Research & reports

Ian Knowd, David Mason, Andrew Docking · · Global

The integration of agriculture into urban landscapes has a long history, intensifying since the industrial revolution, with early "garden cities" remaining utopian ideals. In contemporary urban development, renewed interest in agriculture relates to implementing sustainability and addressing globalization's structural changes to communities, food systems, and urban quality of life. Urban agriculture is a strategic resource requiring a strategic planning approach that recognizes its economic, social, and environmental values.

Ranasinghe · The International Journal of Biodiversity Science and Management · Sri Lanka

This paper expands knowledge on urban agriculture through literature analysis and feedback from implementing the Family Business Garden concept in Sri Lanka. It argues that traditional home gardening distracts urban planners from the economic and social value of small-to-medium agro-entrepreneurship. The paper emphasizes the necessity of formal acceptance for micro-farming activities by mainstreaming urban agriculture in the development sphere.

Maija Heimo · Social & Cultural Geography · Colombia (Bogotá)

This is a notice of a doctoral dissertation completed at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, titled "A Political Ecology of Conservation: Peri-urban Agriculture and Urban Water Needs in Mexico City." The dissertation examines the cultural politics of peri-urban agriculture and urban water needs in Mexico City.

Herbert Girardet · · Global

This book explores the concept of liveable cities for a sustainable world. Its chapters cover a range of topics including urban ecological aspects, the role of technology, globalization, transport, efficient water use, relearning urban agriculture, and building EcoPolis.

Rocío García Bustamante, John Butterworth, M. Flierman, Daniel Herbas, Melvin Hollander, S. van der Meer, P. Ravenstijn, Magaly Reynaga, Gustavo Zurita · · Bolivia (Tarata)

In 2002, Tarata, Cochabamba, Bolivia, experienced violent conflicts over the right to use water from the Laka Laka dam for urban agriculture. The dam was intended for large-scale irrigation and domestic use, but not urban productive uses, leading to disputes when the urban population sought water for homestead cultivation. Although 5% of the reservoir yield was allocated for urban supply, its poor quality prevented drinking use, prompting the community to organize for its use in irrigating small plots, despite opposition from irrigation farmers.

Beatriz Vera O., Juri Zencovich O. · Agro Sur · Chile (Valdivia)

This study aimed to characterize urban agricultural small enterprises in Valdivia city, Chile, and define the jobs they create. Using a Snowball poll, 22 small enterprises engaged in urban agriculture were identified and analyzed for their economic, productive, and commercial aspects.

Jin Guo-feng · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · Global

This paper discusses urban agriculture, defining its concept and analyzing its types, features, and functions. It posits that with rapid urban development, the integration of city and countryside, along with urban agriculture, represents a trend in modern agriculture.

Brian Halweil · · Global

This book points out that the long-distance food system consumes staggering amounts of fuel, generates greenhouse gases, and compromises food security. Since 1961, the tonnage of food shipped between nations has grown fourfold, with food in the United States typically traveling 1,500 to 2,500 miles from farm to plate. While this system often runs roughshod over local cuisines, varieties, and agriculture, a local-foods movement is beginning to emerge globally.

Amy Damin, James Palmer · · Denmark (Copenhagen)

This paper investigates the history and social life of allotment gardens with small cottages in Denmark, which offer a partial rural lifestyle in urban areas. These gardens allow urbanites to coexist with nature for several months annually through temporary living and plant cultivation. The study specifically examines the Sano garden near Copenhagen.

Diao Yong-zuo · Zhongguo Qingnian Zhengzhi Xueyuan xuebao · Global

Urban agriculture is a significant phenomenon of social and economic development and an important constituent of the urban industrial structure. It has overtaken and promoted traditional agriculture, with its function and influence extending beyond traditional agriculture, becoming a significant aspect of the modern urban economy. Actively cultivating urban agriculture is a key task for developing the modern urban economy and achieving agricultural modernization.

Darcy Varney · Children Youth and Environments · Paraguay

In the summer of 2000, Plan International introduced vegetable gardening to 48 rural primary schools in Paraguay's southern provinces. This program aimed to improve children's health through nutrition and equip them with skills to share with their parents. Plan provided seeds, tools, fencing materials, and technical support to help children and community members build gardens.

André Fleury, Paule Moustier, Jean-Jacques Toiron · Agritrop (Cirad) · Global

This project aims to analyze the specificities and contributions of peri-urban agriculture to the transformation of peri-urban spaces into urban territories. It seeks to unify analytical concepts for agriculture in urban areas and produce intervention tools for urban planning and agricultural policy. The project hypothesizes that the sustainability of peri-urban agriculture depends on its ability to integrate into urban policy and projects, leveraging diverse urban demands.

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.

Derek Wall · · Global

The Green movement has historically been defined by ruralism, concerned not just with environmental quality but with promoting a way of life close to the land, with calls for radical land reform by figures like John Ball and Fergus O’Connor. Modern remnants of this "back to the land" campaign include allotments and city farms, often situated in depressed urban areas.

Alberto Gurovich Weisman · Cuadernos del Cendes · Chile

This paper examines the creation and persistence of a state territorial intervention model called Worker and Family Orchards, tested from 1929 and legitimized in 1941 through the Caja de la Habitación Popular. The Caja acquired the La Pintana estate in 1942 and built housing on 500 half-hectare plots, opening the first stage in 1946 and further stages in 1950 and 1957. During the critical settlement period of 1979-1985, the number of resident families rose by 327.73%, equivalent to 12.94 times the average for Greater Santiago.

Maurizio Tiepolo · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Niger

This paper investigates whether urbanization in Niamey, Niger, generates or aggravates urban food insecurity by examining agro-pastoral production, food demand, and buying power. It found that Niamey's high rate of urban growth has increased food insecurity for its inhabitants. This insecurity is attributed to low productivity of peri-urban agriculture, insufficient food influxes, rising prices, extreme poverty, and a nutrient-poor diet, with current measures failing to address root causes like land tenure uncertainty.

LI Ya-hong · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · Global

This paper describes urban agriculture as a modern agricultural industry shaped by metropolitan regions and socio-economic circumstances. Its main characteristics include a perfect market system, aggregated production patterns, industrialized management, high-tech production, and the harmonization of three agricultural benefits. Beyond commodity production, urban agriculture should also offer direct and indirect multifunctions such as ecological construction, leisure tourism, cultural education, export, and demonstration.

Adriana Maria de Aquino · · Cuba

This study analyzes the geographical scope and organizational structure of urban agriculture in Cuba. It identifies organic matter as one of the key bases for urban agriculture and describes modalities for producing fresh vegetables and condiments.

Rodomiro Ortíz, Celia Vera · Cultivos Tropicales · Cuba (Ciudad de La Habana)

This study investigated the agricultural biodiversity in urban gardens across eight localities in the municipalities of Boyeros and Arroyo Naranjo.

Gan Jin-tian · · Global

Urban agriculture originates from and develops within suburban agriculture. This study argues that important inner links and transition points exist between urban and suburban agriculture, such as growth regions, functions, and industrial layouts.

Karen Flynn · Africa · Tanzania

This article compares urban farmers in Mwanza, Tanzania, with those in Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Ghana. In Mwanza, urban agriculturalists are increasingly not among the poorest, often being middle and upper-class males with access to scarce land and inputs, similar to Ghana. They differ from farmers in Kenya and Zambia in terms of gender, socio-economic class, and motivations. Many of Mwanza's wealthier males continue to face enough job/income insecurity to choose to plant crops to support themselves and their household in lean times.

Moez Bouraoui, Pierre Donadieu, André Fleury · Cahiers Agricultures · Tunisia (Tunis)

In Tunis, the concept of public green spaces has not evolved much, and the risk of continuous urbanization is real, making agriculture not inherently sustainable between dynamic urbanization poles. However, new attitudes are emerging, with environmental concerns influencing public planning policies, and residential forms, recreational/cultural practices associated with agriculture, and new citizen interest in rural areas are appearing. These developments may signal the beginning of a new planning policy and the advent of urban agriculture in Tunis.

Tjeerd Deelstra, Herbert Girardet, N. Bakker, Marielle Dubbeling, S. Gündel, U. Sabel-Koschella, H. de Zeeuw · · Global

This text describes humanity's transformation into an urban species by the end of the 20th century, with large cities becoming the primary habitat. It notes that global urban populations expanded from 15% to 50% of the total population within one century, while the total population grew from 1.5 billion to nearly 6 billion. The text highlights the unprecedented size of modern cities, citing that by 1990, the 100 largest cities housed 540 million people.

Simon Clarke, Elena Varshavskaya, Сергей Алашеев, Marina Karelina · Work Employment and Society · Russia

This paper examines the "myth of the urban peasant" in Russia, which suggests urban households survive economic collapse through subsistence agriculture. Based on official and survey data analysis, it shows that while many urban households grow food, those with low incomes are least likely to do so, and subsistence production complements rather than replaces paid employment. Furthermore, those who grow their own food work long hours for little return, spending no less on purchased food than those who grow nothing.

유병규 · · Global

This paper argues that peri-urban agriculture faces difficulties in maintaining its agricultural production function alone due to external factors such as rising land prices, urban development, the IMF crisis, and WTO agricultural renegotiations. It proposes that to revitalize peri-urban agriculture, a multi-industrialization strategy is needed, emphasizing not only agricultural production but also the spatial concept of "rural areas" by incorporating secondary and tertiary industry concepts. Specifically, the paper suggests that multi-industrialization strategies within the spatial concept of urban-integrated rural areas, such as the creation of "urban agricultural villages," are essential for the maintenance and development of agriculture.