Research & reports

Md. Nur Alom Sarkar Mithun, Saifur Rahman, Md. Asifur Rahman, Md. Hasan Sabit, Joseph L. Donaldson, Shonia Sheheli · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems 11(1) · Bangladesh (Mymensingh — Kewatkhali and Aqua)

A study of perceived barriers among 100 randomly selected rooftop gardeners in Kewatkhali and Aqua, Mymensingh, Bangladesh, interviewed with a structured protocol between September and November 2023 and analysed with descriptive statistics, rank order, correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression. Every participant perceived substantial barriers. The most prominent concern was the complexity of the technologies involved; neighbours' negative attitudes ranked least significant. Age, rooftop garden area, income, experience, contact with extension media and gardening knowledge were all negatively and significantly related to perceived barriers, with garden area and knowledge the strongest predictors in the regression. The authors argue that research, demonstrations, extension activity and training to build residents' skills and understanding are the way to lower those barriers.

· 農林水産省 農村振興局 農村政策部 都市農村交流課 · Japan

MAFF's compendium on noufuku renkei (agriculture-welfare linkage): its current state, policies and cases. Defines it as work that builds confidence and purpose for people with disabilities through agriculture, and documents its widening scope to older people, those in economic hardship, people experiencing social withdrawal, and offender rehabilitation. Includes farm-workforce trends, disability population and employment figures, and cases of welfare providers entering farming.

Scott Etkin · West Side Rag · United States

NYC's Department of Sanitation resumed mandatory composting enforcement in January 2026 after a pause. The Upper West Side shows a 13.5% capture rate as of spring 2025, above the citywide rate of about 10%, with monthly collected tonnage rising from 129 tons (Oct. 2024) to over 318 tons (Dec. 2025); 414 summonses had been issued through Feb. 10, 2026.

Neighborhood Gardens Trust · Neighborhood Gardens Trust (NGT) · United States

Neighborhood Gardens Trust (NGT), a Philadelphia nonprofit, is a land trust that makes community garden land tenure permanent. It has preserved 53 community gardens so far and aims to protect a total of 80 by 2027. Preserved gardens range from single house lots up to 3.7 acres, the largest, and vary from food-producing plots to flower and sitting gardens. NGT covers ongoing liability insurance, real estate taxes, and capital improvements (with support from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society), while local gardeners keep managing the day-to-day.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農村振興局農村政策部農村計画課都市農業室 · Japan

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) organizes urban agriculture's roles into six functions: fresh produce supply, farming-experience/exchange opportunities, disaster-prevention open space, green/landscape space, national land and environmental conservation, and food/agricultural education. In a survey of urban residents, about 50% recognized urban farms' role in supplying fresh produce and about 60% expressed interest in buying local produce, while only about 30% saw urban farms as a place for farming experience or exchange. 'Disaster cooperation farmland' — an arrangement re-recognized after the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake — involves municipalities signing voluntary agreements with farmers to use urban farmland as evacuation space or temporary-housing sites during disasters.

· Wikipedia (English) · Spain

According to English Wikipedia, the Water Tribunal of the Plain of Valencia was founded during the reigns of the Caliphs Abd-ar-Rahman III and Al-Hakam II, in 960 CE, as an institution of justice to settle disputes over irrigation water. It is made up of one representative (síndic) from each of nine Irrigation Communities, one of whom serves a two-year term as president. It meets every Thursday at Casa Vestidor on Plaça de la Mare de Déu in Valencia, and in 2009 was inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage alongside the Council of Wise Men of the plain of Murcia.

Ajuntament de Barcelona · Ajuntament de Barcelona / Institut Municipal de Parcs i Jardins · Spain

The official page of Barcelona's municipal allotment network, offering 15 allotment sites across the city's ten districts, with plots of 20-40 m2 leased to residents aged 65+ and non-profit organizations. The program formally launched in 1997 with the Can Mestres allotments, though the very first allotment, Hort de l'Avi in Gràcia, dates to 1986 following a resident petition. Plots for individuals are allocated by lottery and for organizations by competition, with stated goals of environmental education and intergenerational coexistence.

· Wikipedia (italiano) · Italy

An Italian Wikipedia article on the cascine (traditional farmsteads) of Milan, of which about a hundred survive today, 59 of them municipally owned. Eighteen are derelict, while the rest are used as libraries, recreation centres, facilities for the elderly and disabled, or housing; thirteen remain active farms engaged in rice cultivation, dairy farming, or horse breeding. The oldest, Cascina Chiesa Rossa, dates to the 10th century, with other major cascine built between the 11th and 15th centuries.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

This MAFF page explains that community gardens (shimin nouen) in Japan can be established by municipalities, agricultural cooperatives, landowning farmers, or non-landowning entities such as companies and NPOs, under three legal frameworks: the Community Garden Development Promotion Act, the Specified Farmland Lease Act, and the Urban Farmland Lease Act. It is primarily procedural guidance for prospective operators, with a FY2026 explanatory pamphlet available.

· Wikipedia · United States

Brooklyn Grange operates 5.6 acres of organic vegetable and honey production across three rooftop farms in New York City, the largest rooftop farm operation in the city. Founded in 2010, it produces about 80,000 pounds of vegetables and roughly 1,500 pounds of honey annually. The founders launched the business with loans, personal savings, and investors, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard farm was partly funded by a $592,730 grant from the NYC DEP Green Infrastructure Grant Program.

台東区 · 台東区 · Japan

Taito Ward partners with Daimaru Matsuzakaya and Local Food Cycling to sell subsidized home compost containers and run collection events for circular food-waste use. Over the one-year period from December 2024 to November 2025, the ward reports about 5.4 tons of food waste reduction and about 2.6 tons of CO2 reduction.

· Wikipedia (ja) · Japan

Japanese department store rooftop amusement parks trace back to Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi's 'aerial garden' in 1907, with Japan's first permanent rooftop amusement park, 'Sportsland,' opening at Matsuya Asakusa in November 1931. They peaked from the mid-1950s through the late 1960s, but declined after department store fires in 1972 and 1973 led to a revised Fire Service Act requiring half of rooftops to be kept as evacuation areas; as of 2023, only five stores—Matsuzakaya Takatsuki, Matsuzakaya Nagoya, Daiwa Korinbo, Iyotetsu Takashimaya, and Hamaya Department Store—still operate one.

· Wikipedia (ja) · Japan

The Ginza Honeybee Project began on March 28, 2006, keeping Western and Japanese honeybees on Ginza building rooftops, producing and selling honey-based sweets, cocktails, and soap, greening over 1,000 sqm of rooftop space, and providing environmental education to local kindergartens and schools. Honey production grew from 150 kg in 2006 to 800 kg in 2009, and an agricultural production corporation, Ginza Mitsubachi, was established in 2010.

· Wikipedia (English) · Cuba

According to English Wikipedia, organoponicos emerged as urban farming in Cuba during the 'Special Period' after the 1989 Soviet collapse cut off chemical inputs, responding to a food crisis in which daily per-capita calorie intake fell from 2,900 in 1989 to 1,800 by 1995. As of 2009 over 35,000 hectares were in use in Havana alone, producing 280 grams of fruit and vegetables per resident per day, with the Havana workforce growing from 9,000 in 1999 to 23,000 in 2001 and over 44,000 by 2006.

· Wikipedia · Global

The English Wikipedia article 'Permaculture' defines it as an approach to land management and design based on observing flourishing natural ecosystems. Franklin Hiram King introduced the term 'permanent agriculture' in 1911, and Bill Mollison and David Holmgren coined 'permaculture' with the 1978 publication of 'Permaculture One'. It outlines three core ethics (care of the earth, care of people, and setting limits to population and consumption), Holmgren's twelve design principles, and practices such as hugelkultur, sheet mulching, and companion planting.

· Wikipedia · United States

According to the English Wikipedia article 'South Central Farm', the South Central Farm in Los Angeles operated from 1994 to 2006 as a 14-acre (5.7 ha) urban farm, considered one of the largest of its kind, used by roughly 350 families of moderate means from the surrounding community. On June 13, 2006, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department carried out an eviction and more than 40 protesters were arrested; on July 5, 2006, workers began bulldozing the farm amid further protests.

· Wikipedia · United Kingdom

According to the English Wikipedia article 'Manor Garden Allotments', the Manor Garden Allotments in London was a 4.5-acre (18,000 m2), 80-plot allotment site established in 1924 by Major Arthur Villiers. It was cleared in October 2007 to make way for landscaping of the London 2012 Olympic Park, and tenants were moved to a temporary site two kilometres away. Restoration on the original site and a 2.1-hectare provision of replacement plots were promised, but the successor Pudding Mill Lane allotments did not open until roughly four years after the Games ended.

· Wikipedia (ドイツ語) · Germany

This German Wikipedia article on the Edible City movement traces its origin to 2008 in Todmorden, England, where Pamela Warhurst and Mary Clear founded 'Incredible Edible'; by 2017 the UK Incredible Edible Network linked more than 100 groups. In Germany, the association 'Essbare Stadt' was founded in Kassel in May 2009 based on permaculture principles, while Andernach's municipal project began in 2009 and gained nationwide attention after being presented at Berlin's International Green Week in 2014. By 2017 over 140 such initiatives calling themselves 'edible' were found online. Since 2008, Toronto has promoted a comprehensive municipal program including community gardens, education, and food-waste initiatives.

· Wikipedia · United Kingdom

This Wikipedia article covers Incredible Edible, an urban gardening movement started in 2007 in Todmorden, UK by Pamela Warhurst, Mary Clear and others, run on a 'three spinning plates' model of community (public-space growing anyone can pick from), business (supporting local food firms), and learning (food education). As of 2018 there were 120 official UK groups and over 700 worldwide; UK groups reported a 37% year-on-year rise in produce, 9,763 sqm of growing land, 4,861 participants, and 207 events. The project received a £500,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund.

· Wikipedia · United States

This Wikipedia article covers the Beacon Food Forest, an urban food forest on public land in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood, described as the largest food forest on public land in the United States. Jacqueline Cramer and Glenn Herlihy proposed the concept in 2009; the project received a $20,000 grant in 2010 and a $100,000 development grant in December 2011, with initial planting of 1.75 acres in September 2012. It added 27 P-Patch garden plots in 2014, expanded by 1.5 acres in 2019, and its Food Forest Collective gained nonprofit status in August 2017.

City of Atlanta (AgLanta) · AgLanta (City of Atlanta, official) · United States

This official City of Atlanta (AgLanta) page describes the Urban Food Forest at Browns Mill, a 7.1-acre site in a designated food desert acquired by The Conservation Fund in fall 2016 and developed as Atlanta's first community urban food forest, growing fruit, nuts, vegetables, herbs, and mushrooms for public consumption. It is framed as part of the city's goal to bring healthy food within a half mile of 85% of Atlanta residents by 2022, funded in part through the U.S. Forest Service's community forestry program.

· Wikipedia · Europe

This Wikipedia article on allotment gardening covers its history and national systems. In the United Kingdom, an 1809 engraving of Birmingham already shows allotment gardens surrounding the town, and the 'Great Somerford Free Gardens' in Wiltshire were founded in 1809; the 1908 Small Holdings and Allotments Act legalized allotments, amended in 1922 and 1950, with plot numbers rising from 244,268 in 1873 to a peak of about 1.5 million in 1918 before declining to roughly 300,000 by 2009. In Germany, 'Schrebergarten' plots trace to the 'Schreber movement' begun in Leipzig in 1864, formalized by the 1919 Small Gardens and Small Leaseholds Land Law; there are now about 1.4 million allotments covering 470 square kilometers, including 833 allotment complexes in Berlin alone. In France, family gardens that emerged in the late 19th century are managed by the 'Fédération Nationale des Jardins Familiaux et Collectifs,' with about 135,000 members. In the Netherlands, the article states the first allotment garden was founded in 1838, there are now 240,000 allotment gardens, and the 'Algemeen Verbond van Volkstuindersverenigingen in Nederland' (AVVN) was founded in 1928.

AVVN · AVVN (official) · Netherlands

The official site of AVVN, the Dutch federation of allotment/community gardening associations. It describes its mission as bringing together garden enthusiasts, associations, and green initiatives across the Netherlands, and operates a knowledge bank (covering social greening, vegetable gardens, natural/sustainable gardening, and association management), webinars and activities, and news articles. It is based at Rijnzathe 12, Utrecht. The homepage displays a member/affiliate count of '+1,489.' The page itself does not state a founding year, which could not be confirmed here.

· Wikipedia · Europe

This Wikipedia article on 'city farm' states that an early city farm was set up in 1972 in Kentish Town, London, combining farm animals with gardening space — a combination inspired by children's farms in the Netherlands — and that other city farms followed across London and the United Kingdom. The article does not, however, provide further detail on the origin or history of the Dutch children's farms (kinderboerderij) themselves.

European Social Fund Plus (European Commission) · European Social Fund Plus, Social Innovation Match · Netherlands

A case study of Herenboeren, a Dutch citizen-owned cooperative farm model started in 2016. Around 250 households jointly finance and govern each 'Herenboerderij', paying a one-off investment of roughly €2,000–2,500 and a monthly fee of about €45–80 (depending on location and meat consumption) in exchange for a weekly share of seasonal vegetables, fruit, eggs, and optionally meat. Professional farmers are employed to run nature-driven production. As of 2026 there are 23 operational farms across the Netherlands with more than 9,000 citizen members.