Research & reports

Ana Cristina Manjabosco · · Global

This work explores urban agriculture, its concepts, and importance in achieving urban sustainability and responding to environmental imbalances. It provides examples of current urban agriculture uses, including the Dragonfly project in New York, Paris's incentives, and a vertical farm design contest in Sao Paulo. The study also offers guidelines for successful urban agriculture project implementation, covering location choice, cultivation systems, consumption incentives, and secondary benefits, framed as political and social guidelines.

Erwin van Tuijl, Gert-Jan Hospers, Leo van den Berg · European Spatial Research and Policy · Global

This paper explores the concept of Urban Agriculture (UA) and discusses its locational and strategic dimensions. Using case examples from cities worldwide, it shows that UA can contribute to the social, environmental, and economic pillars of sustainable city development; however, there are limitations that cities investing in urban agriculture should consider.

Cuthbert Majoni, Deliwe Tembachako, Anyway Katanha · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Zimbabwe

This study was conducted in Bindura urban area, Zimbabwe, to evaluate the viability of urban quail farming, interviewing 40 urban quail farmers selected via snowball sampling and 10 key informants using semi-structured guides. Key challenges highlighted included inadequate housing facilities, insufficient space, theft, predation, inadequate knowledge, market price fluctuations, inability to access credit, and misconceptions in urban agriculture policies. Despite these challenges, urban quail farming showed potential to boost family income and reduce poverty to some extent.

Irene Antoni-Komar · HiBiFo – Haushalt in Bildung & Forschung · Global

Civil society food initiatives and transformative enterprises like urban gardening projects, CSA, and food co-ops are considered pioneers for a sustainable food supply. These initiatives test community-oriented economics in the form of empowerment, solidarity, and prosumerism for a socio-ecological food transition.

Rachel Reckinger · SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO · Luxembourg

This study examines four community-driven alternative food network initiatives in Luxembourg, where low organic agricultural rates contrast with high consumer demands. Using qualitative interviews and participant observation, the research describes these initiatives, which combine agroecology and circular economy practices. These initiatives, ranging from an established one with 200 employees to more recent, smaller cooperatives, focus on regenerative land use and foster consumer integration, representing a cultural shift towards a more resilient food system.

Kwaku Obosu-Mensah · · Global

This chapter reviews literature to identify the types of people likely to engage in urban agriculture. It explains that the labor-surplus, dependency, and cultural lag models are complementary in explaining urban residents' involvement in agriculture. Low salaries compel workers to supplement income through urban agriculture, and the sector is expected to grow with population increases, notably with the increasing entry of highly educated and skilled personnel.

Katinka Mihova · · Global

This paper discusses urban agriculture as a sustainable future, particularly for the urban poor in developing countries. Defined as an industry within or on the fringe of urban areas that produces and distributes diverse food and non-food products, urban agriculture functions as an informal food supply system. The paper notes increasing global attention to urban agriculture and the emergence of analyses attempting to systematize its benefits and drawbacks.

Milah Zainal, Siti Raba’ah Hamzah · International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences · Malaysia

This study aimed to identify important knowledge regarding urban agriculture activities among farmers in Malaysia. Urban agriculture is introduced as a strategy to increase food productivity in response to rising living costs in cities, but farmers' acceptance is influenced by their cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels.

Marit Rosol · · Global

This chapter discusses the politics of urban community gardening, positioning it ambiguously between neoliberal/austerity urbanism and progressive urban politics. It argues that urban community gardening can reinforce neoliberal urbanism through land use struggles and gentrification, the role of volunteering in neoliberal urban governance, and governing through community and technologies of the self. The continuous emphasis on self-help in urban green spaces is problematic when civic engagement focuses exclusively on certain groups and values.

Nizzatul Amaliyah · Studi Pustaka · Global

This study investigated the level of community participation and factors influencing the success of urban farming programs. Urban farming is presented as a community empowerment program to address urban food issues, stating that its success requires the community to be able to provide food independently and to be involved in the planning, implementation, supervision, and evaluation processes. Factors influencing success include community perception and socio-economic factors.

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Karima Kourtit, Peter Nijkamp · Munich Personal RePEc Archive (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) · Global

This study uses a dynamic model to analyze the growth effects of new agricultural technology adoption in rural-urban settings. It determines the steady-state growth rate of agricultural output per worker in rural regions and defines an urban-to-rural agricultural technology knowledge ratio to compute the urban region's growth rate. The analysis also examines the ratio of agricultural output per worker between urban and rural regions at balanced growth and discusses policy implications.

Kwaku Obosu-Mensah · · Ghana (Accra)

This study examined the general characteristics of urban farmers in Accra, Ghana. It showed that people of all socio-economic statuses are involved in urban agriculture. Farmers were found to be reluctant to approach government officials, and the most important reason for urban farmers to quit farming was sickness or death.

Isabel de Felipe · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Global

This paper describes urban agriculture as an activity gaining new support but facing difficulties due to inadequate governance. The research identified eight instruments for sustainable urban agriculture, including food security and economic development. It concludes that each city requires specific governance to achieve synergies.

Tanja Schneider · · Switzerland (Zurich)

This chapter presents the conceptual framework for studying entrepreneurial visions of sustainable food. It highlights trends in the growth of agtech and foodtech startups and reviews debates on food security and sustainable food systems. UrbanFarmers (UF), an urban agriculture company founded in Zurich in 2011, is presented as an example that builds rooftop farms for commercial growers in the city.

Erin Whittingham, Nhu Tuyên Lê, Claudio Vitari, Roxana Bobulescu · International Journal of Agricultural Resources Governance and Ecology · Global

This paper focuses on the transitional features of community supported agriculture (CSA) and its transformational potential for agricultural system change. The research developed a framework that highlights the 'transitional' CSA model and compares it with conventional and 'ideal' CSA models. This framework helps understand how CSAs adapt to their context and demonstrates their transformational potential for agricultural system change, drawing on numerous narratives from the broad literature on CSAs.

Chih Hsuan LI, Kazuo ASAHIRO · Landscape Research Japan Online · Global

A study of the community-supported agriculture (CSA) cooperative in Shan-Gou village, Yi-Lan County, Taiwan, which by 2016 accounted for 26% of Taiwan's 91 CSA farms. The study analyses the cooperative's comprehensive operations through interviews with CSA farm owners on cooperative management features and a financial report analysis of cooperative salary, funding sources, and the proportion of production expenditure. Results show the Shan-Gou CSA cooperative's annual salary was 1,057,000 NT$/ha, compared with an average of 690,000 NT$/ha for conventional modern agriculture in Yi-Lan County; Shan-Gou village has 24 CSA farmers with total farmland of 75.2 ha, and Shan-Gou CSA farmers' average farmland (3.5 ha) is larger than the average for Yi-Lan County's organic rice farmers (2.5 ha). Based on a 5 ha farmland premise, estimated annual income was 3,450,000 NT$ for a modern farmer versus 5,285,000 NT$ for a Shan-Gou CSA farmer, indicating higher income for Shan-Gou CSA farmers than for conventional modern farming. By December 2016, 35 farmers had relocated to Shan-Gou village, Yi-Lan County.

Nguyen Phuong Le, Nguyen Mau Dung · International journal of Rural Development Environment and Health Research · Global

A 2018 case study on the multifunctionality of peri-urban agriculture in Trau Quy Commune, Hanoi City, Vietnam.

Renan Borro Celestrino, Silvia Cristina Vieira · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Global

A descriptive and experimental study (qualitative-quantitative approach triangulated with a literature review) surveyed the cost of small-scale aquaponics implementation for family and peri-urban agriculture and documented the setup steps. In the practical experiment, 27 kilograms of fish were fed at 2% of their live weight, and the resulting waste nourished 144 seedlings of Crespa lettuce. The system was found to have low implementation costs and practical management, with organic nutrition of plants and no chemical use offering a sustainable alternative for healthier production.

Francisco Javier Vélez Zabala, Viviana Yulieth Hidalgo Zapata, Mónica Andrea Martínez Martina, Ana María Soto González, Maria Velez, Juan Diego López Vargas · WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT · Global

This conceptual paper presents urban agriculture as a strategy to improve quality of life in vulnerable urban communities formed by rural-to-urban migration, particularly in developing countries. It covers urban agriculture's concepts, origins and evolution, draws on experiences from countries that have implemented it, and discusses the social, economic and environmental factors that influence its development, without reporting original empirical data.

Kwaku Obosu-Mensah · · Global

This discussion distinguishes an individual's universalistic relationships with the general urban population from more particularistic relationships within social networks, arguing that in urban agriculture, intimate relationships encourage spouses to jointly own and work a farm or garden together. Social class is defined by residence, education, occupation and income, and lower-class individuals are described as having broader social networks; no specific study method or sample size is given.

Bertrand Festus Nero, Nana Afranaa Kwapong, Raymond Jatta, Oluwole Fatunbi · Sustainability · Ghana

Combining interviews with 105 respondents in six neighborhoods and vegetation surveys of over 200 plots (100 sq m each) across five land use types, this study examined the composition, diversity, and socioeconomic contributions of Accra's urban forest and food trees in Ghana. Of 70 woody species found in Accra, 22 have edible parts (leaves, fruits, flowers, etc.), food trees make up about half of all trees counted, and species richness and abundance differed significantly by land use type (p<0.0001) and neighborhood type (p<0.0001), with diversity of food-bearing species much higher in poorer neighborhoods than wealthier ones — while respondents in wealthier neighborhoods rated overall tree and food-tree cover as low and showed greater interest in cultivating food (fruit) trees and expanding forest cover than those in poorer neighborhoods.

Obadia Kyetuza Bishoge, Shaldon Leparan Suntu · Journal of Food Nutrition and Agriculture · Tanzania

A study in Ubungo Municipality, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, used non-random and purposive sampling to survey 240 smallholder farmers and 16 local government officers via observation, questionnaires, interviews, and document review, analyzed with SPSS, to examine how urban horticulture of vegetables and ornamental flowers could reduce poverty. Production of these crops made a significant positive contribution to food availability and accessibility, nutrition, and income used to improve access to services such as water, electricity, health, and education.

Kwaku Obosu-Mensah · · Ghana

A policy-recommendation text on urban agriculture in Ghana and other sub-Saharan African countries (2018) states that private landowners will more readily allow others to cultivate their land if given incentives, that Ghanaian urban residents rarely resettle in rural areas, and that even an attractive government relocation package failed to draw redundant urban residents back to rural areas. Because sub-Saharan farming divides labor by gender — men earning cash income, women farming for subsistence — most people running commercial urban farms are expected to be men. Where urban cultivation is small-scale and open-space-based, government should focus on the problems of open-space cultivators and provide conditions that raise yields, but should avoid paternalism by not granting urban farmers preferential treatment over rural farmers.

World Future Council · World Future Council (futurepolicy.org) · Ecuador

A policy case study on Quito's AGRUPAR participatory urban agriculture programme in Ecuador. Over 16 years it reached 73,936 people directly and 113,774 indirectly, produces over 960,000 kg of food annually, and 84% of its 21,746 trained participants were women. The programme received the Future Policy Silver Award in 2018.

Heidy Yohana Tamayo Ortiz · El Tiempo · Colombia

An article on Medellín's 'Huertas con Vos' program, featuring a roughly 270-square-meter garden shared by 5 households in the Doce de Octubre neighborhood, saving each household about 50,000 pesos a month. The city has about 100,000 food-insecure vulnerable households, of which 10,000 are prioritized; in 2018 the program built 700 new gardens (450 urban, 250 rural), aiming for 1,707 gardens total over three years.