Research & reports

Lutfiah Alfariza, Ramadhani Eka Putra, Mia Rosmiati · MIMBAR AGRIBISNIS Jurnal Pemikiran Masyarakat Ilmiah Berwawasan Agribisnis · Indonesia

This study examined the contribution of urban farming to the economic and social pillars of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in urban Indonesia. It focused on goals related to poverty, hunger, health, gender equality, and decent work. The findings indicate that urban farming increases income, provides access to healthy food, empowers women, and creates employment for urban communities, thereby positively contributing to these SDGs.

Branduini P. · Virtual Community of Pathological Anatomy (University of Castilla La Mancha) · Italy (Milan)

This paper reflects on management and training issues in landscape restoration, based on two pilot water meadow restoration sites in the Milanese peri-urban agricultural area. A training course for "campari" (water flow controllers) was organized at the second site, attracting diverse participants including professionals and vulnerable groups. While the course increased participant awareness, it resulted in a decrease in restoration quality compared to work by professionals at the first site. This led to a participatory management process involving owners, tenants, and volunteers to address the landscape's high perishability.

Citra Sarasmitha, Erik Irmansyah, Rayhan Ananta Firmansyah, Zulaika, Shekinah Beatrice Agatha, Erina Kusuma Ningrum · Indonesian Journal of Society Development · Indonesia

This service program aimed to optimize the urban farming area in Genitri Village, Pisang Candi Subdistrict, Malang City, to produce processed agricultural products with high marketability. Partners faced issues with unavailable facilities and infrastructure for urban farming. The service team implemented a program including adding plant varieties, building irrigation and sanitation channels, constructing public bathrooms, producing processed agricultural products, and marketing. Results showed that optimizing facilities and infrastructure eased cultivation for residents, leading to high-value processed products and improved local economies as MSMEs.

East Tennessee State University University Marketing and Communication · Digital Commons - East Tennessee State University (East Tennessee State University) · United States

ETSU Health's Johnson City Community Health Center in Johnson City, USA, has relaunched its community garden. Volunteers are active on the third Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and are also encouraged to harvest and tend the garden outside these hours. The garden provides access to fresh, healthy, and free produce, and was relaunched with community support.

Xolile Mkhize, Bonginkosi E. Mthembu, Carin Napier · Journal of Agriculture and Food Research · South Africa (Durban)

This study in Umlazi Township, Durban, South Africa, assessed food and nutrition insecurity in an urban informal settlement through a household survey (n=200), vendor survey (n=25), anthropometric data, and land ecotope data. Findings showed that over 67.0% of informal dwellers were unemployed, surviving on a household food budget under US$115.1 per month, and 73.0% of households lacked access to land for cultivation. The study concludes that land accessibility for food production is restricted, contributing to food insecurity.

Natalie Call, Elizabeth Silber, E. Binney Girdler · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

This GIS-based study of Kalamazoo, Michigan, analyzed how accessibility to different types of food access points — full-service grocery stores, farmers markets, community gardens, food pantries, and convenience stores — differed between low-income and higher-income census tracts. All full-service grocery stores were accessible via bus routes, but 11% of residents in low-income areas lacked adequate access, living beyond the 0.25-mile walkable distance to bus routes. "Positive" access points such as community gardens, food pantries, and farmers markets were found to be concentrated in areas that already had grocery store access, whereas "negative" access points — convenience and dollar stores, which provide lower-quality, highly processed food — filled the access gap in lower-income areas instead. More than twice as many low-income residents had walkable access to convenience stores as higher-income residents, with 81% of those convenience stores located within low-income tracts.

Kamelia Sambas, Robert Markus Zaka Lawang · Journal of Social Science (JoSS) · Indonesia

A 2023 study examines the process of building social capital among urban-farming-based farmer groups in RW 03, Cempaka Putih Timur Village, Central Jakarta, Indonesia, using a qualitative descriptive approach combining observation and in-depth interviews with 25 informants selected through purposive sampling. It finds that bonding social capital was expressed as relations among farmer group members centered on shared goals and emotional closeness; bridging social capital as relations between the farmer group and the RW 03 community, non-members, visiting guests, assisted groups, and consumers; and linking social capital as relations with local government, environmental and other municipal sub-departments, companies, districts, and villages. Networks arising from trust strengthen the exchange of needed resources, obligations and norms support bonding capital, and positive sanctions (rewards) support linking capital while increasing members' motivation and commitment.

Vitória Oliveira Pereira de Souza Leão, Roberta Moraes Curan, Paulo Eduardo Moruzzi Marques · Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional · Brazil (São Paulo)

Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had major impacts on the world's population, and concerns about food supply — particularly for the most vulnerable populations — gained prominence among international bodies, Brazilian public institutions, researchers and civil society (2023). Difficulty responding to the crisis, especially misalignment of buffering measures across levels of Brazilian government and compounded by threats to democracy, produced a picture of absent effective public planning for food and nutrition security. In this context, urban and peri-urban agriculture (AUP), combined with food solidarity initiatives, emerged as a strategic means of food access in the most vulnerable urbanized regions, while allowing farmers to maintain their income. This article examines different food supply actions in the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil, at the peak of the pandemic, focusing especially on new dynamics among seven urban and peri-urban farmers representative of the situation in São Paulo's main production regions. Beyond social coordination among different solidarity groups in the municipality, the article highlights the role of short, proximity-based distribution circuits in sustaining local production and ensuring food consumption for food-insecure populations, amid a marked shortage of emergency food and nutrition security policies.

Ji-eun Park, Jong-Sang Sung, Yong-Hoon Son · Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture · South Korea

In an aging row-housing complex in Gojan 1-dong, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, this study quantitatively examined the effects of gardening on residents' life satisfaction and community. After a field survey of the garden conditions in the area, a questionnaire assessed the relationship between gardening participation and life satisfaction and community ties, analyzed with t-tests and ANOVA. Residents engaged in gardening were more active in "neighborhood exchange" and "resident participation" than those who were not. Residents who voluntarily created their own gardens reported higher "life satisfaction" than those using gardens built by the government, and residents gardening within the complex reported higher life satisfaction than those gardening outside it.

Siti Asiah, Eva Banowati, Erni Suharini · International Journal of Research and Review · Indonesia

A study examining the implementation of urban farming to achieve Sustainable Development Goals in the Sampangan sub-district of Semarang City, Indonesia. Focusing on the Puspitasari Women Farming Group and Mina Garden Spirit Farming Group under the city's "Ayo Nandur" (Let's Garden) program, using purposive sampling with observation, interviews, documentation and questionnaires, the study found that urban farming — applying environmentally friendly use of yards — contributed to fulfilling family nutrition, increasing income, and improving welfare through community participation, while strengthening the groups into independent organizations.

Daniel R. George, Amy E. Ethridge · American Journal of Public Health · United States

A US article on nonprofit hospitals' community health needs assessments notes they are identifying a high prevalence of chronic diseases linked to poor diets, and have responded with nutrition-related initiatives such as farmers' markets and community gardens. It describes diverse strategies undertaken by the hospital-based community garden at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and offers implications and implementation guidance for other US hospitals.

Arini Putri Hanifa, Eka Triana Yuniarsih, Retna Qomariah, Nurmalinda, Yopi Saleh, Yati Haryati, Indarti Puji Lestari, Susi Lesmayati · IntechOpen eBooks · Indonesia

A book chapter discusses the urban farming movement in Indonesia across five topics: trends in yard utilization and food provision policy, the importance of urban farming in society, community perception and involvement, the pandemic's impact on household food security and supply chains, and government strategy for sustaining participatory urban farming. In the Indonesian context, urban farming is defined as cultivating food crops, vegetables, fruit, herbs, and medicinal or ornamental plants combined with fish and poultry, on home yards, office yards, school gardens and communal gardens. It concludes that the sustainability of urban farming still requires government assistance and intervention plus private-sector involvement through corporate social responsibility, and that government must support both policy and physical infrastructure to build business partnership networks between producers and market actors.

Arief Setyo Nugroho, Bambang Sumardjoko, Anatri Desstya, Minsih Minsih, Choiriyah · International Journal of Elementary Education · Indonesia

This qualitative descriptive study examined strengthening environmental-care character through ecoprint artwork in Indonesian elementary schools, set against a backdrop of poorly tended school garden plants and littered food and drink packaging. Using interviews and observations with triangulation for validity and an interactive data collection-reduction-presentation-conclusion analysis, the study reports an 88.32% success rate for the ecoprint intervention in strengthening environmental care, with a secondary effect of awakening students' entrepreneurial spirit through producing leaf-motif paintings and cloth products.

Abigail M. Decker, Scott A. Morrison · The Journal of Environmental Education · Global

An exploratory study examined how gender is communicated, experienced and constructed in nature-based education (NBE), based on 30 hours of fieldwork at one private outdoor preschool and two public elementary school garden clubs. The analysis identified four sites where gender socialization occurs in NBE: materials, spaces, conversations and educators. While gender-coded human-made objects tend to be fewer outdoors, the study argues that environmental educators must be intentional and explicit about curating a gender-decoded learning space, recognizing how gender is constructed by and for children and communicated and experienced, and must foster understandings of gender beyond the binary.

Najma Abdullahi, Erika F. Werner, Patrick M. Vivier, Blythe Berger, Lauren Schlichting · PubMed · United States

A study using Rhode Island birth certificate data from 2015–2016 to evaluate whether proximity to food sources, rather than density, is associated with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk. Proximity analysis measured the distance from each pregnant person's home address to the nearest fast food restaurant, supermarket, and farmers market/community garden, and multivariable logistic regression tested the association between distance and GDM risk. Of 20,129 births meeting inclusion criteria, 7.2% (1,447) involved GDM. Distance to food sources varied by insurance type, education and race/ethnicity, but in the adjusted model there was no statistically significant association between distance to any food source and GDM.

Shafira Ayuning Lestari, Dika Supyandi · MIMBAR AGRIBISNIS Jurnal Pemikiran Masyarakat Ilmiah Berwawasan Agribisnis · Indonesia (Jakarta)

All 11 members of the D'Shafa women farmer group — a model group for urban agriculture development in Malaka Sari, East Jakarta, Indonesia — were surveyed in a qualitative descriptive study analyzing the group's dynamics. All eight group dynamics elements analyzed showed active results, with a total score of 1,203 (95.93%), and the elements of group structure, group cohesiveness, and group atmosphere achieved the maximum scores, indicating that organized structure and task distribution support solid, family-like interaction among members.

Nasreen Khan, Teck Chai Lau, Booi Chen Tan · Food Research · Global

A qualitative content analysis examining social entrepreneurship and adoption factors behind smart urban farming among elderly people. Interviews were conducted via purposive sampling and analyzed using the framework method, drawing on diffusion of innovation theory and the theory of planned behavior. It found that positive attitudes and positive social influence increase adoption of smart urban farming, that using technology can help elderly farmers continue farming, and that effective social entrepreneurship involvement - providing information and technical advice - influenced adoption. Ease of use was the most important adoption factor, with attitude and subjective norms also shown to be influential.

H. J. Kim, Won-Suk Oh, Jin-Gun Kim, Won-Sop Shin · Healthcare · Global

Ninety participants were divided into experimental and control groups and took part in 16 biweekly urban gardening sessions from May to November 2022 to test effects on perceived restorativeness, resilience, sense of community, and stress reduction. Using the Perceived Restorativeness Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Sense of Community Index, Brief Encounter Psychosocial Instrument, and salivary cortisol testing, the study found that urban gardening activities positively influenced participants' physiological and psychological responses.

Winalyn Denzon, Meraflor C. Estose, Krysha Camille Villanueva, Joa H. Jao · Multidisciplinary Science Journal · Global

A descriptive study surveyed 50 randomly selected respondents from designated areas on their acceptability of a container gardening program designed for BTVTED (technical-vocational teacher education) students, to gauge whether it could serve as a food augmentation strategy. Analysis using means and standard deviations found most participants were female, and acceptability was highest on the economic dimension — producing one's own food, generating income and supplying household subsistence. The researchers recommended that local governments run education campaigns to expand participation in container gardening.

Fransisca Listyaningsih, Devan Adi PAWOKO, Nurul HIDAYAH · ICCD · Indonesia (Jakarta)

This activity report describes the use of limited urban land for agriculture, women's empowerment, and family food independence in North Meruya, West Jakarta, Indonesia. The activity consisted of hands-on practice of a hydroponic method usable on limited land, together with ongoing guidance provided to women and housewives.

Caroline Verfuerth, Angelina Sanderson Bellamy, Barbora Adlerová, Amy Dutton · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United Kingdom

Failures of the current food system are described as sitting at the core of multiple overlapping crises, shaping both consumption choices and food production, with low-income households disproportionately affected—their food security and access to healthy, sustainable food impacted as a result. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is framed as a bottom-up response toward agri-food system transformation, an alternative food system built on locally sold, agroecologically grown food rooted in social values, and, alongside other food citizenship movements and alternative food networks (AFNs), driven by a vision of a democratic, socially and economically just, environmentally sustainable food system. Yet low-income households are underrepresented in the CSA community. This paper reports findings from a co-produced intervention between the research team, four CSA farms in Wales, United Kingdom, and two food aid partners, seeking ways to improve CSA membership accessibility for food-insecure households: 38 households received a weekly vegetable bag for two to four months, and 16 household members were interviewed at the project's start and at the end of the harvest season. Using a food well-being framework, the study found that CSA membership holistically improved food well-being by strengthening producer-consumer relationships, increasing availability of healthy foods, helping people care for their own and their families' well-being, and building place-based food capability and literacy—results the authors use to support calls for prioritizing food well-being interventions to benefit financially excluded, food-insecure households within localized AFNs.

Habtamu Serbessa · International Journal of African and Asian Studies · Ethiopia

This study examined how vegetable production supplements food and income for residents of urban Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, using household-level quantitative data analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Of respondents, 99.2% said vegetable production provides fresh food for their households, 41.9% earned up to 10,000 birr per production cycle, and 30.7% of producers hired up to ten employees, with seeds and pesticides being the more expensive inputs; multivariate analysis found households earning around 10,000 birr per production cycle were significantly affected by farming in residential areas (p = 0.008), and households were found to prioritize food consumption over profiting from sales.

Ana Carla Alves Gomes de Almeida, Maria Lúcia Brito da Cruz · Revista Geonorte · Brazil

A study of Fortaleza, Brazil, examined urban agriculture initiatives in risk areas — including the municipal Hortas Sociais (Social Gardens) project — through literature review and field visits to project sites and relevant agencies. It found that introducing urban agriculture on vacant land in risk areas can help deter irregular occupation and, when incorporated into municipal policy, can provide income and food to the urban poor.

Muradiye Ateş · Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi · Global

A qualitative study on the role of social innovation in poverty alleviation and sustainable development examined two cases — the KIVA microcredit system and community-supported agriculture — assessing each for innovativeness, sustainability, social impact, target audience, and institutional structure. It concluded that both cases contribute to poverty reduction and regional development in terms of these dimensions.

· こども家庭審議会（2023年12月1日答申。同年12月22日閣議決定） · Japan

The first guideline under the Basic Act on Children for ensuring every child has safe, secure places to be. It organises place-making around four verbs (expand, connect, refine, review) and directs support to community-run places — children's cafeterias, adventure playgrounds and, by extension, garden-based places.