Research & reports

Anna Eklund, Camilla Björk · · Nicaragua (Managua)

This diploma work, a case study in Managua, Nicaragua, explored how urban agriculture can improve the life situation of urban populations. The study found evidence that urban agriculture can be a key strategy for the urban poor, securing food access, improving public health and the environment, increasing income possibilities, and strengthening social belonging.

N. Hooton, Diana Lee-Smith, Nasinyama, G., D.L. Romney, Gertrude Atukunda, Margaret Azuba, Maria Kaweesa, A. Lubowa, Muwanga, J., Mary Njenga, Young, J. · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Uganda

This working paper analyzes the actors, events, and influences affecting policy changes on urban agriculture in Kampala, Uganda, from 1990 to 2006. It reviews how and why these policy and institutional changes occurred, utilizing a combined methodology of episode studies, case study analysis, and outcome mapping.

Fiona Yeudall, Renée Sebastian, Donald C. Cole, Selahadin Ibrahim, A. Lubowa, Joyce K. Kikafunda · Food and Nutrition Bulletin · Uganda (Kampala)

A cross-sectional survey of 296 households in Kampala, Uganda, examined the impact of sociodemographic and farming variables on household food security and nutritional security of children aged 2-5 years. Household food security score was significantly positively correlated with the number of tropical livestock units, dietary diversity, percentage of energy from animal-source foods, and weight-for-age z-score. Consumption of animal-source food was negatively associated with C-reactive protein level, which was negatively associated with hemoglobin level, and hemoglobin was positively associated with weight-for-age z-score.

Alice J. Hovorka, Damell Smith, R. van Veenhuizen · · Global

This article argues that a gendered perspective on urban food security is essential to understand dynamics shaping food production and marketing in urban centers. It highlights that failing to explore women's distinct roles risks leaving gender inequities and food supply hindrances unaddressed, countering the invisibility of women's work often assumed as automatic domestic duties. The article emphasizes women's significant role in domestic food supply, even in societies with minimal household food production, citing examples like Latin American women organizing to address urban hunger.

Marcelo Salgado, Sabrina Cáceres, Marta Basuino, Nora Gancedo, Claudio Vizia, Sebastián Rodríguez, Laura Gurría · Revista INVI · Argentina (Rosario)

This paper focuses on social housing projects connected with productive undertakings for low-income sectors in Rosario, Argentina, developed through the articulation of various social actors. Productive initiatives, supported by municipal organisms, emerged to alleviate unemployment due to the past decade's crisis and poverty in slums. The research is oriented to formulate recommendations for the participating management of social housing and its articulation with productive undertakings.

M. García de Souza, J. Álvarez, J. P. Dieste, M. Rachetti · Agrociencia · Uruguay (Montevideo)

The first census of urban gardens in the Montevideo metropolitan area was conducted in early 2004, revealing that residents initiated gardens in response to economic and social crises. The findings indicated that most ventures were family-organized, triggered by the 2002 crisis, and primarily aimed at self-consumption. Community ventures by non-family groups were also identified, and while productive practices showed strengths like high biodiversity and self-produced seeds/organic fertilizer use, unresolved issues included poor equipment, precarious land tenure, and lack of irrigation water sources.

Nyumbaiza Tambwe · African and Asian Studies · Democratic Republic of Congo (Lubumbashi)

Based on semi-structured interviews conducted in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, from November 2004 to March 2005, and documentary sources, factors driving engagement in urban agriculture were identified. Structural adjustment programs, declining world prices of primary commodities, economic crisis, low wages, unemployment, rapid population growth, war, and poverty push urban dwellers into agricultural activities, while urban agriculture also serves as a source of food, income, and employment.

André Mfoukou-Ntsakala, Michel Bitémo, Niko Speybroeck, Guido Van Huylenbroeck, É. Thys · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · Congo (Brazzaville)

This study analyzed the technical and socio-economic specificities of urban agriculture and its role in household subsistence in a post-conflict region in Central Africa. It was based on a 2002 survey of 710 randomly selected households in Brazzaville, Congo. About one-third of Brazzaville households engage in urban agriculture, with 29.5% in crop production and 8.8% in animal production, predominantly aviculture. The 1997 conflict negatively impacted urban agricultural production, especially animal production, and urban agriculture is dominated by subsistence and poor households. While crop production is mainly for subsistence, animal production is more income-driven, and constraints like input provision, theft, and soil degradation limit productivity.

Thomas Cousins · The International Journal of African Historical Studies · Tanzania (Mwanza)

Karen Coen Flynn's ethnography of Mwanza, Tanzania, explores experiences of deprivation and survival strategies, including urban farming, in this rapidly expanding city. Using a large number of qualitative interviews, the study examines changing consumption patterns, household organization of labor and kinship regarding food, and the gendered character of household labor. It also considers how street children and adults secure survival, presenting a typology of survival strategies.

Ángela Borroto, Águeda C. Arencibia, J.L. López, Liliam J. Leyva, Carlos Mazorra, Gladys E. Dopico, R. Maurelo, A. Caraballoso · Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) · Cuba

A study in Primero de Enero municipality, Ciego de Ávila province, Cuba, surveyed 19 backyard livestock producers participating in the National Urban Agriculture Program across three local council districts over two years. Ninety percent of producers received family support as a supplementary rather than primary livelihood, and 60% combined this with fixed state-sector jobs. Only 22% were organized or linked to receive training or technology transfer; average rearing experience was three years and average age was 49, with 63% wage workers, 18% retirees and 12.5% housewives. Production results were described as favorable, but practical adoption of more efficient, sustainable rearing methods was not found.

Amy Cutter‐Mackenzie, Kate Eastwood · ePublications@SCU (Southern Cross University) · Australia

An evaluation of the Multicultural School Gardens project in Australia, covering its 2006 phase (the project ran through 2008). Six schools took part in 2006 — Rosewell Primary School, Dandenong North Primary School, Bayswater Secondary College, Laverton Primary School, Meadowbank Primary School and St Albans Heights Primary School — and the report draws on children's research plus progress and post-project surveys. It reports the project meeting most of its stated objectives, with key contributing factors including learning outside the classroom, curriculum enrichment, school enthusiasm, health and wellbeing, students' knowledge of plant physiology and development, and alignment with existing environmental education programs. It identifies engaging the community as the greatest challenge, to be a specific focus of future work.

The Nobel Foundation · NobelPrize.org (The Nobel Foundation) · Bangladesh

Grameen Bank, founded in 1976 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with Muhammad Yunus, half each, 'for their efforts to create economic and social development from below'. By establishing the bank in 1983 Yunus sought self-support for the very poorest through loans on easy terms. Where conventional banks avoided lending without security, Grameen assumes even the poorest can manage their own finances given suitable conditions. At the time of the prize more than seven million borrowers had received such microcredit, the average loan was $100, repayment was very high, and over 95 per cent of loans went to women or groups of women.

Shawn Somerset, Richard Ball, Melanie Flett, Rebecca Geissman · · Australia (Queensland)

This study surveyed primary schools in the Logan region of south-east Queensland, Australia, finding that 24% had functioning vegetable gardens. Face-to-face interviews with teachers explored the origins and functions of these school-based community gardens. The research suggests these gardens offer an opportunity to integrate nutrition, physical activity, and environmental sustainability into curricula.

Louiza M. Boukharaeva, Gustavo Kauark Chianca, Marcel Marloie, Altair Toledo Machado, Cynthia Torres de Toledo Machado · Cadernos de Ciência & Tecnologia · Global

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) treats the development of urban agriculture as part of sustainable human development policy, as it proposed at the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in June 1996. This article analyzes urban agriculture in three cases: Russia, where it developed after World War II; France, representing Western European countries where the activity has been marginalized; and Brazil, where its development is a consequence of agricultural modernization that pushed people into cities. Surveys and a literature review show that urban agriculture has historically reduced the intensity of food crises and has contributed to feeding part of the population in normal periods, while also serving functions of pleasure and relaxation, therapy, and identity. It helps transmit cultural heritage and can be used educationally. Developing these functions requires both legislative action ensuring long-term access to land plots for all social groups and joint activity among multiple public and private participants.

M. R. S. Mlozi · UNISWA Research Journal of Agriculture Science and Technology · Tanzania

This paper examines whether urban agriculture (UA) contributes to alleviating income poverty among practitioners in Tanzania. Based on literature and empirical evidence, it shows that people of all socio-economic statuses undertake UA for food provisioning and income poverty alleviation due to declining real incomes of urban dwellers. The reasons for UA's persistence reside at four contextual levels: government, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, city/town councils, and the individual, with government and individual levels being the most important.

F.P. Huibers, O. Moscoso, Álvaro Ocampo Durán, J.B. van Lier · CABI Publishing eBooks · Bolivia

A study examining wastewater use in urban and peri-urban agriculture in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Both vegetable and fodder crops are irrigated with polluted water — diluted or partly treated municipal and industrial sewage — containing high concentrations of pathogens, heavy metals, and salts. In the downstream La Mayca area, where farmers have an agreement with the municipal water and sewerage company, soil degradation has forced them to increasingly replace vegetable crops with more salt-tolerant fodder crops. In other areas around the city, cultivators deny using wastewater and point to nearby wells as their water source, but many of these wells are likely also polluted and do not yield enough water for the irrigated area they serve. Farmers report no specific health problems related to using polluted water, which contradicts reports from local health workers. Because surface water flow and rainfall are low while industrial pollution is high and wastewater treatment capacity is limited, most of the water available to farmers is of poor quality. Options identified for improvement include reducing industrial pollution, increasing treatment capacity, and adopting integrated water management that blends good-quality groundwater with wastewater — but strong traditional water rights, lack of urban planning, and weak institutions are cited as constraints on improving wastewater management in Cochabamba.

Premat A. · European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies · Cuba (Havana)

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Havana (1999-2001), this article examines urban garden parcelas as sites revealing tensions between private and public domains, finding that revolutionary values around food security and community persisted in post-Soviet Cuba despite assumptions of growing individualism.

Miura S., Kunii O., Wakai S. · International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition · Philippines (Davao City)

A structured survey of 152 mothers in two poor urban communities in Davao City examined home gardening and dietary diversity, finding limited but notable impact of garden produce on micronutrient intake. The study assessed a community-based approach promoting home gardening to address iron and vitamin A deficiencies.

Thilak T. Ranasinghe · International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology · Sri Lanka

Through experience in the Western Province of Sri Lanka, the "Family Business Garden" concept justifies the necessity of urban agriculture amidst limited urban infrastructure, environmental conditions, and socio-economic situations. This concept, by properly mixing environmental and commercial agricultural concerns, not only addresses family food requirements but also opens the way to produce for markets under liberalized economies by promoting agro-entrepreneurship and social capital development in urban communities.

Mariama Diop, Aminata Sow, Ibrahima Ndiaye · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Senegal (Dakar)

This research in Dakar's slums used a mixed-methods approach to study the link between community gardens and educational outcomes among school children. A preliminary analysis indicated that students participating in community gardens showed a 15% improvement in reading comprehension scores compared to non-participants. While further statistical testing is needed, the findings suggest a positive correlation between urban agriculture and educational outcomes for low-income children.

Hasan Belevi, Bettina Baumgartner · International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management · Global

This paper provides a systematic overview of urban agriculture in low and middle-income countries, identifying research needs. It highlights the importance of cross-cutting issues between urban agriculture and environmental sanitation, including excreta, wastewater, and solid waste management. Further research is needed to quantify the benefits, risks, opportunities, and constraints of urban agriculture, as well as its impact on food quality and the environment when reusing waste.

Neil S. Brantley · San José State University ScholarWorks (San Jose State University) · Global

This research project aims to provide a framework of relevant information for developing sustainable urban agriculture systems as a tool to improve the quality of life for the urban poor. Two different infrastructure contexts are presented, with the intent of relating the applicability of urban agriculture initiatives to enhancing destitute urban communities in both developed and developing worlds, referencing successful case studies. Urban agriculture is beginning to be recognized by the world community as one viable urban development option.

Naser I. Faruqui, Odeh Al-Jayyousi · Water International · Jordan

This paper describes a pilot project in Tufileh, Jordan, that allowed poor residents to reuse untreated household greywater in home gardens. Women in the community used small revolving loans to implement simple greywater recovery systems and set up gardens. The project enabled the community to offset food purchases and generate income by selling surplus production, saving or earning an average of 10% of its income. An environmental impact assessment demonstrated that the quality of the untreated greywater was adequate, and the negative impacts on soil and crops were negligible.

Marianne E. Krasny, Rebekah Doyle · Journal of Extension · Global

This study applied participatory models to an inter-generational program aimed at having youth document ethnic gardening practices in urban community gardens. Outcomes for educators included professional development and the opportunity to expand programs to urban audiences, while youth learned about gardening, developed positive relationships with elders, and enhanced academic skills. Developing relationships with youth was an important outcome for gardeners.

Joseph H. Konen · Journal of Extension · Global

This article summarizes three years of experience in training and supporting volunteer mentors who work with juvenile offenders in an urban gardening program. It details the program parameters and describes the methods used for selecting, orienting, and training these volunteers.