Research & reports

杨卓翔 YANG Zhuoxiang, 高阳 GAO Yang, Zhao Zhi, 李双成 LI Shuangcheng · Acta Ecologica Sinica · China (Shenzhen)

An emergy analysis compared the emergy input structure, production efficiency, environmental load, and sustainability of three farms (Biling Modern Agricultural Technology Park, Xili Orchard, and Shanhai Farm) in Shenzhen, China. Xili Orchard showed a high reliance on renewable resources, the lowest environmental load ratio, and the highest emergy indices for sustainable development. Shanhai Farm had a low reliance on renewable resources, the highest environmental load ratio, and was assessed as having the lowest sustainable development capacity.

Rui Yang · Nanjing Linye Daxue xuebao · China (Nanjing)

This paper explores a new community endowment pattern by integrating vertical farms into urban senior day care centers, contrasting with traditional nursing homes. Focusing on the South Lake Community in Nanjing, China, it examines the specific construction of vertical farm landscapes to address the physical and mental health needs of the elderly in an aging society.

Chunsheng Hu, Jiang-Hai Zeng, Shao-Ren WANG · Zhongguo shengtai nongye xuebao · China

This paper reviews the demonstration practices and achievements of the Luancheng Agro-Ecosystem Experimental Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences over 30 years in Luancheng County, Hebei Province. Since the early 1980s, the station has pioneered research and demonstration of new technologies such as facility agriculture, rural new energy, straw mechanized mulching, and standardized wheat cultivation. Since the early 2000s, it has focused on urban agriculture models centered on information technology.

Antonius Nindito Jati Dennyarso · · Indonesia

This study descriptively analyzed the communication strategies employed by the Gerakan Indonesia Berkebun (Indonesia Gardening Movement) to disseminate urban farming through social media sites. Using a qualitative descriptive research method, it investigated the socialization process on Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Mailing List, and YouTube. The findings identified communication strategies including the roles of administrators and moderators, participatory message strategies, and media integration strategies. Facebook and Twitter served as forums for urban farming socialization to the general public, while the Yahoo Mailing List was crucial for activists' socialization and movement formation.

Thomas D. Eatmon, Zachary Piso, Elyse Schmitt · IGI Global eBooks · United States

Against a backdrop of a growing number of organizations in the US Great Lakes region growing local food year-round despite cold-climate conditions, this chapter uses diffusion of innovation theory to explain the adoption of commercial aquaponics (combined indoor fish and produce production). It notes that research has shown significant challenges to maintaining profitable commercial aquaponics ventures in temperate climates, even as the technology's popularity in urban agriculture appears to be increasing, and argues that perceptions of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability may explain its adoption despite these financial challenges.

Ziying Zhang · Ningxia Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology · Global

A brief review that starts from the definition of urban agriculture, outlines the main models of urban agriculture found abroad, and summarizes the experience and lessons of foreign urban agricultural development. No quantitative data are presented.

Zhuang Nan · Anhui nongye kexue · Global

This study analyzed the application of information technology in urban agriculture using theoretical and case research methods. It interpreted the connotation of urban agriculture and agricultural information technology, then forecasted the prospect of information technology application in urban agriculture based on new information technology trends.

Weiming Liu · Economic Research Guide · Global

This paper discusses how urban agriculture accelerates after industrialization and urbanization reach a certain level, keeping pace with the development of industrialization, urbanization, and the economy. It states the importance of recognizing the need for good city planning with reasonable layout and design for urban agriculture, while also strengthening research and exploitation of urban agricultural technology.

Lan Bin · Computer Knowledge and Technology · China (Beijing)

This paper discusses the development of an urban higher education system for agriculture in Beijing, driven by the need for talent, technology, and intellectual support. It emphasizes that information management is crucial throughout agricultural production, from resource optimization to digitization and precision farming. The construction of urban agricultural information service technology requires professionals with strong agricultural knowledge and expertise in production, operation, and management.

NPO法人イノプレックス, 野村アグリプランニング アドバイザリー株式会社, 正一 佐々木, 巖根 米田 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This report proposes a system to support city farmers' businesses by bridging the information gap between consumers and farmers, aiming for international export. The system provides consumers with information on city farmers' locations, vegetable quality, and production processes, while enabling feedback for farmers. The proposed system is projected to yield a net present value (NPV) of 5,300,000 yen in four years, starting in Tokyo and expanding to other regions and developing countries.

Ricardo Alberto Forero Rubiano, Hollman Giovanni Parra Vargas, Ricardo Andrés Luna Cristancho, Edwin Raúl Rivera Casadiego · · Global

This review article surveys different hydroponics systems and examines how they can serve as an alternative to traditional agriculture in urban areas, in the context of population growth and changing housing construction. It notes that hydroponics offers the advantage of producing goods free of chemical insecticides and other harmful pollutants, describing it as a simple, clean and economical method regardless of plant type — ornamental, medicinal, or food.

Britta Riley · TED · United States

In this TED talk (posted November 2011), artist-technologist Britta Riley presents Windowfarms, a vertical hydroponic system for growing food in apartment windows, and the crowdsourced "R&D-I-Y" development approach behind it. Windowfarms was named one of Entrepreneur magazine's "100 Brilliant Companies to Watch" in 2010.

Xiao Qiu-hong · Agriculture Network Information · China

This paper compares and analyzes successful agricultural website construction experiences at home and abroad, discussing the role of agricultural websites in modern agriculture development. It comprehensively illustrates the current situation of agricultural website construction in Foshan and proposes measures for the sustainable development of agricultural websites in Foshan.

杨坤, 莫鉴国 · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni · China (Chengdu)

This study discusses the application and development of agricultural informatization from the perspective of agricultural development in Chengdu, China. It analyzes issues requiring attention for agricultural informatization in Chengdu's integrated urban-rural development and the construction of a "World Modern Pastoral City." The research proposes strategic priorities for Chengdu's future development to achieve leapfrog agricultural growth and promote shared urban-rural development and prosperity.

Felipe de Jesús Cruz Celis, Héctor Montiel Campos · · Global

This study aimed to propose sustainability in urban agriculture through the use of hydroponic technology for agricultural production. Through documentary research and expert interviews, diagnostic criteria and sustainability indicators were determined, making hydroponics an option for producing food in reduced spaces. The results indicate that urban agriculture, due to its spatial scope, has limited possibilities for scaling up to the formal market, but can respond to family self-consumption needs and improve nutritional and higher quality foods.

Kamasi Angwenya · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Africa

This study evaluated the impact of digital payment systems on cash flow and financial growth performance metrics among Tanzanian urban farmers, focusing on commercial farming activities, using a systematic literature review approach that synthesized existing studies on digital payments in Tanzania's urban agricultural settings. The analysis found a significant positive correlation (r = 0.78 ± 0.15) between digital payment adoption and improved financial growth performance metrics, indicating substantial improvements in cash flow management.

Xi-Guang Wang, Wei-Hua Lin, Wen Zeng · Journal of Geographic Information System · China

Focused on urban gardening (green-space) administration in China, this paper (2010) argues that agencies need a gardening information management system to provide a scientific basis for garden planning, project construction, maintenance, and social service. Based on a needs analysis of gardening-sector requirements, it discusses key technologies for building the system and proposes a flexible construction approach using a secondary-development design and runtime environment built on a data-center integration platform, stating that the system supports daily management work and plays a role in improving the urban ecological and investment environment.

XU Zengxian · Journal of Changjiang Vegetables · China (Wuhan)

The government of Wuhan, China, developed a plant protection and mechanical control team, supported by home construction projects, as urban agriculture developed. This study summarized the operational mode, safeguard measures, and achievements of Wuhan's plant protection and mechanical control service.

尤俊 · 农机科技推广 · China (Wuhan)

In recent years, the agricultural machinery department in Wuhan, Hubei Province, has thoroughly implemented the "Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Law" to serve the development of modern urban agriculture. This initiative focuses on improving the overall level of agricultural machinery, guided by subsidy policies, and utilizing promotion, technical training, and administrative enforcement to strategically adjust agricultural machinery structures and foster the growth of large-scale agricultural machinery operators and service organizations.

Yujie Jiang · Tianjin Agricultural Sciences · Global

This article researched the technical features of urban agriculture. It proposed a new technological innovation model primarily based on cooperative innovation, supplemented by independent and imitative innovation, and outlined choices for implementing this model.

Xiangyang Qin · Journal of Library and Information Sciences in Agriculture · China

Examines the science-and-technology-coordinator system first established in Beijing, China, to address a shortage of rural science and technology services. Based on an analysis of questionnaire responses, the authors describe the current situation and problems of the coordinator system and put forward suggestions for improving coordinators' quality. The abstract gives no sample size, response rate or quantified results.

Cheng Cun-ren · Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research · China

This study introduces the status of machinery equipment for facility agriculture in China and compares it with foreign equipment. It analyzes problems in Chinese facility agriculture, finding that the current machinery equipment faces challenges in achieving high efficiency, quantity, and quality compared to international standards.

Obiakọ Obinzeiji, Nkwo Nkechi, Chinedu Chukwuma, Ejiije Edemah · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Nigeria (Lagos)

This study investigated the adoption rates of smart agriculture technologies among urban farming communities in Lagos, Nigeria. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 200 urban farmers across Lagos, revealing that 78% of respondents had adopted at least one smart agriculture technology. Drip irrigation systems were the most popular, adopted by 35% of farmers. The findings indicate significant interest and initial success in adopting these technologies in Lagos.

Wang Jian-chun · Agriculture Network Information · China

Building on Tianjin's existing agricultural information infrastructure, this article describes an effort to establish a "110" information sharing and service platform for agricultural science and technology in Tianjin, China, aiming to build an information service system responsive to the city's urban agricultural development. It states the platform draws on a phone consultation system, the internet, a short-message platform, farmers' science and technology reading rooms, agricultural information collectors, and agricultural technology training, but reports no data on outcomes or evaluation of implementation.

Hussein Sharafat, Ahmed El-Sayed, Abdelaziz Ahmed Abdelhafez · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Egypt

A quantitative study surveyed farmers in urban agriculture innovation hubs (UAHs) across Cairo, Alexandria, and Port Said, Egypt. It found that vegetable production in UAHs was 25% more efficient than traditional methods, with advanced irrigation and community management enhancing yields and market access. The study suggests government policies should incentivize UAH development through subsidies and training.