Research & reports

Haile Meskel Balcha · Food and Nutrition Bulletin · Ethiopia

World Vision Ethiopia launched a Micronutrient Program in October 1998 to improve the micronutrient status of mothers and children, promoting vitamin A–rich food production. By 1999, 11,708 backyard gardens, 275 school gardens, and 77 community gardens were developed, contributing to household food security and income. The program found that vitamin A–rich vegetable production was well accepted, sustainable, and cost-effective, but faced challenges with the availability and cost of imported seeds.

I. Etuah-Jackson, W. P. Klaassen, J. A. Awuye · CABI Publishing eBooks · Ghana (Accra)

This paper reports on solid waste management in Accra, Ghana, examining the experiences of two compost plants, Teshie-Nungua and Ashiedu Keteke (AKCPP), with urban waste composting. It also describes the urban farming systems in Accra and identifies current and potential users of the produced compost.

G. F. Backhaus, H. Balder · Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (Julius Kühn-Institut) · Germany

The International Symposium on Plant Health in Urban Horticulture, held in Braunschweig, Germany, from May 22 to 25, 2000, served as a platform to discuss deficits in the care and development of urban greenery and propose integrated concepts. Urban horticulture comprises diverse elements characterizing urban life, but many stress factors damage these components, and integrated concepts for maintaining and preserving urban green areas are lacking. The symposium aimed to jointly prepare future needs for action for the health preservation of urban green at an international level.

Sarah Edwards · The English Journal · United States

This article describes how the author's eighth-grade language arts inquiry-based instruction evolved into student-based community learning. Students brought the community to school with an art exhibit on tolerance, volunteered at a nearby elementary school, created community gardens to fulfill a neighborhood need, and established a new desert habitat community park, connecting the school and neighborhood.

Shira Brynjegard · Dominican Scholar (Dominican University of California) · United States

This study explored the reasons for gardens and natural spaces on school campuses and their effects on students. Blending case studies, observational data, and personal experience, it discussed the impacts of a garden on participating students, using the balance of administrative, teacher, parent, and student involvement to determine lasting effects on student attitudes toward environmental concerns. Evidence of increased environmental awareness in students was discussed.

Hilda E. Kurtz · Urban Geography · United States (Minneapolis)

This paper examines the variations among community gardens in Minneapolis, Minnesota, suggesting they reflect differing interpretations of "community" and "garden" in urban settings. While community gardens are seen as responses to urban decay, the study highlights that issues of enclosure, inclusion, and exclusion are central to their function. Decisions regarding garden enclosure shape their role in urban neighborhoods, indicating potential limitations related to equity.

Huei-Hsuan Lin · Syracuse University Libraries (Syracuse University) · United States

This three-year qualitative study of an urban community garden in a mid-size city in upstate New York, United States, examined how women community gardeners perceive their participation. It found that the community garden, intended as a space for social change, paradoxically became a site of internal struggles among participants. Emancipatory efforts to build a less unequal society did not automatically result in an egalitarian space, as the process of community building by individuals with various social positions required arduous efforts and involved negotiation and confrontations, rather than simple unity.

B. Jankiewicz, B. Ptaszyński, Michael Wieczorek · Polish Journal of Environmental Studies · Poland (Lodz)

This study presents the results of lead determination in the soils of six allotment gardens located in various parts of Lodz. Lead was measured spectrophotometrically in the form of pink lead(II) dithizonate.

정진영, 손상목, 김영호 · 한국유기농업학회지 · United States; Japan

This paper studied the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement in the USA and Europe to provide ideas for establishing and promoting CSA in Korea to support organic agriculture. In a CSA system, farmers grow food for a group of shareholders who pledge to buy a portion of the farm's crop for the season. This arrangement provides growers with upfront cash and higher prices by eliminating middlemen. CSA shareholders expect organic farming to protect the environment, maintain soil fertility, preserve diversity, recycle resources, maintain organic food integrity, and develop new technologies considering long-range social and ecological impacts.

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.

Robyn Lynn · ResearchOnline at James Cook University (James Cook University) · Global

This paper highlights the significance of urban food production, which has been historically neglected despite its potential to address issues of globalization, urbanization, and environmental degradation. It explores the relationship between cities, food production, and activism, noting a growing local food movement that resists global food discourses. The paper aims to identify issues within urban food production activism and its organizational aspects.

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.

Elizabeth Lynn Waddell · CSUSB ScholarWorks (California State University, San Bernardino) · United States (California)

This project was developed to encourage educators to establish school site gardens. These gardens offer opportunities to introduce environmental topics and function as hands-on learning centers for various subjects.

王雪梅 · 山西农经 · China (Taiyuan)

This paper discusses the "comprehensive urban diseases" resulting from urbanization, such as population concentration, traffic congestion, and environmental degradation, which threaten human health and well-being. It notes that as cities increasingly move away from nature, urban residents long for rural landscapes, prompting a call for green industries to return to cities. "Urban agriculture" has thus emerged in some large cities in China as a response to these challenges and a path towards sustainable urban development.

Fabio Bontadina, Pascale Contesse, Sandra Gloor · DORA WSL (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research) · Switzerland (Zurich)

This study analyzed attitudes towards urban foxes in Switzerland using a nationwide survey and questionnaires for households and allotment gardeners in Zurich. While 60% of Swiss respondents were against urban foxes, only 40% in Zurich were; however, 70% of gardeners opposed them, with 55% reporting damage caused by foxes, which negatively correlated with fox acceptance.

黄大成 · 特区经济 · China (Zhuhai)

A favorable condition for urban agriculture development in Zhuhai City is the purchasing power of its citizens. According to expert analysis, the average annual income for Zhuhai city employees in 1997 was 12793 yuan (approximately 1505.05 USD), significantly exceeding the 500-800 USD per capita annual income considered the take-off period for tourism. A tourism bureau survey indicated that 29.44% of citizens were willing to spend under 100 yuan for a day trip, 43.51% between 100-200 yuan, and 14.11% between 200-300 yuan, which can meet the consumption demands of tourism and leisure-oriented urban agriculture projects targeting ordinary citizens.

Candan Kuş · · Turkey (Ankara)

A study in Yenimahalle District, Ankara, evaluating multiple schools including 80 primary schools, assessed the importance of school gardens and their place within the urban open-green space system. The findings revealed that many school gardens were unsuitable for use by teachers and students, being narrow, containing only ceremonial areas and a few plants, and lacking sufficient furnishing elements. It was also observed that additional buildings further narrowed school gardens, and insufficient attention was given to recreation areas, sports areas, and green spaces.

Raúl Ortíz, Celia Patricia Vera, Antonio Leyva · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Cuba

A diagnostic study was conducted on the conditions of urban gardens, their producers, and families in 20 gardens across five localities in the "Boyeros" and "Arroyo Naranjo" municipalities of Havana, Cuba, between December 1998 and March 1999. While the garden agroecosystems showed satisfactory biodiversity, general knowledge of biological technologies in sustainable urban agriculture remained relatively low. None of the surveyed plot owners consciously knew or used vermiculture, pisciculture, biofertilizers, biopesticides, or biostimulants, and almost half did not consciously use crop rotation.

Waweru Mutambi, Mwangi Kariuki, Kibet Nderitu · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Kenya

This longitudinal study evaluated the effects of agroforestry practices (integrated tree-crop systems) on yield gains and farmer adoption rates in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya, using surveys and soil analysis as quantitative data collection methods. Preliminary findings indicate that integrated tree-crop systems produced a statistically significant 12% increase in maize yields (95% CI: 6-18%) compared to conventional farming practices. Farmer adoption rates rose from 40% at baseline to 70% after one year of intervention.

H. van den Bosch, Derek Eaton, Mark T. van Wijk, J. Vlaming, A. de Jager · CABI Publishing eBooks · Africa

This chapter describes the phases of the NUTMON methodology for analyzing nutrient flows and balances in African farming systems, along with the possibilities for applying it in the context of peri-urban agriculture. It uses the NUTShell farm-diagnosis tool to link nutrient flows with economic flows, without presenting specific case results.

Tina M. Waliczek, J.C. Bradley, J.M. Zajicek · HortTechnology · Global

Children participating in garden activities were evaluated for improvements in interpersonal relationships and attitudes toward school, using pre- and post-tests comparing control and experimental groups. No significant differences were found between pre- and post-tests or between the control and experimental groups overall; however, demographic comparisons showed female students had significantly more positive attitudes toward school than males at program's end, interpersonal relationships differed by grade level, and children's attitudes toward school were more positive in schools offering more intensive, individualized gardening.

Isabel María Madaleno · Food, nutrition and agriculture · Global

An essay argues that urban agriculture—food and non-food production occurring throughout urban and peri-urban fabric—could improve city dwellers' nutritional status and food security, strengthen food self-reliance and employment prospects, and make survival strategies more effective. It describes urban agriculture as a setting where children, young people, and adults engage directly in safe food production and develop respect for farmers' work, surveys the evolution of cities and green-space use in Europe and North America, presents recent urban agriculture experiences in African, European, and Latin American countries, and advocates urban agriculture as a local solution to social, ecological, political, and economic problems.

Chinedum Nwokocha, Obioma Obiora, Oludamini Olayiwola · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Nigeria

A survey of 150 Nigerian immigrant families living in various regions and cities across Nigeria, recruited via online questionnaires distributed on social media, examined the role of community gardens in social cohesion. Analysis found that 72% of respondents reported increased feelings of community belonging linked to their involvement in community garden activities, indicating these spaces play a role in fostering social cohesion among this immigrant population. As an exploratory study, the findings are preliminary, and the authors call for further research to validate them and to examine the long-term impacts of community garden participation on family dynamics, mental health and overall well-being among immigrants in Nigeria.

Libby Robin · Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes · Global

This historical account traces how new educational theories at the turn of the century in the British world reconceived the school child from an 'administrated unit' into a 'growing flower,' drawing on Swiss and German ideas of the school as a kindergarten, as noted by education professor Patrick Geddes. It describes the progression from an indoor flower shelf, through window boxes, to a full school garden in the playground, and details Miss Latter's design for a British school garden: eighteen kitchen-garden plots of 4 by 2 feet and eighteen flower-garden plots of 3 by 4.5 feet, separated by paths, laid out to read as a formal classroom exercise.

Laurie Thorp, Christine D. Townsend · · United States

An ethnographic case study of an agricultural-education garden-based curriculum at an elementary school in the Midwestern United States, seeking a phenomenological understanding of its impact on students and teachers. Data were collected through participant observation, dialogue, interviews, photo elicitation and student work, and analyzed using Lincoln and Guba's constant comparative method. Findings were that the garden: (1) reshapes school culture; (2) serves as a leverage point reversing loss of time, control and place; (3) connects students to experience as an organizing principle; (4) becomes a site for student and teacher self-expression, creativity and innovation; and (5) shifts food's status from a consumable commodity to a portal for communal good.