Research & reports

Jana Adamková · Brno University of Technology Digital Library (Brno University of Technology) · Global

This article discusses how productive gardens, historically integral to cities, have been disappearing from urban structures in recent years. As urban agglomerations and their resource uses become dominant, cities increasingly depend on external food supplies. The article highlights the importance of gardens for humans and the role of productive urban space in creating a viable urban environment. It states that as the world urbanizes, urban agriculture plays an important role in contributing to the sustainability of cities in spatial, socio-economic, and environmental ways.

Andrew Butt · Economic Papers A journal of applied economics and policy · Australia

This article reviews changes in farm output and structure in peri-urban regions around Australia's cities. It concludes that farming in these regions is changing differently from other agricultural regions, with productivity centered on a few high-value activities. The majority of peri-urban farming, while potentially providing landscape services, is unable to adjust to changing productivity regimes, creating vulnerabilities for these farming systems.

Shoaib Ur Rehman, Martina Předotová, Iqar Ahmad Khan, Eva Schlecht, Buerkert, Andreas · GoeScholar The Publication Server of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) · Pakistan

A baseline survey conducted in Faisalabad, Pakistan, from 2009–2010 studied 140 households to characterize urban and peri-urban agricultural (UPA) systems. Findings showed 96% of households relied on agriculture, with 70% of heads having primary education. Farmers cultivated 35 species, predominantly vegetables (65%), and faced major problems including scarcity of high-quality irrigation water and inadequate mineral fertilizers. Half of the respondents earned less than US$1.25 daily.

Benjamin Kerrick · The Knowledge Bank (The Ohio State University) · Global

This research aimed to understand how vacant land resources vary by ownership and urbanization, studying over one hundred sites in seven central Ohio counties around Columbus. GIS-based classification identified publicly and privately owned vacant land suitable for vegetable production. No appreciable differences were found between publicly and privately owned land in terms of parcel size, perimeter-area ratio, or quality; however, privately owned land was more prevalent and, when present, tended to occur in greater quantities.

Lindsey Sarann Hallock · · Global

This paper examines the rise of vertical farms, arguing that they advance the corporate food regime and promote urban elite consumption. It differentiates vertical farms as local food projects that reproduce the capitalist industrial system rather than challenging it, facilitated by devalued built environments and labor surplus in neoliberal cities. The study concludes that these farms reproduce troubling trends in the corporate food regime, signifying capital's ability to standardize food cultivation and incorporate it into factory-like production systems.

Md Rajibul Al Mamun · Urban Geography · Global

In the book "Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution," renowned food journalist Jennifer Cockrall-King explores urban farming conducted amid different customs.

Fernando Richter · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Global

Urban agriculture is currently expanding on rooftops, balconies, and abandoned plots. Historically, its main function was food production, but now its practice as a recreational activity and leisure experience is emphasized. This phenomenon converges with symbolic dynamics related to new-ruralism, consumption, and a nostalgic search for authenticity, with leisure studies offering a useful perspective for understanding its complexity.

Alec Thornton · · South Pacific

This abstract links urban agriculture and local food production to food security and development in the South Pacific.

Claire Corbould · · Global

This abstract discusses the role of urban agriculture, which produces 15 to 20 percent of the world's food supply, in global food security. Urban populations are vulnerable to food insecurity as they rely on external food sources. Some commentators suggest that urban agriculture may provide a solution to food security issues in cities.

Juliano Avelar Moura, William Rodrigues Ferreira, Luciene de Barros, Lorandi Silveira Lara · Mercator · Global

This study discusses the viability of introducing urban and peri-urban agriculture models in municipal planning, driven by the need to improve the current chaotic management model of urban space. It focuses on the dynamics of relations between the environment, transport, and socioeconomics, presenting urban agriculture as a strategic program for harmonizing urban spaces.

Robert Paarlberg · · Global

Organic foods, initially championed in the early 20th century, gained commercial significance in the 1990s as consumers sought to avoid chemical residues and improve nutrition. However, scientific support for nutritional benefits and significant reductions in pesticide residue risks is weak. While organic crops reduce chemical runoff, they require more land due to lower yields, leading to the promotion of "local" foods and urban agriculture.

Benjamin Carl Kerrick · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · Global

Urban growth in the 20th and 21st centuries has increased urban food demand while diminishing agricultural production areas around cities. Urban agriculture can expand food access, engage urban dwellers in food production, and utilize unused urban lots. Idle or vacant land, both public and private, represents an important resource for this purpose.

Fernando Richter · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Global

This article examines the current boom in urban agriculture, noting a shift from its historical function of food production to a focus on recreational and leisure activities. It suggests that symbolic dynamics associated with new-ruralism, consumption, and a nostalgic search for authenticity converge in this phenomenon. The study proposes that Leisure Studies offer a valuable perspective for understanding the complexity of urban agriculture as a leisure experience.

Max Pearlstein · · Cameroon

Rachel Gilbert, Grace Lange, and Sarah Wright, alumni of Dickinson, founded Cameroonian Roots. This program disseminates microfinance opportunities and education in urban agriculture and women's empowerment.

Marc van lersel · · Global

Agriculture faces the 21st-century challenge of feeding a growing, urbanizing population while minimizing negative environmental impact. Urban farming has been presented as a potential solution to perceived problems with conventional agricultural production, but its effectiveness as a comprehensive solution is questioned.

Sumita Ghosh · · Global

This paper aims to measure and compare the morphologies and spatial dimensions of three typologies of small local food production spaces—urban small farms, community gardens, and home gardens—in two low-density suburban residential neighborhood case studies in Sydney and Miami. Miami's integrated form-based zoning code, "The Transect," provides design and planning guidelines for six zones from urban to natural areas. Results indicate that morphological analysis can significantly assist in the design and planning of built environments and the formulation of planning policy.

Simon Underhill, Underhill, Simon · Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development · Cambodia

This paper reported on trends in urban agriculture (rice, vegetables, cattle, swine, and poultry) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, since 1993. Approximately 20% (125 square kilometers) of the municipal area of Phnom Penh is used for agriculture, supporting nearly 300,000 livestock. Between 1993 and 2011, livestock populations declined but increased in 2011, while vegetable production and cultivated area decreased, and rice production increased.

City Farmer News · City Farmer News · Cuba

This City Farmer News article introduces the 2013 documentary 'TIERRALISMO' (directed by Alejandro Ramirez Anderson) about a 26-acre agricultural cooperative in the Alamar district outside Havana. It notes over half the laborers are elderly, including an 82-year-old worker described as outperforming anyone in their twenties at weeding. It describes the government permitting cooperative formation after the early-1990s Soviet collapse cut access to chemical fertilizers and farm machinery, methods using compost and manure fertilization and self-bred pest-control insects, and workers who transitioned from careers as doctors, fishermen, and oil-industry workers.

Osama M. E. Seidahmed, M.A. Abdelmajed, Mashair Sir El Khatim Mustafa, Abraham Mnzava · Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal · Sudan (Khartoum)

A baseline survey in Khartoum city, Sudan, from September to November 2007, assessed the insecticide susceptibility of 9820 Anopheles arabiensis specimens across 6 urban and periurban sites. The mosquito was susceptible to bendiocarb, propoxur, fenitrothion, deltamethrin, and lambda-cyhalothrin. However, susceptibility rates for malathion, DDT, and permethrin differed significantly between urban and periurban sites, and 50% knockdown times were significantly higher in periurban populations for deltamethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, and malathion.

Yun Xiao-lan · Anhui nongye kexue · Global

This paper introduced the concept and application status of value chain management, and the implications of using an industrial value chain to increase effective urban agricultural investment. Based on value chain management principles, the study explored the mechanism for increasing effective urban agricultural investment through the value chain of urban agriculture and other industries.

Chen Yu, Wong Nyuk Hien · Advances in Building Energy Research · Global

This chapter reviews worldwide research on urban greenery, discussing three main types: public green areas, rooftop gardens, and vertical landscaping. It examines these from both a systematic and thermal benefit perspective. The chapter provides general guidelines for strategic landscaping in cities to mitigate environmental issues.

Sylvestre Dasylva · Journal of environmental science & engineering · Senegal (Dakar)

This paper discusses rainwater management in the "niayes" zone of Dakar, Senegal. This area is characterized by agricultural depressions with typically high groundwater levels, but a recent drop has turned some into runoff-gathering sites, used for urban agriculture among other services. However, two acute problems are observed: hydrological drying due to insufficient rainwater refill and urbanization of these bottom-lands. Furthermore, decreasing pluviometry exacerbates nuisances like floods and malaria.

Indrė Gražulevičiūtė–Vileniškė, Jurga Vitkuvienė · American Journal of Tourism Management · Lithuania

This research addresses the threat of rapid urban expansion to valuable rural heritage, specifically Lithuanian manor residencies, which are historically agricultural but increasingly affected by urban growth. The study aimed to develop interdisciplinary guidelines for managing these manor residential ensembles within urbanized areas. Methods included literature analysis and photographic surveys of manor residencies in Kaunas, Lithuania, also considering their connection to tourism.

· · Global

This paper discusses the unsustainable uni-directional flow of food and nutrients from rural areas to cities, which are then discharged as waste, causing pollution and nutrient depletion. Citing historical examples from Rome and London, and contemporary observations of sewage plumes in coastal cities worldwide, it highlights how valuable nutrients are lost to the sea. The paper argues that creating sustainable cities requires re-evaluating nutrient flows between urban and rural areas and understanding urban metabolism.

Wang Shu-jin · Nongye jingji yu guanli · Global

This paper discusses consumer-shared farms as a key component of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and a beneficial model for balancing urban and rural development in developed countries. It suggests that combining consumer-shared farms with rural citizen communities can genuinely improve farmers' incomes and address issues in harmonious urban-rural development. The paper explores the concept of rural citizen communities, related research topics, and policy suggestions.