Research & reports

Ada Górna · · Global

This chapter summarizes research conducted for a book comparing urban agriculture in three cities — Havana, Singapore, and Kigali. It presents a structured comparative analysis identifying similarities and differences among these Global South cities across four facets: distribution characteristics, internal structural/production and organizational/technical features, distribution methods, and functions fulfilled. It also identifies universal attributes of urban agriculture that recur independently of spatial, socioeconomic, political, and environmental conditions, along with distinctive mechanisms shaping its development, and discusses verification of the study's hypotheses, methodological challenges specific to each city, and directions for future research.

Agnès Fargue‐Lelièvre, Jason K. Hawes, Benjamin Goldstein, Lidia Poniży, Erica Dorr · Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists · Global

This 2024 essay in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists states that urban agriculture brings many benefits to its participants but is not guaranteed to be more climate-friendly than conventional agriculture. It adds that there are some specific steps urban farmers can take to cut carbon emissions.

Jill L. Edmondson · Plants People Planet · Global

This special collection introduction on urban horticulture — the growing of fruits and vegetables in cities, a food source for millions worldwide — frames the interdisciplinary scientific, engineering and socio-cultural challenges that must be resolved to integrate food growing more widely into cities and towns. It sets out the rationale for the collection and identifies remaining knowledge gaps rather than presenting new empirical results.

Mónica G. Rocha-Bravo, Polina Golovátina‐Mora · Qualitative Inquiry · Global

This article offers a diffractive reading of two practices — a curricular environmental education project in Colombian schools and walking through Colombian volcanic rainforest (selva) — to revisit theory as differential becoming, treating both the classroom and the process of academic writing as ecosystems. It frames living knowledge as co-created and emergent rather than purely practical or instrumental, and argues that decolonizing inquiry requires inner decolonization at the level of the person, the field and academia.

Oscar Wang, Rosalind Deaker, Floris van Ogtrop · Agricultural Systems · Global

A systematic review using the PRISMA protocol searched for literature on food-waste based hydroponic fertilisers (FWBHF), identifying 6,840 papers with search terms combining "food-waste," "hydroponic," "fertiliser" and "organic," narrowing to 308 papers by title and abstract relevance and ultimately including 37 papers in the final review. The review sought to identify major challenges limiting yield outcomes in food-waste based hydroponic systems, explore conventional and non-conventional improvements, and propose a standardized reporting framework for future research, framed against a backdrop of an estimated 931 million tonnes of food wasted globally in 2018.

Shan He, Primož Poredoš, Hao Qü, Xinge Yang, Mengjuan Zhou, Lulu Bai, Jiadong Shi, Wenshuai Chen, R.Z. Wang, Swee Ching Tan · Advanced Functional Materials · Global

A composite adsorbent combining manganese(II)-ethanolamine complexes with a hierarchical, interconnected polypyrrole-doped matrix was developed to reduce vapor diffusion resistance, a key factor limiting scale-up kinetics, achieving water uptake of 2.54 g per gram at 90% relative humidity with 62% of the water released within 30 minutes, enabling multiple daily capture-release cycles. A hybrid desorption mode combining photovoltaic electrical heating and solar heating achieved stable, high-yield water production, and simulation and feasibility verification showed that an atmospheric-water-irrigated rooftop farm could produce 879.9 g of water per square meter of sorbent per day and 1.28 kg of food per square meter of device within 14 days, without human intervention and independent of external water inputs.

Albin Mathew -, Sanu K Thekkath -, N Sneha · International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research · Global

This paper is a review that surveys various forms and definitions of urban farming and discusses its role in implementing circular economy strategies and strengthening urban food security. Drawing on case studies within institutions such as schools and Anganwadi centres, it argues that urban farming initiatives can promote sustainability, community engagement and equitable participation, that urban farming and neighbourhood development are interconnected in ways that support an inclusive society and sustainable urban design principles, and advocates positioning urban farming as central to urban planning.

Arturs Kempelis, Inese Poļaka, Andrejs Romānovs, Antons Patļins · Future Internet · Global

A study on microclimate monitoring for urban agriculture (region unspecified) evaluated convolutional neural networks (CNNs) forecasting relative air humidity, soil moisture, and light intensity sensor readings from thermal images. Forecasts for relative humidity and soil moisture achieved higher accuracy, with Mean Absolute Percentage Errors of 10-12%, attributed to their strong dependency on thermal patterns captured by the CNNs, while light intensity forecasting was less accurate due to more complex and variable urban factors. The authors acknowledge that implementing these technologies in urban agricultural models still poses challenges.

Khadezatul Kubra, Md. Rofekuggaman, Md. Habibullah Siddiki, Rebeka Sultana, Jakaria Chowdhury Onik, Md. Abubakar Siddik · Plant Science Archives · Global

A study at the rooftop garden of Habiganj Agricultural University, Bangladesh, examined the effect of combining alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation with plant growth regulators (PGR, specifically gibberellin) on the growth of Gimakalmi (Ipomoea aquatica) during the Boro season (January-June 2024), in silt loam soil (pH 6.14, 2.25% organic matter, 0.12% total nitrogen). A randomized complete block design with four treatments and three replications compared a control (T0), 100% recommended fertilizer dose plus PGR (T1), PGR plus AWD (T2), and 100% recommended fertilizer dose plus PGR plus AWD (T3). At 21 days after sowing, leaf number was 3.83 in the control versus 7.50 in T3, and yield at the first harvest (21 days after sowing) was 5.68 t/ha in the control versus 11.51 t/ha in T3, with T3 consistently showing the highest leaf number, plant height and yield across all three harvests.

Shu Hua Teoh, Gwo Rong Wong, Purabi Mazumdar · Innovations in Agriculture · Global

A review combining scientific literature analysis and interviews with urban farmers examined urban farming models including community, indoor, rooftop and vertical farms using techniques such as aeroponics, hydroponics and aquaponics. It found that sustainability and yield remain major challenges to fully realizing urban farming's potential, identifying limited land and water resources, pest and disease incidence, financial constraints on setup and maintenance, knowledge and skill gaps among participants, and a lack of effective collaboration between universities, government and industry as the key barriers.

Mélanie Douziech, Stefan Mann, Stefan Galley, Jens Lansche · Agronomy for Sustainable Development · Global

Urban agriculture is often associated with sustainable practices, but the diversity of systems classified as urban agriculture and limited information on their sustainability call that link into question. Drawing on 91 scientific papers, a study proposes a holistic classification of urban agricultural systems combining technical, social and economic characteristics, with economic production intensity and the intensity of cooperation among actors as key axes. One end of the scheme covers ground-based, open, socially motivated systems with high cooperation and low production intensity; the other end covers building-integrated, quasi-closed systems with high production intensity. Mapping sustainability claims from the literature onto the scheme associated "urban farming" with job creation, food safety, water savings and higher yields, and "urban gardening" with educational potential, biodiversity improvements and lower yields.

Jagarlamudi Nethra, B. Srinivasulu, Vadada Vinay Kumar, C. Lakshmana Rao · International Journal of Environment and Climate Change · Global

This review surveys nutrient-rich microgreens with emphasis on their role in urban agriculture, covering nutritional composition, culinary applications and cultivation techniques through an agronomy, nutrition and urban-planning lens, without presenting specific experimental data or figures.

Nafisah Awang, Suhana Saad, Sarmila Md Sum · International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences · Malaysia

A discussion of Malaysia's government Urban Agriculture Program, which promotes farming on unused spaces such as rooftops and empty lots, including rooftop gardens, community gardens, vertical farming and hydroponics, against a backdrop in which 76% of Malaysia's population lives in cities and faces difficulty accessing affordable, nutritious food. It describes support for urban farmers from the Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), and states that urban agriculture provides improved food access, income generation, social interaction and community empowerment, arguing that participation, knowledge sharing and skills development drive economic empowerment.

Seng Boon Lim, Nur Wildaniah Syafiqah Mohd Razib, Imam Mukhlis, Na’asah Nasrudin, Isnen Fitri · PLANNING MALAYSIA · Malaysia

A mixed-methods single-case study evaluating early intervention in community gardening/urban farming initiatives under the Special Area Action Plan Section 13 urban regeneration project in Petaling Jaya City, Malaysia. The quantitative component analyzed 200 questionnaire samples using descriptive statistics, while the qualitative component thematically analyzed 8 interviews. Findings show respondents were skeptical about awareness, safety infrastructure and support services, caretaking, and land ownership concerns surrounding the proposed community gardening at the Sungai Penchala monsoon drain area. The study recommends that authorities plan more awareness-intervention campaigns, strengthen safety infrastructure design, provide policy support for appointing caretakers, and resolve land acquisition issues when revitalizing leftover urban public spaces.

Joanne Dolley, Michael Howes · Australian Planner · Australia

Drawing on interviews with participants across several types of community gardens in Australia, this paper examines how community gardens can contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 Target 7, providing universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and public spaces. Applying a broader definition of "inclusive" than the target currently suggests, it finds that community gardens improve the inclusivity and activation of public spaces through their design features, governance, and community involvement, contributing to Target 11.7. Community involvement in design and governance, secure land tenure, well-chosen locations, and sufficient resourcing were identified as factors improving gardens' ability to meet the target. Developing additional indicators to measure progress toward the target is identified as an area for further research.

Assyifa Fauzia, Evi Frimawaty, Hadi Susilo Arifin · Holistic Journal of Tropical Agriculture Sciences · Global

This literature review examines the role of urban agriculture as an ecosystem services provider in mitigating urban environmental deterioration. It states that urban agriculture adds various functions across different landscape scales and can provide numerous benefits when managed correctly. The review method compiled literature on urban agriculture and ecosystem services across provisioning, regulating, and cultural service categories. Results describe urban agriculture as taking diverse forms, from private gardens to community plots, addressing limited public funding and promoting greening initiatives; it is described as contributing to biodiversity conservation and to regulating the urban microclimate, including reduced urban heat island effects, wind protection, and pollutant absorption. It is also described as adding aesthetic value to urban spaces, promoting cultural integration, and functioning as a multifaceted strategy for sustainable urban development addressing food security, resilience, and well-being. Amid challenges including threats to urban biodiversity and the need for proper green-space management, the review frames urban agriculture as a holistic approach contributing to cities' visual, cultural, and environmental fabric.

J.A. Veraart, Cora van Oosten, Vincent Linderhof, Confidence Duku, Wilfred Appelman, A.M.E. Groot, Marjolein Sterk, Ilse Voskamp · International Journal of Water Governance · Global

With water-related problems from climate change threatening the future of food systems in both the Netherlands and Ghana, this comparative case study analyzed rainwater harvesting and wastewater reuse in the Rhine-Scheldt Estuaries (Netherlands) and the Bono East Region (Ghana). The analysis focused on identifying similarities in how experts and stakeholders use spatial information to remove barriers to, or foster enablers of, the uptake of nature-based solutions (NbS) in view of climate change. Both rainwater harvesting and wastewater treatment techniques were found to be available and ready for adoption by farmers and the food processing industry, but their uptake was hampered by multiple barriers ranging from biophysical and technical to social and institutional. Spatial information was concluded to be a potential enabler for NbS adoption if applicable to a wide range of possible solutions for water scarcity in food production, though both case studies showed difficulty making the future spatially explicit, and in both cases the effect on biodiversity of, respectively, effluent water reuse and rainwater harvesting did not play a direct role in stakeholder dialogue.

Assyifa Fauzia · Trend and Future of Agribusiness · Global

A descriptive literature review (2015-2023) and comparative analysis of urban farming management in Thailand's Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) and Indonesia's Jakarta. Since 2010 the BMR has pursued food self-sufficiency using canals for irrigation and transport, but urban farmers remain poorly connected to traditional markets. In Jakarta, high population density and conversion of agricultural land are serious problems; after the 1998 economic crisis residents expanded urban farming on available land, but industrialization has increased uncertainty over land rights. Both countries share a lack of coordination in urban agriculture regulation and infrastructure, which the paper suggests addressing through better communication among farmers, retailers and non-farming households.

Beata Sirowy, Deni Ruggeri · ˜The œGeojournal library · Global

An editors' introductory chapter to a book on urban agriculture research, situating the volume's thematic scope. The editors argue that, to achieve the greatest impact, opportunities to engage in urban cultivation should be widely accessible to all segments of the urban population and close to where people live. Because land in dense inner-city areas is scarce and costly worldwide, integrating urban agriculture into existing and planned public spaces is presented as the most feasible strategy for achieving this. The book aims to provide theoretical and practical insights on integrating urban agriculture into public space development, covering well-being impacts, design, organization, educational contexts, and urban planning.

Godwin K. Naazie, Isaac Agyemang, Anthony Mwinilanaa Tampah-Naah · Heliyon · Ghana

A quantitative survey of 362 urban households across diverse neighborhoods in Ghana used descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and binary regression to examine socioeconomic factors behind urban agriculture participation under climate stress. Household size and income were significant at the 0.05 level, middle- and high-income households participated more than lower-income ones, and land was acquired mainly through purchase, which the study identified as a barrier to participation.

M. S. (Mahmudova) Abdusattorovna · Neliti · Global

An article (Neliti, 2024) states that research examined how road, roadside, and building construction occurred at large scale as a result of the construction of cultural and recreational parks, landscape design, and public parks during the Timurid period. The abstract provides no further detail on data, methods, or specific findings.

Héctor Ávila Sánchez · Investigaciones Geográficas Boletín del Instituto de Geografía · Global

This conceptual article examines periurbanization as one of the most dynamic territorial expressions in contemporary society, discussing the reconfiguration of food-production spaces in peri-urban areas that form part of metropolitan systems as a social and territorial process. It addresses proximity, the consolidation of short supply circuits, and new territorial forms such as city-region food systems and "agrarian parks" (parques agrarios) — a form found mainly in Europe that the article frames as a territorial innovation countering the disarticulation of peri-urban agrarian space under growing metropolization. It discusses the spread of cooperative-based forms (food hubs, cooperative supermarkets, shared workshops) and the roles of social movements, producer organizations, and public institutions in shaping peri-urban territorial governance, framed through solidarity economy and social justice.

Iman Mamnoon · GeoFocus Revista Internacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Información Geográfica · Global

Using a GIS-based risk assessment methodology, this study develops a quantitative food-insecurity scale for the most vulnerable urban populations, calculating risk as a combination of social vulnerability and hazard (difficulty of access to food distribution), and applying the model to two case studies: southeast Washington, D.C., in the United States and Puente de Vallecas in Madrid, Spain. A Social Vulnerability Index was computed from average income, education level, unemployment rate, and age, while hazard values were derived from proximity to supermarkets. The analysis identified high-risk food-insecurity areas in both neighborhoods requiring urgent intervention measures. In Puente de Vallecas, census tract 07913143 was identified as a high-risk hotspot with a Social Vulnerability Index of 1.646495 (range 0.901–3.223) and a risk value of 3 (range 3–10); in southeast D.C., tracts 7601 and 7605 were selected as high-risk zones for further study, with Social Vulnerability Index values of 2.221 and 1.737 (range 1.040–3.525) and risk values of 2 and 5 (range 0–10), respectively. The study also identifies a general shortage of areas combining residential and commercial use and limits on public transport availability in the food-insecure urban areas studied.

Górna, Ada · · Global

A book examines the position of urban agriculture within the spatial and functional structure of cities in the Global South through case studies of three cities: Havana, Singapore and Kigali. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in each city, it documents the diverse characteristics of urban agriculture across differing socio-economic, spatial, political and environmental conditions and identifies constraints on its development.

Haochen Zhao, James T. O’Connor, Sarah Zou, Zakaria M. Solaiman, Bede S. Mickan, Nanthi Bolan · Soil Use and Management · Australia

At six community gardens across three soil mapping units — calcareous deep sands, coloured sand and pale sands — in the Perth metropolitan area, Australia, soil samples were compared between cultivated raised beds and adjacent bare ground used as a control. Raised-bed soils showed lower bulk density, higher pH buffering capacity, more available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, greater cation exchange capacity, total carbon and microbial biomass than surrounding urban soil, and were estimated to have accumulated 0.55 kg of carbon per square meter (5.5 t/ha) in the top 10 cm, with no significant heavy metal contamination detected in any of the garden soils. The improved soil health and carbon storage were attributed mainly to regular application of compost produced within the gardens.