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(151 / 165)
强化支农谋发展 优化结构增效益——中国农业发展银行湖北省分行营业部支持武汉市都市农业发展的调查
2009赵三志, 杨正强 · 中国农业银行武汉培训学院学报 · China
A report on how the Hubei branch of the Agricultural Development Bank of China supported urban agriculture development in Wuhan, China, by using credit as a leverage tool to cultivate pillar industries of agricultural industrialization, taking advantage of Wuhan's designation as a comprehensive pilot zone for a "resource-conserving, environmentally friendly society." It states the bank optimized its credit assets and customer structure, achieving a coordinated balance of speed, structure, quality, management and efficiency, but the abstract provides no specific quantitative data.
PolicyEconomicsUrban–rural linkageCommunityDevelopment Thought and Countermeasures of Coastal Urban Modern Agriculture in Tianjin
2009Zhao Shu-jie · Journal of Hebei Agricultural Sciences · China
A 2009 paper on coastal urban modern agriculture in Tianjin analyzes the essential conditions for its development and discusses basic approaches based on Tianjin's natural and economic characteristics. It proposes countermeasures spanning government support, coordination across sectors, improving farmers' overall competencies, and combining multiple development models, intended as a reference for coastal urban agriculture development.
PolicyCommunityPeri-urban agricultureURBAN AGRICULTURE: FACTORS AFFECTING THE DECISION TO GROW VEGETABLES IN TAMALE METROPOLIS
2009S. Al-hassan · The IUP Journal of Agricultural Economics · Ghana
Using cross-sectional data from 196 urban agriculturalists (136 vegetable farmers and 56 non-vegetable farmers) in the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Northern Region, Ghana, a 2009 study examined the factors determining the decision to cultivate vegetables. Results showed vegetable production in the study area was influenced by extension services, use of inorganic fertilizer (manure), and availability of farmland. The study recommends training existing extension agents in modern vegetable production techniques so they can in turn train farmers, with emphasis on quality seed production, variety selection, diversification and quality control; directing extension services toward efficient manure application; encouraging vegetable farmers to form cooperatives to network with livestock producer associations; and having policymakers provide large, suitable irrigable land for vegetable production.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyEvaluate on Innovation Capability of PRD Urban Agriculture Enterprise based on F-AHP Method
2009Jing Liu · · China
A study of urban agriculture enterprises in China's Pearl River Delta (PRD) region built an evaluation index system for innovation capability across three dimensions: management innovation, technology innovation, and institutional innovation. A fuzzy AHP model was applied to assess enterprise innovation capability against the development conditions of urban agriculture.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyFrequently Asked Questions on Food Regulations for Small Market Food Producers
2009Rich Pirog, Ross Baxter, Kate Lyon · Iowa State University Digital Repository (Iowa State University) · United States
This Iowa State University document is a practical guidance resource, not an empirical study. In response to growing interest in and demand for local food in Iowa and nationally, it answers frequently asked questions about food regulations from small market producers who sell through farmers markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) enterprises, farm stands, and institutions such as restaurants, hospitals, schools, and conference centers. Responses were prepared by state agency and university specialists in food safety and food regulations.
Food educationPolicyCommunityDeveloping Urban Agriculture,Improving Urban Ecology——Yaking Qinghai Province as an Example
2009XU Guang-zhong · Journal of University of Science and Technology Beijing(Social Sciences Edition) · China
This article, using Qinghai Province as a case, argues that as urbanization accelerates and cities' ecological crises intensify, developing urban agriculture can help address this crisis. It describes urban agriculture as based on modern technology and reliant on agricultural industrialization, combining features of production, service and consumption, and states that promoting urban agriculture can expand green space, improve urban ecology, and strengthen urban functions.
Climate changeBiodiversityPolicyCommunityPlanning of the modern agro-ecological park in Gaoming District, Foshan city
2009Yun Li · Guangdong nongye kexue · China
This report describes the planning of a Modern Agro-ecological Park in Gaoming District, Foshan city, Guangdong province, China. The park is designed as a modern standardization zone for eco-agricultural production and demonstration, a resort zone for eco-agricultural tourism and leisure, a base for green food production, modern urban agriculture and export-oriented agriculture, a base for modern agricultural logistics and information, and a base for eco-agricultural popular science education and agricultural exhibitions (a two-zones, four-bases scheme). Based on the current state and future needs of agricultural development in Gaoming, the plan adopts a development model of a garden section, four subdivisions and one ecological protection belt, with a layout concept center comprising three counterpart units, aiming to build a comprehensive modern agriculture development area combining production and living, ecological protection, scientific research and development, tourism and recreation, culture and education, and information and logistics services. The park's stated goal is to drive the development of modern agriculture in Gaoming District and the wider Pearl River Delta region.
PolicyCommunityFood educationUrban agriculture and urban land use planning: Need for a synthesis in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria
2009Adedeji Adedeji, H Oludare, Ademiluyi · Journal of Geography and Regional Planning · Nigeria
This discussion of urban agriculture and urban land use planning in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria, frames urban agriculture as a crisis response and survival strategy for the urban poor that contributes to food security, while stating that urban agriculture production systems can pose risks to public health and the environment through inappropriate or excessive use of agricultural inputs — including pesticides, nitrogen, and raw organic matter containing heavy metal residues. It recommends that urban land use planners promote multifunctional land use and greater community participation in managing urban open spaces.
Contamination & food safetyCommunityPolicyWelfareAttack of the Butterfly Spirits: The Impact of Movement Framing by Community Garden Preservation Activists
2009Miranda Martinez · Social movement studies · United States (New York City)
This study of the community garden preservation movement on the Lower East Side of New York examines the role of activist movement framing in the struggle to save hundreds of gardens from destruction. Through repeated confrontations with the Giuliani administration, gardeners de-routinized the process of urban redevelopment by portraying the loss of a garden as an unimaginable violation against themselves and the city. This reframing helped activists compensate for their disempowered political status and was instrumental in forcing the Giuliani administration to negotiate to save the gardens.
CommunityPolicyThe role of urban agriculture in building resilient cities: examples of building resilient neighbourhoods in London.
2009E. Peduto, D. Satdinova · · United Kingdom
The available abstract is fragmentary and cuts off mid-sentence, but it states that some areas of London have already advanced considerably under the "Capital Growth" initiative launched in November 2008. That initiative is described as aiming to turn 2,012 pieces of land into green spaces for growing food, though the abstract breaks off before providing further study details or findings.
PolicyCommunityClimate changeDelineation of Potential Groundwater Recharge and Productive Aquifer Zones in Delhi Area Based on 18 O Signatures and GPS
2009P. S. Datta, Shipra Tyagi · · India
Peri-urban agriculture in the Delhi-NCR area is highly dependent on groundwater availability amid rapid urbanization. This study integrates dynamic δ18O isotopic composition data on groundwater with static data such as elevation of recharge sites to delineate potential recharge zones and hydrodynamic aquifer zones. Significant δ18O-elevation relationships were found (r² = 0.808 to 0.982), with recharge-site elevation resolutions of about 20m in the northwest and 75m in the southwest, identifying potential recharge zones at elevations of 210-230m in the northwest and above 260m in the south. However, variation in groundwater isotopic composition over time indicates that the corresponding aquifers are relatively small and of low productivity, and points to the likely presence of many low-permeability zones in the northwestern recharge areas — a constraint on the groundwater resources that sustain peri-urban agriculture there.
Environmental trade-offsPolicyCommunityThe Creative Agriculture and the New Rural Development in Japan
2009Ping Liu · Xiandai riben jingji · Japan
A discussion piece traces the development of "creative agriculture" among Japanese farmers since the early 1970s, citing Oita Prefecture's One Village, One Product movement as an early representative example. It describes recent Japanese government measures — promoting green tourism, developing urban agriculture, establishing urban gardens, building attractive rural environments and homes, and encouraging urban residents to move to villages for farm work or experiences in an urban-rural "amphibian" lifestyle — that it says have brought Japan's creative agriculture into a new stage of development.
Urban–rural linkageCommunityPolicyCountermeasures of Improving the Quality of Sci-tech Coordinators in the Building Process of Urban Agriculture
2009Xiangyang Qin · Journal of Library and Information Sciences in Agriculture · China
Examines the science-and-technology-coordinator system first established in Beijing, China, to address a shortage of rural science and technology services. Based on an analysis of questionnaire responses, the authors describe the current situation and problems of the coordinator system and put forward suggestions for improving coordinators' quality. The abstract gives no sample size, response rate or quantified results.
PolicyCommunityDigital agricultureThe Urban Agriculture of Havana
2009Sinan Koont · Monthly Review · Cuba
An article describes the development, over roughly fifteen years since the 1990s, of urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba, a capital city of more than two million people. It notes that the term "urban agriculture" in Cuba is used more inclusively than typical usage, encompassing urban fringe and suburban lands — the entire cultivated area of the Province of the City of Havana is classified as urban agriculture. The article provides no specific yield or participation figures.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyEconomicsUtilising the ward committee system to promote urban food security in the City of Johannesburg
2009Enslin Van Rooyen · Medical record news · South Africa
Focusing on the City of Johannesburg, South Africa, this policy discussion paper examines the potential of using the ward committee system—part of the South African local government structure—as a vehicle for urban farming programs. It argues it may be more efficient to direct limited resources toward helping urban residents become self-sufficient urban farmers rather than merely acquiring and distributing food, which sustains dependency on government, while noting that knowledge about effective administration for food security among developing-country municipalities is limited, with few Southern African municipalities having explicit policies and even fewer having successfully incorporated such programs; it recommends municipal decision-makers adopt an issue-driven, pro-poor growth approach, and states that urban farming is not inherently equivalent to Local Economic Development but may serve as a catalyst toward it.
PolicyCommunityWelfareThe Route Choices of Serving for Coastal Urban Agriculture of Tianjin Agricultural Colleges
2009Tian Yu-min · Vocational and Technical Education · China
This policy discussion argues that to achieve the goal of developing modern coastal urban agriculture in Tianjin, China, agricultural colleges should make full use of talent, expertise, academic disciplines, and science and technology; form a rational, scientific teaching philosophy; innovate talent-training models; adjust specialty structures to match talent demand; reform education and teaching patterns; establish a system for popularizing agricultural science; build a system guiding graduates toward rural areas; and encourage graduates to work or start enterprises at the grassroots level in rural areas.
Food educationPeri-urban agriculturePolicy南京“一村一品”发展模式探析
2009尚华夏, 俞继东, 周四清, 储健 · 江苏农村经济 · China
A study of Nanjing, China, analyzes the city's "One Village, One Product" development model under its urban agriculture strategy, reporting that Nanjing has 150 specialized villages and 10 specialized towns, more than half of which are effectively linked with leading agribusiness enterprises. It argues that cultivating dominant industries with clear comparative advantage — based on local resources, location, industrial base, and market conditions — underpins the "one village, one product / one town, one industry" approach.
EconomicsPeri-urban agriculturePolicy環境対応のトップ走者 森ビル 都市開発を通じ環境と共生する「垂直庭園都市」
2008森ビル株式会社 · 環境コミュニケーション 39巻6号 pp.30-31 · Japan
Official technical literature explaining Mori Building's 'Vertical Garden City' concept, describing pioneering private redevelopment rooftop farming and greening including paddy fields and mochi-rice harvest at Roppongi Hills and environmental community creation.
CommunityBiodiversityPolicyFood-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States
2008Weber C., Matthews H. · Environmental Science & Technology · United States
Production dominates US food-related life-cycle emissions (about 83%), while all transport accounts for roughly 11% and final delivery only about 4%, undermining the assumption that local food is low-carbon and that cutting food-miles via urban growing yields large climate gains.
PolicyEconomicsIt takes a garden: Cultivating citizen-subjects in organized garden projects
2008Mary Beth Pudup · Geoforum · USA (San Francisco Bay Area)
Argues that 'organized garden projects' proliferate in roll-out neoliberal institutions (jails, schools, clinics) to cultivate self-governing citizen-subjects, reframing gardening policy as a technology for downloading social responsibility onto 'at-risk' individuals.
PolicyWelfareCommunityUsing Land Inventories to Plan for Urban Agriculture: Experiences From Portland and Vancouver
2008Wendy Berry Mendes, Kevin Balmer, Terra Kaethler, Amanda Rhoads · Journal of the American Planning Association · North America
This study examined how land inventories can integrate urban agriculture into planning and policymaking for sustainable communities, using case studies of Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia. The Portland inventory enabled integration and advanced social and ecological sustainability. In Vancouver, similar integration was achieved, but its smaller scope did little for public involvement and social sustainability.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityOverview on urban and peri-urban agriculture: definition, impact on human health, constraints and policy issues
2008Erastus K. Kang’ethe, Delia Grace, Thomas F. Randolph · East African Medical Journal · East Africa
This study synthesizes current knowledge on urban agriculture (UA) in East Africa, focusing on its human health impact. It identifies UA as an important source of food security, but notes that many zoonotic and food-borne diseases are associated with it, with a lack of evidence on human health impact and management. Major constraints include illegality and limited access to inputs and markets, indicating a need for more research to understand both positive and negative health impacts.
Contamination & food safetyHealthFood sovereignty & justicePolicyEconomicsPeri-urban agricultureSustainability and resilience of the urban agricultural phenomenon in Africa
2008Pay Drechsel, Olufunke Cofie, Seydou Niang, Drechsel, Pay, Cofie, Olufunke, Niang, Seydou · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Africa
This record is a reference to a book chapter on the sustainability and resilience of the urban agricultural phenomenon in Africa, and it does not contain specific research content or findings.
Climate changePolicyCommunitySmart growth ; can there be an African version?
2008Sue Wells · Western CEDAR (Western Washington University) · Tanzania
This paper examines the transferability of six Smart Growth concepts to Tanzanian cities (Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza, Dodoma, Zanzibar) given their extreme poverty and agrarian base. Primary research conducted in May-June 2007 and related publications were used. The study suggests that Smart Growth strategies from the Global North may be unsuitable for the Global South, indicating that urban agriculture in this context presents both a promise and a problem.
Economic viabilityPolicyEconomicsUrban–rural linkageThe URBANET Trade Justice Campaign in Ghana: A Case Study of Efforts to Involve Indigenous Farmers in Advocacy
2008Masud Aziz Rauf · School for International Training Digital Collections (School for International Training) · Ghana (Tamale)
This research, conducted in the Tamale metropolitan area of Ghana's northern region, investigated the efforts of URBANET, a local NGO, to educate and involve indigenous farmers in advocacy as part of Ghana's broader trade justice movement. URBANET advocated for farmers facing challenges like falling prices due to imported products under unfair trade policies, providing workshops, radio programs, and mobilizing farmers. The advocacy raised awareness among indigenous farmers and contributed to policy changes, such as the Ghanaian government's 2005 statement requiring state institutions to buy Ghanaian rice.
PolicyFood sovereignty & justiceCommunity