Research & reports

· 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.

Hall S.M., Tikku V., Heiger-Bernays W.J. · Environmental Health Perspectives, 131(11):115001 · Global

Examines equity and safety in urban organic-waste cycling through a case study of waste-to-compost activities and legislation in four US cities. It warns that contaminants such as pesticides, lead, and PFAS and inconsistent regulation can worsen racial inequities in access to urban farmland and safe compost, and recommends justice-oriented policy with multilingual education and proper waste disposal.

Coulibaly S.F.M., Aubry C., Provent F., Rousset-Rouvière S., Joimel S. · Environmental Research Letters, 18(7) · Global

A review synthesizing existing research on how far green roofs can support urban biodiversity, framed by their design and modes of use. It finds green roofs can provide habitat for soil organisms and pollinators as well as plants, but that the effect depends strongly on design such as substrate depth and vegetation diversity, and recommends integrating soil communities into construction guidelines and increasing heterogeneity at roof and landscape scales.

Bell N.C.S., Ascher J.S., Hayes J.J.-M., Langellotto G.A. · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 5:1102360 · Global

A systematic review covering roughly five decades of bee research in urban and community gardens, analyzing 227 publications through early 2022. It clarifies the potential of gardens to support diverse bee communities, the role of citizen-tended green spaces in pollinator conservation, and existing research gaps, pointing toward future directions for urban pollinator conservation and participatory monitoring.

Oh S., Lu C. · The Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology 98(2):133-140 · Global

Review of commercial vertical farming with IoT-based precision control, discussing its contribution to food security and the sustainability and profitability challenges facing the indoor farming industry.

Kwartnik-Pruc A., Droj G. · Land (MDPI), 12(2):325 · Global

A systematic review of 162 peer-reviewed papers (1978–2022) organizing the role of allotments and community gardens into six themes (community, health, economics, pollution, urban planning, sustainable environment). Ecologically, it concludes that gardens create habitat mosaics that act as refugia for urban biodiversity and that urban agriculture enriches plant diversity, helping conserve native and agricultural biodiversity — and calls for planning and policy frameworks that treat gardens as part of urban green infrastructure alongside greenspace restoration and heat-island mitigation.

FAO · FAO — background paper for SOFI/SOFA 2023 · Global

Urban populations in low- and middle-income countries are growing at ~3% a year. An empirical, cross-country analysis of food supply, food security and diets across the rural-urban continuum, examining how urbanization shapes access to healthy diets.

Hermesse J., Vankeerberghen A., Lohest F., Truyffaut A. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Belgium (Brussels)

Examines six co-creative, transdisciplinary research projects in Brussels that engaged diverse stakeholders to co-produce knowledge on urban food production, distribution, and equitable food access, highlighting recommendations for institutional and legislative reform to support food system transitions.

Bayot R.S., Schreinemachers P., Mwambi M., Dominguez D.D., Oro E.M., Gonsalves J.F. · World Vegetable Center (CGIAR) · Philippines (Metro Manila)

This scoping study evaluated urban community gardening sites under the Philippines' National Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture Banner Program (NUPAP) across Metro Manila, covering 26 sites in 7 cities. Findings showed the program lacked targeted support for vulnerable populations despite coordinating numerous urban farming initiatives.

Willman K. · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, Vol. 22, No. 2 · Finland (Tampere)

Through discourse analysis of interviews with eight Tampere city officials, this study reveals how bureaucratic caution and institutional ambiguity create a constrained operational space for community gardening, despite political-level support for its expansion.

Ngetleh N., Bime-Egwu M., Tambi M. · Agricultural Sciences · Cameroon (Bamenda)

This study identifies the socioeconomic and institutional drivers behind innovative urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) adoption in Bamenda City, Cameroon, demonstrating that UPA is a critical livelihood strategy for the urban poor amid rapid urbanization. The findings inform policy recommendations to support sustainable urban food production.

· Urban Geography · Global

A critical discussion arguing that urban agriculture can drive environmental gentrification: by boosting neighborhood attractiveness through greening it may attract affluent newcomers and contribute to the displacement of lower-income residents and people of color.

· 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.

· Cities · Portugal (Lisbon)

Cost-benefit analysis showing that Lisbon's flat, city-wide green-roof subsidy design is suboptimal—constant subsidy values fail to optimize public funds because ecosystem-service benefits vary spatially, evidencing a poorly targeted (wasteful) green-infrastructure incentive.

· FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO · Global

The 2023 flagship report jointly produced by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. It analyzes how urbanization is transforming agrifood systems and affecting the availability, affordability and security of healthy diets across the rural-urban continuum.

Setyardi Pratika Mulya, Heru Purboyo Hidayat Putro, Delik Hudalah · Geography and sustainability · Global

This 2023 global systematic literature review examined peri-urban agriculture (PUA) as an ecosystem service, focusing on urbanization pressures and governance. The review found that PUA is crucial for urban areas in terms of food supply, ecology, biodiversity preservation, disaster mitigation, and recreation. However, massive urban expansion is a primary cause of PUA loss, and sociocultural biases have led to institutional constraints on peri-urban management within existing political and regulatory frameworks.

Hua Zheng, Min Guo, Qian Wang, Qinghai Zhang, Noriko Akita · Land · Global

This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 487 papers on community gardens from the Web of Science database to understand their knowledge structure and research development. Research papers in this area significantly increased from 2012, with the United States contributing the most and high-income countries accounting for 93.22% of studies. "Health" was the most frequent keyword, and "ecosystem services" gained popularity, with three major research themes identified: "ecosystem services and disservices," "multidimensional association," and "sustainable garden systems."

James Kwame Mensah · Development Southern Africa · Ghana

This research examined the role of urban agriculture in the urban local economy in Ghana, addressing a lack of empirical evidence from a Local Economic Development (LED) perspective. Data was gathered through focus group discussions and key informant interviews with urban agriculturalists and local authorities in two assemblies in the Greater Accra region. The findings suggest that with proper support, urban agriculture can improve the local economy by providing employment, income, and enhanced livelihood and food security.

M. S. Aduah, Saviour Mantey · South African Journal of Geomatics · Ghana

This study used geospatial techniques, multi-temporal land use maps, and population data to estimate urban land use efficiency (LUE), changes in built-up area per capita, and urban sprawl speed (SS) in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan area of Ghana. While LUE generally improved from 2002 to 2016, it deteriorated slightly between 2016 and 2021. Critically, agricultural land or grassland in the city has been converted to built-up land, posing a challenge for urban agriculture.

James Kwame Mensah · International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development · Global

This study examined how the concepts of urban agriculture (UA), local economic development (LED), and climate change can be treated in unison. Based on a review of credible published papers on UA, LED, climate change, and nature-based solutions (NBS), a conceptual framework was developed to show their linkages. The paper established that UA could boost LED, build resilient urban settlements, and promote social inclusiveness, but it also comes with social challenges.

· International Society for the Study of Vernacular Settlements · Iraq (Baghdad)

This case study explored the potential of urban agriculture in the Al-Bastanah neighborhood of Al-Za'faraniya, Baghdad. It investigated how urban agriculture can be integrated into neighborhood planning processes.

Т.В. СТАРИКОВА, R. A. Skachkov, А.И. БЕНКЕЧ, С.П. ПРОКОПОВИЧ · Экономика и предпринимательство · Russia

This article discusses the concept of urban farming as a promising direction for improving food security in the Russian Federation. The authors analyze the current agricultural situation, identify existing food security problems, and propose urban farming as a potential solution.

Sandrine Simon · Urban Governance · Portugal (Lisbon)

This study examined urban agricultural initiatives in Lisbon, Portugal, and their integration into urban planning strategies for sustainability, using Design Thinking methodology for a literature review. The integration of urban agriculture into urban planning is identified as a complex problem due to conflicting goals among actors. The research suggests that Design Thinking could assist urban planners in addressing this challenge by providing flexible, iterative, and participatory approaches.

Jiangxiao Qiu, Hui Zhao · EDIS · Global

This overview identified eight ecosystem services generally attributed to urban agriculture, including food production, microclimate regulation, stormwater retention, and social-cultural values. However, the study found that quantitative evidence for many of these ecosystem services, especially intangible ones, is scarce. It suggests that while urban agriculture could be integral to green infrastructure, further consideration is needed for types, technology, management, and potential tradeoffs.