Research & reports

Deng Qing-nan · Economic Research Guide · China

This paper explores the transformation of traditional ecological agriculture tourism to urban agriculture tourism in Pi County, China. It suggests that Pi County, a birthplace of "Farm Fun" tourism, needs to upgrade its traditional ecological agriculture tourism to urban agriculture to ensure sustainable development and compete in the Chengdu suburban leisure agriculture tourism market. The paper presents initial thoughts based on the county's agricultural tourism development practices.

Huang Jun · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · China (Wuhan)

This study analyzed the gap in urban and rural economic development in Wuhan. This disparity is reflected in differences in personal capital income, property, living standards, and the Engel coefficient of household expenditure. Unresolved past problems, an enlarging gap between industry and agriculture, a decreasing proportion of agricultural output, and an increasing contrast coefficient of industrial and agricultural sectors are identified as main causes of the gap.

郭穗 · 金陵瞭望 · China (Nanjing)

The Nanjing Municipal State Taxation Bureau identified 40 tax preferential policies related to the development of an innovative economy. These policies were compiled to support the city's innovative economic development, focusing on the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial transformation, the "4+8+8" industrial system, urban agriculture, and considering small and medium-sized enterprises and innovation platforms.

沈建华, 储健 · 江苏农村经济 · China (Nanjing)

In recent years, Nanjing, China, has promoted the development of urban agriculture amidst rapid urbanization, contributing to increased farmer income and enriched urban life. However, the urban-rural divide remains relatively obvious. A key challenge is how to narrow this urban-rural gap and accelerate integrated development during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period.

김태곤, 박문호, 허주녕 · 한국농촌경제연구원 기본연구보고서 · South Korea

This study aims to identify the current status and challenges of urban agriculture and propose solutions. Urban agriculture faces chronic problems including securing farming land due to rising land prices, management insecurity resulting from farmland diversion or lease, and increased production costs due to environmental regulations. These issues restrict the range of agricultural management.

金奎祥 · 农场经济管理 · China (Harbin)

The Harbin Branch of Heilongjiang Provincial Farm Reclamation Bureau faces challenges as a small and economically weak entity with limited cultivated land resources. This study proposes a "1+4" development model, centered on modern urban agriculture as the core industry, guided by the philosophy of "surrounding the city for development and strengthening the bureau with unique features." This model aims to enhance the urban-type economy by integrating supporting industries such as real estate, industrial parks, ecological tourism, and urban services.

Xu Han · · China (Chongqing)

This study introduced and analyzed the current situation of urban agriculture development in Chongqing City. From the government's perspective, corresponding developmental patterns and public policies for agricultural development were proposed to promote the growth of Chongqing's urban agriculture.

杨卫丽, 李同昇, 陈波 · 经济导刊 · China (Xi'an)

The promotion of integration in China's Xi'an-Xianyang metropolitan area, while bringing urban economic prosperity, has also created unprecedented pressure on the ecological environment and social problems. Specifically, the "urban-rural dual structure" and "three rural issues" are the biggest bottlenecks encountered during the urbanization process.

허북구, 박윤점, 오대민, 박종수, 윤숙영, 조자용 · · South Korea

This study developed marketing techniques for mugwort seedlings for urban agriculture and horticultural therapy in South Korea. Researchers examined mugwort amounts needed for various uses, harvest times and yields by seedling type and container size, and seedling quality under marketing conditions. Findings showed that one-year-old rhizomes had the shortest harvest time (25 days) and highest yield (13.2g per plant) at first harvest, and seedling quality did not decrease after 3 days of cold marketing.

황정임, 최윤지, 장보경, 이상영 · · South Korea

This study segmented and examined urban farmers' behavior in South Korea using a two-step cluster analysis and multi-nominal logit model. Data from a telephone survey of 381 urban agriculture participants out of 2,000 respondents revealed four distinct clusters based on motive, place, companion, area, and hours. Significant differences were found among these groups in terms of age, city size, and housing type, suggesting urbanites select farming types based on socio-demographic profiles.

Junping Liu · System Sciences and Comprehensive Studies in Agriculture · China (Beijing)

This paper constructed an evaluation index system for urban agricultural multi-functionality using factor analysis and analytic hierarchy process for 13 agriculture-related districts in Beijing. Based on GIS spatial analysis of function, Beijing was divided into three urban agricultural subareas according to production economy function, social service function, and ecological protection function. The results indicate that Beijing urban agriculture has an obvious 'core-periphery' spatial structure but with different function-orientation, locational tendency, and development patterns.

Paule Moustier, Nguyễn Thị Tân Lộc · Agritrop (Cirad) · Vietnam

In Vietnam, urban agriculture significantly contributes to food supply and employment. In 2002, it supplied an estimated 44% of Hanoi's food needs, with over 70% of leafy vegetables originating within a 30 km radius of the city. Approximately 30% of the population in Hanoi Province and Ho Chi Minh City's peri-urban districts are engaged in agriculture.

Maoxuan Li, Chen Pan, Zhang Yun-qian · Yunnan Nongye Daxue xuebao · China (Kunming)

This study analyzed the status and function of urban agriculture in Kunming, China, based on the introduction of the Regional Coordinated Development Planning of Dianzhong cities. Kunming's agricultural development was found to play an important role in accelerating economic integration and maintaining harmonious economic and social development within the economic circle. The paper put forward relevant policy recommendations.

Juan Yun · Guangdong nongye kexue · China (Tianjin)

This article provided suggestions for the development of urban agriculture and the "vegetable basket project" in Tianjin, China. The recommendations included constructing urban agriculture in mountainous areas and the Tianjin Binhai new developed area, improving vegetable transportation and fresh-cut vegetable wholesale markets, and establishing retail auction supermarkets and market information websites. These suggestions were based on Tianjin's current agricultural and market levels, geography, and urban construction status.

Wang Cheng-yong, Wang, Cheng-Yong · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · China

This study analyzed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of developing urban agriculture in the Pearl River Delta area, China. Strengths included natural resources, geographic, and technological advantages. Weaknesses involved land resources, labor costs, industrial scale, and personnel quality. Opportunities were identified in potential clients, favorable policies, and markets, while threats included conceptual factors and the urban-rural income gap. Based on this analysis, countermeasures and suggestions for urban agriculture development were proposed.

QU Xue-shu · Anhui nongye kexue · China

A Chinese paper frames Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a risk- and benefit-sharing arrangement between farms and their supporting communities, as an outgrowth of food-security concerns and land interest during urbanization, and explores its potential extension into tourism. Analyzing the feasibility and conditions for combining CSA with tourism, the paper proposes a new tourism form under the CSA model, termed 'TCSA tourism.'

Ratnawati Yuni Suryandari · · Indonesia

An essay arguing that in developing countries, including Indonesia, the fastest urban growth is occurring in city centers, and that unequal income, poverty, poorly functioning food distribution systems and shrinking farmland make food sources especially critical for the urban poor. It cites World Bank figures stating that 360 million urban residents in developing countries suffer chronic malnutrition, that five of six urban households in India spend 70% of income on food, and that in Kuala Lumpur 45–50% of residents' income goes to food, twice the share in the UK. The article frames urban agriculture as a holistic approach to meeting urban poor residents' needs and improving urban environmental quality, discussing urban agriculture's issues and challenges in Indonesia through the case of Jakarta and its surroundings.

Zhigang Wei · Journal of Qingdao Agricultural University · China

A comprehensive survey of agricultural structure and layout in Qingdao, China. It states the sector has achieved transformation and upgrading, with growing agricultural industrialization and increasingly optimized layout of agricultural areas approaching cluster-scale planting and breeding industries. However, it reports that further adjustment of planting structure faces major bottlenecks due to limits on arable land and food security: the traditional small-scale fish-farming model seriously restricts further development of animal husbandry and aquaculture, and fluctuating agricultural product markets combined with a lack of competitiveness are affecting the agricultural industry's layout. It concludes that crop structure needs further adjustment, that production should be scaled up, specialized and standardized, and that urban agriculture should be emphasized to expand agricultural functions.

Tianyi Zhang · Anhui nongye kexue · China

A paper examining the connotation and development of circular economy and circular agriculture from a circular-economy perspective. It uses the replicable Sino-Singapore Eco-City in Tianjin as a case study, analyzing the background, significance, and features of its construction, and identifies a sustainable development orientation of "harmony and three capabilities," along with implications for Tianjin's urban agriculture development in terms of water-saving, land-saving, and energy-saving. Under circular economy theory, enhancing the economical use of agricultural resources and the resource utilization of agricultural waste is said to have positive effects on improving the urban environment, including decentralizing organic solid waste from the sewage cycle system, further studying the physiological and biochemical mechanisms behind increasing yield and income in ecological agriculture, and incorporating urban agriculture into city land-use and development planning.

蔡元杰 · 浙江现代农业 · China

This survey report covers Yinzhou district, China, which borders central Ningbo and benefits from a favorable location and strong overall economic capacity, describing local efforts to transform and upgrade agriculture around reliance on the city, service to urban areas, and increasing farmer income. It states the district has built modern industrial and support systems and achieved positive results while maintaining rapid, healthy agricultural development, but presents no specific quantitative data.

邓清南, 许虹 · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni · China

Pixian County in Sichuan, China — regarded as the birthplace of China's "farmhouse leisure" (nongjiale) tourism — is described as having successfully completed the initial stage of ecological agritourism development. Facing intensifying market competition from leisure agritourism in suburban Chengdu and the challenge of sustaining farmhouse leisure tourism, this discussion piece argues that upgrading Pixian's traditional ecological agritourism into urban-type agricultural tourism is a promising direction to explore, offering some preliminary reflections based on the actual state of agritourism development in Pixian County.

Zhang Ya-guang · Guangdong nongye kexue · China (Tianjin)

This study analyzed the characteristics and strategic localization of Tianjin coastal urban agriculture. Tianjin coastal urban agriculture was shown to possess characteristics such as positional superiority, industrial fusion, multiplicity of functions, essential factor intensiveness, sustainable development, openness, and ecological protection. Its functions include strengthened economic function, consummated environmental protection ecology function, prominent radiation leading function, and developed social culture service function. Key forms include seedling source agriculture, green ecological agriculture, facility agriculture, processing agriculture, sea agriculture, port agriculture, and leisure sightseeing agriculture.

Jin-Woo Choi, Hag-Kee Kim, Kyong-Jae Lee, Hyun-Kyung Kang · Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture · South Korea

This study analyzed the economics and growth characteristics of native and imported ground cover plants in a new shallow soil rooftop gardening method, using 13cm soil thickness, on the rooftop of the Korean National Housing Corporation. The new method cost 45,000 won/m², which was 50% less expensive than existing methods. Native ground cover plants and some imported species showed increased cover rate, live weight, and dry weight, with improved growth, though some species required weed maintenance.

Wei‐Chao Jiang · Anhui nongye kexue · China (Hefei City)

This study investigated the urban agriculture park of Dawei Town in Baohe District of Hefei City, China, using site investigation, observation, and questionnaires. It expounded on the park's strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities through SWOT analysis and analyzed new problems under eco-tourism, proposing suggestions.

马国珍, 代晖军, 田昌明, 张友录 · 青海经济研究 · China (Xining City)

"Farm-supermarket direct docking" (农超对接) refers to the direct entry of agricultural products into supermarkets, connecting agriculture and supermarkets. This model effectively reduces circulation links and costs for agricultural products, ensuring urban supply and consumption safety and benefiting consumers. Although still in pilot stages in China, it represents a development trend for agricultural product production and marketing.