finds that agriculture has been part of Almere's planning since the city's inception, yet it took 55 years for hybrid urban-rural planning practices that fully integrate agriculture to emerge. The case also shows that this integration required interdisciplinary, unconventional operation and leadership, stretching the professional domain of urban planning.
CommunityPolicySchool gardens in Nepal
2020Dhruba Raj Bhattarai, Pepijn Schreinemachers · · Nepal
A paper synthesising impact evaluations using cluster randomized controlled trials of school garden programmes in Nepal, described as the largest evaluation of school garden programmes to date. School garden interventions significantly improved children's knowledge of food and agriculture and their awareness of and stated preference for fruits and vegetables, but in none of the countries studied did these improvements translate into increased frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption or into eating a greater variety of fruits and vegetables. This null result on consumption matches findings from two major reviews of school garden programmes in developed countries; the paper suggests that a more holistic intervention design addressing household-level food supply and parents' food choices may be needed for such programmes to improve children's healthy eating.
Food educationHealthCommunityOPTIMALISASI URBAN FARMING DENGAN VERTIKULTUR SAYURAN
2020Umi Nur Solikah, Tri Puji Rahayu, Tria Rosana Dewi · WASANA NYATA · Indonesia
A community-service report on an extension programme promoting "vertikultur" (vertical or tiered cultivation) as a way to optimise limited home-yard space for urban vegetable farming in Bumi sub-district, Laweyan, Surakarta, Indonesia, where household yards are typically narrow. After preparatory coordination with the sub-district office and agreement on participants and timing, the programme delivered training to women members of the Family Welfare Movement (PKK) covering the concept, benefits, models, tools, and materials, and the procedure for applying vertical-cultivation techniques.
CommunityDIYScaling up the integrated school nutrition model in the Philippines
2020Emilita Monville‐Oro, Imelda Angeles‐Agdeppa, Irish P. Baguilat, Julian Gonsalves, Mario V. Capanzana · · Philippines
A chapter examining how the evidence-based Integrated School Nutrition Model (ISNM) - combining bio-intensive gardens, supplementary feeding with iron-fortified rice and indigenous vegetables from school gardens, and nutrition education - was scaled up from one province (Cavite) to an entire region of five provinces in the Philippines. Fifty-eight "lighthouse schools" serving as hubs for research, learning, and scaling now influence 2,732 public elementary schools with a total student population of 1,839,445. Through capacity building and multi-stakeholder partnerships, the Department of Education pursued a programme to establish 221 lighthouse schools nationwide, with additional investment and adoption from the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the National Nutrition Council.
Food educationCommunityHealthUrban Agriculture and Household Welfare: Evidence from Hossana Town, Ethiopia
2020Abraham Tessema Handalo · Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development · Ethiopia
A study using cross-sectional data from a sample of 176 households in Hossana Town, southern Ethiopia, analysing households' participation in urban agriculture and its effect on household welfare, using descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression, and propensity score matching. Results show that participation in urban agriculture was higher among older and female-headed households and was associated with higher nonfarm earnings compared with non-participation, a difference significant at the 5% level; participating households had significantly fewer family members and significantly lower access to credit, extension services, and improved inputs than non-participants, and participation was also associated with smaller land ownership and lower access to water, both significant at 5%. The binary logistic regression indicated that access to credit, extension services, improved inputs, household size, and access to water (aside from income from other sources) significantly enhanced participation in urban agriculture, while the propensity score matching model showed a significant positive impact of urban agriculture on poverty reduction, measured via consumption expenditure per adult equivalent and per capita asset building. The study concludes that urban agriculture is constrained mainly by access to credit, extension services, improved inputs, household size, and non-farm income.
WelfareCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceAddressing Issues Surrounding Food Insecurity and Promote Environmentalism in Urban Settings Using Community Gardens
2020Tucker Jensen · Digital Commons - Hamline (Hamline University) · United States
This capstone project reviews the effects of community gardens on low-income urban populations in the United States. After reviewing prior work on the history of racism in America, disparities in food insecurity, the correlation between poverty and health, and environmental impacts specific to urban communities, the project developed a five-day unit of study set at an established community garden. The unit teaches middle school students about community gardens through STEM lesson activities, has students design their own garden, and aims for them to be able to explain why a community garden matters to their neighborhood's success.
Food sovereignty & justiceFood educationCommunityWelfareTRANSIÇÃO AGROECOLÓGICA NA HORTA COMUNITÁRIA DO POVOADO SOINHO (TERESINA – PI)
2020Laryssa Mylenna Silva Santos, Maria Elizabete de Oliveira, Darcet Costa Souza, Cristiane Lopes Carneiro d’Albuquerque, Marcus Vinicius Guimarães Clack · Informe Econômico. · Brazil
This paper describes and analyzes the social, economic, and technological aspects of the agroecological transition toward organic certification at the Povoado Soinho Community Garden in Teresina, Piauí, Brazil, outlining the profile of its horticulturists and their production. Teresina's Community Garden Program, created by the municipal agriculture and supply agency (SEMAB), initially aimed to reduce delinquency among socially vulnerable children and adolescents, but later added goals of increasing horticultural output, generating employment and income, and improving farming families' diets. As of 2016, Teresina had 70 production units, five of which were awaiting organic certification from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), including the Povoado Soinho Community Garden, which was undergoing the transition to organic production with support from the rural development secretariat. The analysis found that plots managed by women predominated and showed greater production diversification than those managed by men, and that more than half of plots received help from at least one family member.
CommunityEconomicsOrganic cycleOrganizing Joint Practices in Urban Food Initiatives—A Comparative Analysis of Gardening, Cooking and Eating Together
2020Benjamin Hennchen, Michael Pregernig · Sustainability · Europe
This study systematically analyzed how joint practices of gardening, cooking, and eating together are organized in five urban food initiatives — such as community-supported agriculture, urban gardening, food sharing, and community kitchens — in two smaller cities in southern Germany. Data were gathered through qualitative methods including interviewing, participatory observation, and document analysis, covering five dimensions: institutional integration, recruiting mechanisms, goal-setting, time management, and types of knowledge. Based on these dimensions, the results portray two distinctive organizational profiles among the urban food initiatives, and the article concludes with a reflection on how local governments could support food initiatives and contribute to sustainable urban food systems.
CommunityFood educationESPACIALIZAÇÃO DA AGRICULTURA URBANA NA CIDADE DE MONTES CLAROS, MINAS GERAIS, BRASIL
2020Luiz Andrei Gonçalves Pereira, Marina de Fátima Brandão Carneiro, Igor Martins de Oliveira · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Brazil
A study analyzing the spatial organization of urban agriculture in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil, practiced in residential backyards (quintais) and vacant lots. Methods combined a literature review with empirical fieldwork in the city's urban agriculture areas. Through theoretical and conceptual discussion, the study examines urban agricultural practices and public policies aimed at promoting food security in Montes Claros.
CommunityPolicyWelfareVARIATIONS OF SPATIAL QUALITIES EXPERIENCED IN ROOFTOP GARDEN OF MIX-USED BUILDING IN TOKYO
2020Yen-Khang Nguyen-Tran, Ryo MURATA · Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ) · Japan
A study examining how variation in spatial qualities affects user experience in selected public rooftop gardens (RG) in Tokyo, Japan. It combined fieldwork and simulation to describe physical attributes across different environmental conditions and interpreted the resulting setting patterns through experience parameters, revealing tendencies of variation in each parameter. By connecting settings to experience, the study frames rooftop garden quality factors as a tangible and intangible relationship between "Space Affordance with Usage" and "Image of Identity."
CommunityPolicyGender and urban agriculture
2020Hannah Whitley · · Global
A book chapter reviewing global research on gender and urban agriculture. It notes that limited statistics and inconsistent definitions of urban agriculture make an accurate profile of operators difficult, but regional studies show women make up the majority of urban agriculturalists. The chapter discusses women's motivations for engaging in urban agriculture and its links to neighborhood-level change, identifies seven challenges facing women urban growers drawn from the academic literature, and sets out a future research agenda on women urban agriculturalists.
CommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceMercantilização & contramovimento: agricultura sustentada pela comunidade (CSA): estudo de caso em Minas Gerais, Brasil
2020Daniele Eckert Matzembacher, Fábio Bittencourt Meira · Organizações & Sociedade · Brazil
A 2020 case study of the CSA (community supported agriculture) organization "CSA Alfa" in Minas Gerais, Brazil, using Karl Polanyi's theoretical framework. It frames CSA as a movement that repositions agricultural production around fair-trade and agroecological principles through short chains linking production and consumption, and finds that market exchange and reciprocity coexist as different regulatory principles within CSA Alfa. Friendship, tolerance, loyalty, and commitment build a communal ethos around food, and the study argues CSA acts as a counter-movement to commodification by strengthening participants' relative autonomy and raising social cohesion among participating groups.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justicePENERAPAN URBAN FARMING UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KELESTARIAN LINGKUNGAN PADA HUNIAN PERUMAHAN
2020Anisur Rosyad, Triana Yuni Astuti, Etik Wukir Tini · Jurnal Dinamika Pengabdian (JDP) · Indonesia
A 2020 report on a community service activity providing leafy-vegetable verticulture training to the PKK RT4 RW5 group at Purwosari Indah Housing in Baturraden District, Banyumas Regency, Indonesia. Using polybags arranged in tiers on racks built from bamboo and gutters, the program trained participants through counseling and hands-on demonstration plots to grow caisim, kale, pakcoy, mustard greens, leeks, and celery; partners were able to grow leafy vegetables successfully, but the harvest remained limited to self-consumption or sharing with neighbors rather than being sold.
CommunityDIYFood educationCaring agricultural and food practices
2020Jan Hassink, Angela Moriggi, Saverio Senni, Elisabeth Hense, Dries de Moor · · Europe
A 2020 paper uses care ethics as an analytical tool to examine caring, regenerative agricultural and food practices, including community supported agriculture, urban agriculture, care and social farming, and organic and biodynamic farming. Drawing on empirical cases in the Netherlands and Italy guided by social justice, cooperation, respectful relationships, inclusion, and education, it describes how care for the community, vulnerable citizens, the environment, farm animals, and food is practiced. It identifies challenges farmers face around access to land, budgets, and dealing with the conventional system, and poses as an open question the extent to which such caring practices can influence dominant agricultural and food systems.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceCSA & TeikeiWelfareSmart Water Management Framework Berbasis IoT Untuk Mendukung Pertanian Urban
2020Yan Mitha Djaksana, Heru Sukoco, Sri Wahjuni, Hendra Rahmawan, Shelvie Nidya Neyman · Petir · Indonesia
A 2020 paper from Indonesia proposes a "smart water management system" framework using IoT sensors and machine-learning algorithms to manage available water resources in support of urban farming, addressing water scarcity in densely populated urban areas. The framework is designed around reusing treated water and filtered rainwater that meets minimum quality requirements for agricultural reuse; no implementation or evaluation results are presented.
Digital agricultureCommunity