Research & reports

Pepijn Schreinemachers, Dhruba Raj Bhattarai, Giri Dhari Subedi, Tej P. Acharya, Hsiao-pu Chen, Ray-Yu Yang, Narayan Kaji Kashichhawa, Upendra Dhungana, Gregory C. Luther, Maureen Mecozzi · Journal of Development Effectiveness · Nepal

This study evaluated the combined impact of school gardens and nutrition education on 10- to 15-year-old schoolchildren in Nepal, using a cluster randomized controlled trial with 1275 students (2014) and 785 students (2015). After one year, significant improvements were observed in children's awareness of fruits and vegetables, knowledge of sustainable agriculture, food, nutrition, and health, and stated preferences for eating fruits and vegetables. However, these improvements in intermediary outcomes did not translate into significant improvements in fruit and vegetable consumption or nutritional status.

Vina Febriani, Evy Nasrika, Tri Munasari, Yoan Permatasari, Talitha Widiatningrum · Journal of Creativity Students · Global

This paper introduces "Mba-Gening," an urban gardening innovation for cultivating Brassica oleracea microgreens, as a solution for limited land and the demand for organic food. Microgreens are harvested in 10-14 days and possess up to six times the nutritional value of mature green vegetables. This production is said to meet the demand for organic broccoli and offers a good business opportunity due to a wide market and lack of competitors.

Marie T. Ruel, James Leo Garrett, Sivan Yosef, Meghan Olivier · · Global

This chapter reviews poverty, food security, and malnutrition in urban versus rural areas, noting a rapid shift of poverty to urban areas and high prevalence of food insecurity and malnutrition among urban dwellers. It highlights alarming rises in urban overweight and obesity, alongside persistent undernutrition. The review identifies critical knowledge gaps regarding factors shaping urban food security and calls for new research and data to inform policies supporting urban agriculture, healthy food access, and income generation to address these challenges.

John Diaz, Sue Webb, Laura A. Warner, Paul Monoghan · HortTechnology · Global

This study demonstrated the use of a Delphi approach with a diverse panel of community garden stakeholders to reach consensus about program outcomes for community garden programs. The panel successfully reached consensus on a variety of short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes. The study aimed to provide a framework for program development and evaluation that stakeholders can adopt to show program outcomes, addressing the difficulty of learning lessons from geographically specific community garden studies.

Jeong Nara, Myeongil Jeong, Seung-Won Han, Jaesoon Kim · Journal of people, plants, and environment · Global

This study was conducted to provide basic data for the construction of a community garden in a village. The research showed that residents have a high intention to use community gardens for rest, strolls, exercise, and appreciation, with older respondents showing higher frequency of use. Garden efficiency is enhanced when located within a 20-minute walk (1km), and it is desirable to design the space to reflect community characteristics and introduce needed facilities.

Abdul Rahman Conteh, Alusaine Edward Samura, E. L. S. Hinckley, Osman Nabay, Mohamed S. Kamara · Journal of Agricultural Science and Practice · Sierra Leone (Freetown)

This study was conducted to identify the risks of heavy metal contamination in urban and peri-urban cropping systems in Sierra Leone. Soil and plant samples were collected from 72 sites in Freetown and Bo and analyzed for Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Cd. Heavy metals were detected across all sites, and some mild risk of cadmium toxicity was observed in densely populated areas of Freetown, though this was not reflected in plant uptake of cadmium.

Neil Taylor, Abdulla Ambusaidi, Rashid Al‐Yahyai, Subhashni Taylor · Eurasia Journal of Mathematics Science and Technology Education · Oman

A pilot school gardening project in Oman, using a mixed-method quasi-experimental design with Grade 7 classes, investigated its impact. Quantitative findings tentatively suggest improved learning outcomes in science skill development. Qualitative findings indicated a positive impact on students' affective domain and, in some cases, encouraged healthier eating habits.

Seyedardalan Ashrafzadeh, Niklas J. Lehto, Gareth Oddy, Ron G. McLaren, Ling‐Fen Kang, Nicholas Dickinson, Johannes Welsch, Brett Robinson · Applied Geochemistry · New Zealand (Christchurch)

A study in Christchurch, New Zealand, measured heavy metal (HM) concentrations in suburban garden soils and soils at risk of HM contamination due to former land uses or nearby activities. HM concentrations in suburban garden soils were higher than normal background levels, with 46% of urban garden samples exceeding the residential land use national standard for lead (210 mg kg−1), and the most contaminated soil reaching 2615 mg kg−1. Arsenic and zinc also exceeded national standards in 20% of soils. These findings suggest that soil HM concentrations should be key criteria when determining future land use for former residential areas demolished due to the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, and that redeveloping these areas as parklands or forests would result in less human HM exposure than agriculture or community gardens where food is produced and bare soil is exposed.

Roy L. Montgomery, Andreas Wesener, Fran Davies · Lincoln University Research Archive (Lincoln University) · New Zealand

This study examined a temporary community-initiated open space (CIOS) established in central Christchurch, New Zealand, after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. CIOS are bottom-up initiatives relying on financial sponsorship, temporary land-use agreements with landowners, and volunteers. The paper discusses bottom-up governance approaches in a single post-earthquake community garden project, using concepts of community resilience and social capital, and analyzes the facilitating organization's actions, its impact, and key actors' motivations, values, perceived benefits, and challenges.

Andile Mji · Commonwealth Youth and Development · Global

This study reports on a program where 118 learners (56.8% female), aged 16-18, participated in starting and tending school gardens. The aim was to determine how an empowering environment built learners' competencies and what lessons they learned, and if their utterances reflected positive youth development attributes. Qualitative data from open-ended interviews revealed that learners changed, learned to share, understood the meaning of working with others, and their utterances were consistent with positive youth development competencies.

Maria de Fátima dos Santos Pimenta Garcia · Service social · Global

This study discusses how urban agriculture facilitates social participation, stimulates solidarity, and fosters social belonging, thereby strengthening neighborhood networks and bringing generations together. It suggests that urban gardens encourage active aging and contribute to the biopsychosocial balance of the elderly by transforming daily life and integrating people through leisure activities and the use of common spaces.

Gabin Korbéogo · Environment and Urbanization · Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou)

This article explores how land tenure, water flows, and water quality are legally, politically, and socially framed in urban agriculture in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Urban agriculture serves as a revenue source and a socio-political arena involving state representatives, experts, and farmers. Public authorities monitor legal standards for water use and hygiene, while farmers strive for efficient resource use, sometimes challenging official norms. These competing interests lead to conflicts over resource use or rule legitimacy, which are negotiated through institutional or informal bargaining.

Georgia Pollard, Philip Roetman, James Ward · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Australia (South Australia)

While urban agriculture is seen as a sustainable approach to improving food security, there is a significant knowledge gap regarding the financial accessibility of urban food production for all households. If urban agriculture remains primarily a middle-class discretionary activity, its role in city-wide food security improvement will be limited. This paper demonstrates that citizen science offers an effective approach to investigate the inputs (labor, costs, water use) and outputs (produce yields, value) of urban food gardens, using the Edible Gardens project in South Australia as an example.

Jason Byrne · · Global

Research on urban greenspace, including parks, gardens, and green infrastructure, consistently demonstrates that marginalized and vulnerable communities have less access to these areas. This chapter overviews environmental injustice research on urban greenspace, examining debates and challenges for researchers and policymakers, and highlighting issues like climate injustice and food insecurity related to environmental inequality.

Hyun‐Kyung Kang, Seung Jun Back · Journal of people, plants, and environment · Global

This study investigated the effect of an urban agriculture experience program on the mental health of seniors over 65, comparing a group participating for over six months with a control group. Using t-tests on stress and depression indices, and physiological disparity, the experiment group showed statistically significantly lower stress scores related to loneliness and health, and much lower depression levels than the control group. Autonomic nervous system analysis also indicated lower stress and normal pulse diversity for the experiment group, suggesting urban agriculture stabilizes sympathetic nerves and activates parasympathetic nerves, increasing stress resistance.

Zane Vincēviča–Gaile, Dāvis Varakājs · · Latvia

This study aimed to determine the concentration of potentially toxic elements (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Zn) in berries grown in allotment gardens in Rīga city, Latvia. Samples of raspberries, strawberries, red currants, black currants, gooseberries, and cherries were analyzed using atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results showed significant variability of element concentration among the berry species, with mean concentrations for Ni at 0.54 mg/kg, Pb at 0.20 mg/kg, Cr at 0.10 mg/kg, and Cd at 0.03 mg/kg.

Dra. C. Andreína Inés González Ordóñez, MSc. David Zaldumbide, MSc. Javier Solano · · Ecuador (Machala)

This research analyzes the potential of urban agriculture for small entrepreneurs in Canton Machala, El Oro Province, Ecuador, using a documentary review of related literature. Urban agriculture is identified as having economic, social, and environmental benefits, including improved food and nutrition, reduced ecological footprint, and strengthened social fabric. Its implementation can enhance living conditions by providing healthy food, additional income, and improved environmental quality.

Bethany B. Cutts, Jonathan London, Shaina Meiners, Kirsten Schwarz, Mary L. Cadenasso · Local Environment · Global

This paper applies a dynamic spatial politics framework to interpret a 30-year conflict over an urban garden in Sacramento, California. It examines how urban gardens, often idealized, are also sites of conflict due to competing visions of "soil" versus "dirt." The study highlights that contaminants like lead in the soil contribute to this instability, reframing fertile soil as dangerous dirt, and influencing the garden's transformation from a countercultural space to a gentrified amenity.

Eileen Bogweh Nchanji, Imogen Bellwood‐Howard, Nikolaus Schareika, Takemore Chagomoka, Johannes Schlesinger, D. Rodríguez Torres Axel, Glaser Rüdiger · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · Ghana (Tamale)

An ethnographic study in Tamale, Northern Ghana, assessed the sustainability of urban vegetable production between 2008 and 2014. While urbanization increased cultivation of profitable vegetables like cabbage, the practice involved irrigation with grey and wastewater and high pesticide use, posing health and environmental hazards. Industrial growth reduced open space urban agriculture by 8.7%, leading farmers to use interstitial spaces and peri-urban fringes, indicating a dynamic but not yet sustainable production system.

Søren Christensen · Civil Engineering and Architecture · Global

This meta-analysis of literature published between 2000 and 2016 examined urban community gardens' capacity to generate social capital. It found that several studies confirm urban community gardens create both bonding and bridging social capital, with indications of linking social capital. The analysis suggests future research should use mixed methods, including qualitative approaches focusing on activity meanings and documenting sociodemographic compositions, to further understand how these gardens foster social capital.

Ellen Burke · Landscape Research · Global

This paper is a transdisciplinary literature review addressing how to measure the performance of food production landscapes in urban, suburban, campus and other design contexts. Noting that such performance is currently most often measured by the weight and value of harvest alone, it aims to identify expanded methods and metrics, particularly for health and well-being benefits. Through the review it presents evidence for mental well-being, physical activity, and human nutrition benefits, and catalogs performance metrics and evaluation methods.

Pranee Liamputtong, Erin Sanchez · Activities Adaptation & Aging · Australia

A study of older residents in a rural Victorian town in Australia examined perceptions of, and reasons for participating in, a community garden through in-depth interviews with 10 older persons. Participation built social support networks and social capital and created social connectedness among participants. The main reason for initial involvement was that participants were new to the area and sought to build local support networks in their new living environment.

Gideon Aghaindum Ajeagah, Chumtchoua Armel Landry, Mbouombouo Mama, Foto Menbohan Samuel, Thomas Njiné · Journal of Applied Biosciences · Cameroon

In lowland areas of Yaoundé, Cameroon, where wastewater is used for market gardening, water samples were collected from November 2013 to April 2014, with identification and bio-statistical analysis conducted in 2015-2016. Flagellated protozoan cysts, identified via Lugol staining after zinc-sulfate flotation concentration, were found at average densities of 101±70 cysts/L for Giardia intestinalis, 34±20 cysts/L for Chilomastix mesnili, 3±6 cysts/L for Retortamonas intestinalis, and 1±3 cysts/L for Enteromonas hominis, with the highest densities recorded during the short rainy season (172±108 cysts/L). Cyst density was significantly correlated (P≤0.05) with physico-chemical parameters including suspended solids, oxidizability, and turbidity. The study concludes that vegetables grown with this wastewater must be well washed, disinfected, and thoroughly cooked before consumption to reduce health risks.

Debra Flanders Cushing, Harriot Beazley, Lisa Law · · Australia

A book chapter synthesizes research on food practices, urban food landscapes, and childhood obesity in (sub)tropical Queensland, Australia, examining two community garden examples with a focus on access to healthy food. It cites the WHO position that no single intervention strategy prevents childhood obesity, and that solutions must draw on three areas: governmental structures, population-wide policies, and community-based interventions. Key barriers to children's healthy diets identified are food availability, convenience, taste preferences, peer pressure, and lack of parental or school support, with increased knowledge of fruits and vegetables shown to directly increase children's consumption of them. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future research on urban green spaces and obesity.

Ba A., Cantoreggi N., Simos J., Duchemin E. · VertigO – la revue électronique en sciences de l'environnement · Senegal (Dakar)

This study found that urban farmers in Dakar's Niayes zone face serious occupational health risks from unregulated pesticide use and contaminated irrigation water, with groundwater pollutant levels reaching up to 75 times WHO standards, while farmers themselves underestimated their own exposure risks.