Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
11393 results(253 / 456)
Food security under unreliable rainfall: the case study of a rural community in Limpopo Province, South Africa
2019Sejabaledi Agnes Rankoana · Journal of Water and Climate Change · South Africa
A study in the Sagole community of Limpopo Province, South Africa, assessed the use of geothermal hot spring water as an adaptation practice to improve subsistence crop production. Focus group discussions with 45 subsistence farmers who grow and maintain crops in a community garden irrigated by the hot spring found that farmers were aware rainfall in the Sagole community is becoming scarce, and that this rainfall scarcity is negatively impacting subsistence crop production, characterized by poor productivity. In response, farmers had developed their own irrigation system downstream of the geothermal hot spring, furrowing the water to the garden to irrigate vegetables and fruits year-round.
Food sovereignty & justiceClimate changePeri-urban agricultureKatheka Revisited: Urban Agriculture, Participation and the Challenge of Intensified Resource Utilization
2019Richard B. Ford · · Africa
Field research in three rural Kenyan communities—Katheka, Mbusyani and Gilgil, each within a 90-minute drive of Nairobi—revisited earlier analyses and action plans meant to strengthen community institutions' capacity for natural resource management and production. The methodology combined questionnaires with group discussions and interactive data analysis drawing on Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques. The findings suggest that explicit attention to commercial crops suited to rainfed, dryland conditions would be more appropriate than Katheka's existing agricultural practices. The chapter concludes that a major new effort working with small, commercial, income-generating farmers in the drylands is needed to assist poor, small farmers such as those in Katheka, who are quickly running out of options.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceUrban agriculture and the social role of urbanism: Planning and ethics for communities and territories
2019Teresa Marat-Mendes, João Cunha Borges · Repositório do ISCTE-IUL · Europe
This 2019 presentation introduces the ongoing SPLACH (Spatial Planning for Change) research project focused on the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), Portugal, home to about 3 million people, most of whom live in peripheral residential areas developed over the 20th century. These areas face problems including social isolation and car dependency, while municipal and private initiatives, including the promotion of urban agriculture, have sought to counteract such issues. SPLACH has surveyed a number of case studies to theorize the planning and housing dynamics in the LMA and their impact on territorializing ethical principles grounded in urban agriculture initiatives. The presentation raises the question of what specific issues identified in the SPLACH case studies offer opportunities to rethink urban planning and urban form toward a more sustainable environment and to promote the social role of urban planning.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceProblem and Prospects of Urban Agriculture in Some Wards of Chandernagore Municipal Corporation
2019Tanushree Chakrabarti · Economic Affairs · India
A 2019 study examined the development and problems of urban agriculture in wards 28, 29 and 30 of the Chandernagore Municipal Corporation (CMC), Hooghly district, West Bengal, India. These three wards were rural before 1995, when they were added to the CMC as part of the town's expansion. A significant portion of the population remains dependent on agriculture, with fruit and vegetable crops in particular helping ensure food security for urban consumers.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsFood educationFighting Food Insecurity for NYC Children and Youth: Urban Agriculture and Food Justice
2019Devin C O'Mara · Fordham Research Commons (Fordham University) · United States (New York City)
This 2019 paper examines the potential of urban agriculture to increase food security and education for underprivileged children in New York City, United States. Chapter 1 addresses the issue of food insecurity among children, considering information on the number of children lacking access to healthy, fresh food. Chapter 2 traces the history of urban agriculture in New York City, from one person's rooftop to a broader sustainability movement. Chapter 3 examines the potential outcomes of integrating urban agriculture into social justice efforts for underprivileged children, covering food security, education, and physical and mental health. Chapter 4 analyzes how incorporating urban agriculture into future sustainable infrastructure could benefit everyone, not only children. Drawing on the preceding chapters, Chapter 5 offers recommendations for creating greater access to urban agriculture for children.
CommunityFood educationWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceFood procurement in English-language Canadian public schools: Opportunities and challenges
2019Shawna Holmes · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada
Interviews with school food environment staff across Canada examined how provincial nutrition regulation changes affected food procurement. While the regulations opened opportunities to improve nutrient content and involve local producers or school gardens, some schools struggled to procure nutritionally compliant food because of higher costs of transporting produce to rural, remote or northern communities and logistical problems such as spoilage. Regulations improved food environments in some schools, but others still require more support.
Economic viabilityCommunityFood educationPolicyUrban farming : Knowledge Management and Impact – Lessons from twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad
2019Amanda C. J. Vincent, Saravanan Raj, B Suchiradipta · · India
A study in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, India, examining information sources used by urban farming practitioners and the impact of urban farming on the cityscape. Online content and virtual knowledge were found to be the most important sources of agricultural knowledge, with practitioners using ICT services such as Facebook groups, online agri stores, and WhatsApp groups; neighbors with similar interests were also a major source of crop production knowledge. The study further found that urban farming was capable of recycling waste, restoring the urban ecosystem, and stabilizing the health of both residents and the cityscape.
CommunityDigital agriculturePolicyL’agriculture dans la ville Africaine. Un avenir incertain ? Exemple de la vallée de l’Ékozoa à Yaoundé (Cameroun)
2019Jean-Louis Yengué · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Cameroon
Focusing on the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé and one of its valleys, the Ekozoa, this study examines the forms taken by urban residents' cultivation of food and horticultural crops and its place within the urban fabric. Despite its illegality, this agriculture proved essential to the survival strategies of the poorest households, improving their nutrition and economic base, and it also played an environmental role through waste recycling and greening the city. At the same time it raised numerous problems related to pollution and public health. The solution proposed by the authorities is to bring these areas under control as non-buildable zones, incorporating them into a green network that is more ornamental than productive.
CommunityHealthEconomicsFood sovereignty & justicePeri-urban agricultureHealth Risks Assessment in Three Urban Farms of Paris Region for Different Scenarios of Urban Agricultural Users: A Case of Soil Trace Metals Contamination
2019Anne Barbillon, Christine Aubry, François Nold, Stéphane Besançon, Nastaran Manouchehri · Agricultural Sciences · France
This study assessed health risks from soil trace metals (lead, cadmium, mercury, copper, and zinc) at three urban farms near Paris (Ile-de-France region), evaluating two main exposure pathways: soil and vegetable ingestion. All three farms had soil trace-metal levels above geochemical background values and the thresholds used in France as reference values for sludge spreading. Using a Hazard Quotient (HQ)-based risk assessment (HQ being the ratio of estimated daily intake to tolerable daily intake), the riskiest scenarios were urban farmers working on-site daily year-round (HQtot = 1.02), child gardeners (HQtot = 1.29), and regular child consumers eating exclusively the farm's vegetables under a maximalist scenario (HQtot = 1.6). The adult gardener scenario followed (HQtot = 0.9), while the lowest-risk scenarios were adult consumers (HQtot = 0.62) and farm workers (HQtot = 0.45).
Contamination & food safetyHealthCommunityPeri-urban agricultureA agricultura urbana em Camagüey e Cienfuegos - Cuba
2019Rosângela Aparecida de Medeiros Hespanhol, Antônio Nivaldo Hespanhol · Revista Campo-Território · Cuba
In Cuba, political and economic factors have made urban cultivation an important alternative for easing food supply and food security problems. Examining cases of organopónicos (organic urban farms) in the cities of Camagüey and Cienfuegos, the article shows that urban agriculture, structured on agroecological principles, is an important food-producing and job-generating activity that is closely integrated with the city's economy, ecology, and physical planning.
CommunityOrganic cycleFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsThe role of urbanization in soil and groundwater contamination by heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria: A case study from Oman
2019Baby Shaharoona, Said Al‐Ismaily, Ahmed Al‐Mayahi, Nadhira Al-Harrasi, Ruqaiya Al-Kindi, Abdullah Al-Sulaimi, Hamad Al-Busaidi, Mohammed Al‐Abri · Heliyon · Global
A study in A'Seeb city, Oman, combined a sociological questionnaire survey of residents' perceptions with sampling of pathogenic bacteria, water-soluble metals, basic cations, salinity and texture in soil and groundwater near urban gardens and municipal waste disposal sites. Most surveyed residents were not paying attention to the negative consequences of their activities on soil and the environment. Heavy metal concentrations were significant at some contaminated sites though still below international standards, while fecal contaminants were reported in some garden, waste-site and groundwater samples, identifying human pathogens in risk group 2 including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella spp. and E. coli.
Contamination & food safetyHealthPolicyAgricultura urbana: influência dos costumes e das práticas agrícolas de migrantes nas áreas urbanas de Montes Claros – MG
2019Giliarde Souza Brito, Hélder dos Anjos Augusto, Eduardo Magalhães Ribeiro · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Brazil
A qualitative study set out to identify agricultural practices in the urban area of Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and to analyze the flows of agricultural products, biodiversity and agricultural knowledge circulating in networks linking migrants' municipalities of origin to their destination. The results show a continuous dialogue with places of origin coupled with food cultivation in urban spaces.
CommunityUrban–rural linkageAgricultura familiar urbana: Limites da política pública e das representações sociais
2019Annelise Caetano Fraga Fernandez, Almir Cezar Baptista Filho · Cidades, comunidades e território/Cidades comunidades e territórios · Brazil
This article describes the obstacles to applying Brazil's family-farming public policy in urban settings. It shows that a set of representations associated with rural agriculture has shaped the classification criteria used by rural technical-assistance (ATER) staff, and that this in practice limits how the policy can be applied in urban areas. It states that the mobilization of social movements linked to urban agriculture, specifically in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, led to the construction of an initiative, but the available abstract breaks off at that point.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityDirect marketing channel choices among US farmers: evidence from the Local Food Marketing Practices Survey
2019Zoë Plakias, Iryna Demko, Ani L. Katchova · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States
Using the 2015 Local Food Marketing Practices Survey, collected by the USDA in 2016, and binomial and multinomial logit regressions, this study examined which farm and farmer characteristics predict participation in direct marketing channels and the choice of particular channel combinations among US farmers. It found evidence of product-specific barriers to participation in certain channels: livestock producers were less likely than other farmers to sell directly to retailers, while vegetable farmers were less likely to sell to intermediaries. Beginning farmers were more likely than established farmers to sell directly to retailers but less likely to sell to intermediaries.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomics幼児児童生徒における生活習慣の現状 : 附属学校園からみた検討
2019富子 中下, 大子 佐藤, 真紀 小澤, 徹子 藤田, 結加里 石山, 美智子 長濱, 洋子 大山 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan
A self-administered questionnaire covering 27 items of daily lifestyle habits — sleep, diet, exercise, media-related habits, and family/community involvement — was given to a total of 885 children and students across the kindergarten, elementary, junior high, and special-support schools attached to a Japanese university, with results tabulated by school type and compared by grade for elementary and junior high students. More favorable habits around breakfast intake and leftover food were found at higher grade levels overall, but third-grade elementary students showed less favorable eating, sleeping, and exercise habits. Among media-related habits, internet and mobile-email use time was highest in junior high school. Habits related to family and community involvement were highest in kindergarten and declined through elementary and junior high grades, but rose with grade level in the special-support schools. The findings suggest that health education for lifestyle formation should be designed with developmental stage in mind, and that its relationship to mental health and self-esteem warrants further study.
Food educationHealthFrom the city of gaps to the city of wellness: The case study of DOT TO DOT© community garden in Maryhill, Glasgow
2019Laura Petruskeviciute · · United Kingdom
This case study examines DOT TO DOT©, a social innovation project run in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland, from 2017 to 2018 and funded by the EU's European Social Fund Aspiring Communities programme. A cross-disciplinary initiative involving intergenerational groups from the local creative community — social entrepreneurs, researchers, educators, and youth — it temporarily reused ecologically vacant sites, aiming to improve the lives of disadvantaged communities through regenerative design and live projects built with reclaimed waste materials. The experimental site was planned across three areas: (a) a Community Garden growing edible plants (phase 1), (b) a Remake Station (phase 2), and (c) a sensory woodland, combining somatic learning tools, research-by-doing, experimentation through reuse, and collaborative design modeling that integrated spatial, visual, quantitative, and qualitative data. The project states its aim as generating knowledge exchange and live demonstrations relevant to local community development, in support of integrated decision-making and bottom-up governance for healthy outdoor environments.
CommunityBiodiversityCommunity Supported Agriculture Farmers’ Perceptions of Management Benefits and Drawbacks
2019Antonella Samoggia, Chiara Perazzolo, Piroska Kocsis, Margherita Del Prete · Sustainability · United States
Drawing on data from 35 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers based in the United States and Hungary, this study used one-way ANOVA, chi-square tests, principal component analysis, and multiple multivariate linear regressions to examine how farmers perceive the benefits and drawbacks of managing a CSA farm, and whether that perception differs across the two countries. US and Hungarian farmers held broadly similar positive perceptions of CSA management, particularly regarding food quality, nutritional value, environmental benefits, and community benefits, while the main differences between the two groups centered on economic, financial, and management perceptions. The study concludes that CSA success depends on the ability to involve members, that farmers' management skills need to develop to sustain communication and community-engagement practices, and that the central concern for CSA is ensuring farmers and labor receive fair income and a living wage, requiring a better balance between monetary and non-monetary benefits.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsHorta comunitária – Projeto Rondon com parceria da Universidade Metodis
2019Cláudia Bomfá Caldas, Carina Almeida Souza, Grace Kelly Silva Jesus, Indira Taina Mata Silva, Karolina Vitoria Santos, Stefany Lima, Viviane de Oliveira Batista Souza · · Brazil
A study using bibliographic and documentary research examined the community garden program "New Paths and Knowledge," run through a partnership between the municipality of Diadema, Brazil, and Universidade Metodista as part of the Rondon Project (Projeto Rondon), assessing it against the principles of corporate governance, sustainability and social responsibility. The aim was to determine whether the school- and university-based garden program met these principles and how it built partnerships between government and educational institutions.
CommunityPolicyFeeding a city – Leicester as a case study of the importance of allotments for horticultural production in the UK
2019Jill L. Edmondson, Dylan Z. Childs, Miriam C. Dobson, Kevin J. Gaston, Philip H. Warren, Jonathan R. Leake · The Science of The Total Environment · United Kingdom
Combining citizen science data on self-provisioning crop yields with field-mapping and GIS analysis of allotments, this study estimated city-scale fruit and vegetable production from urban allotments in Leicester, UK. The average area of individual allotment plots under cultivation was 52%, and citywide allotment production was estimated at more than 1,200 t of fruit and vegetables plus 200 t of potatoes per year, equivalent to feeding over 8,500 people; using the 13% of plots that are completely uncultivated could raise this to over 1,400 t, feeding around 10,000 people, though this production may not be located where the need for fresh produce access is greatest. Allotment land peaked at 475 ha in the 1950s compared with 97 ha currently, a decline estimated to correspond to a fall from more than 45,000 to under 10,000 people fed per year.
CommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceThe food-water quality nexus in periurban aquacultures downstream of Bangkok, Thailand
2019Wojciech Mrozik, Soydoa Vinitnantharat, Thunchanok Thongsamer, Nipapun Pansuk, Pavinee Pattanachan, Parinda Thayanukul, Kishor Acharya, Marcos Quintela‐Baluja, Charles R. E. Hazlerigg, Aidan Robson, Russell J. Davenport, David Werner · The Science of The Total Environment · Asia
A study of three family-owned peri-urban aquaculture operations downstream of Bangkok, Thailand — spanning extensive, semi-intensive and intensive practices — used micropollutant analysis, genetic markers and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to assess water quality against aquaculture standards. Canals draining Bangkok did not meet quality standards and were sources of faecal coliforms, Bacteroides, Prevotella, human E. coli, tetracycline-resistance genes and nitrogen entering the ponds, causing algae blooms. The aquacultures in turn discharged salinity and the herbicide diuron into the canals; diuron was detected in shrimp, though not at a level of concern to human health. The extensive aquaculture attenuated an estimated 20 population equivalents of nitrogen pollution and trillions of faecal coliform inputs per year.
Contamination & food safetyPeri-urban agricultureHealthMENGUKUR TINGKAT MOTIVASI MASYARAKAT TERHADAP PEMANFAATAN PEKARANGAN UNTUK PERTANIAN PERKOTAAN DI KOTA YOGYAKARTA
2019Defira Suci Gusfarina, Irham Irham · Jurnal Kawistara · Indonesia
A descriptive, qualitative study in Yogyakarta City, Indonesia, surveyed 113 households using a Likert-scale questionnaire to measure motivation for using home yards to grow vegetables and fruit. Motivation for yard-based farming ranked, from highest to lowest, health motivation, environmental motivation, social/community motivation and economic motivation.
CommunityHealthEconomicsFood educationResponse of Pakcoy (Brassica rapa L.) to the treatment of Liquid Organic Fertilizer of Fisheries Waste
2019Ahmad Rifqi Fauzi, Casdi, Warid Warid · Jurnal Hortikultura Indonesia · Indonesia
A factorial randomized block trial at Universitas Trilogi's Kebun Bergizi garden and agroecotechnology laboratory in Indonesia (September-October 2018) tested five urea doses (0, 25, 50, 75, 100% of the recommended 250 kg/ha) against five concentrations of liquid organic fertilizer made from fisheries waste (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 ml/L), with 25 treatment combinations, six plants per experimental unit and four replications, totaling 600 sampled plants, on pakcoy. The combination of 50% urea dose with 2 ml/L fisheries-waste liquid fertilizer produced better growth results than the other control treatments, yielding 19.11 consumable leaves and 220.77 g fresh weight, both higher than the treatment using the full 100% urea dose.
Organic cyclePEMBANGUNAN TAMAN LINGKUNGAN PERMUKIMAN VILLA BOGOR INDAH, KOTA BOGOR
2019Rahmat Rejoni, Andrianto Kusumoarto, Agus Gunawan, Devi Libriati · Lakar Jurnal Arsitektur · Indonesia
A neighborhood park in the Villa Bogor Indah housing complex in Bogor City, Indonesia, was designed and built through resident participation, using descriptive qualitative methods and a community-based design approach. The park covers 1,680.749 square meters. Residents wanted the space to function as urban farming (55%), a plant collection/arboretum (40%), and passive recreation (5%).
CommunityDIYUrgenci: International Network of Community Supported Agriculture (urgenci.net)
2019Suzanne Stapleton · Journal of Agricultural & Food Information · Global
An article introduces the "4/5 paradox" in global food production: 80% of food is produced by family farmers, while at the same time 80% of the world's hungry and malnourished people are family farmers and their children. It concerns Urgenci, the international network of Community Supported Agriculture, though the available abstract is truncated and gives no further detail.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceThe Analysis of the Perception on Planting Climbing Plants in Urban Community Gardens
2019Sang Mi Lee, Young Chae, Young-Bin Jung, In-Kyoung Hong · Journal of people, plants, and environment · Global
A survey examined proper planting and use of climbing plants in urban community gardens. A majority of respondents accepted planting climbing plants in their community garden plots, and those with gardening experience were more favorable. There was a strong tendency to use climbing plants for aesthetic/ornamental purposes and for creating fences, and many respondents said the plants should be planted outside or on the edge of the garden so they would not cross into other plots. Respondents who favored planting on the edge or outside wanted aesthetic/ornamental use, while those wanting the plants for shade also favored planting them on the edge or outside.
CommunityDIY