Research & reports

Sanzidur Rahman · PEARL (University of Plymouth) · Bangladesh

This study examined socio-economic factors influencing monthly household income in poor urban slum settlements across four secondary cities in Bangladesh, based on a census survey of 33,049 households. Using a Tobit model, it found that education, public sector employment, business, self-employment, homestead land ownership, family size, female occupation, and urban agriculture significantly increased income. Conversely, households with female heads, unemployed heads, and children under 5 earned significantly less income.

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.

Haruka Yamashita, Akira Ishida · Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics · Bangladesh

This study identified factors affecting urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) decision-making among poor urban slum dwellers in Bangladesh, using a logit regression model with secondary household data. In Jessore, households with more family members (without children under five), some savings, owned or rent-free housing, and 1-60 days of waterlogging were more likely to engage in UPA. In Tongi, households with owned or rent-free housing, longer residency, less than four months of waterlogging, or reliance on neighbors were more likely to engage in UPA. The findings indicate that UPA engagement factors vary across urban settings.

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.

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.

Esther Sanz Sanz, Claude Napoléone, Bernard Hubert, Aruna Popuri · · Global

Existing urban planning documents inadequately consider the specificities of peri-urban agriculture as an economic activity requiring arrangements not always adapted to an urban vision of agricultural spaces. This paper proposes a systemic methodology to characterize peri-urban agricultural spatial units, aiming to provide an inventory of peri-urban agricultural areas tailored to urban planning practitioners' constraints. The approach seeks to focus public action on areas where it is most likely to be efficient within a territorial project.

Dan McKanan · · Global

Rudolf Steiner's economic teachings and "threefolding" social theory influenced the development of green banking and community-supported agriculture (CSA) starting in the 1970s. Steiner advocated for "fraternal" cooperation within the economic sphere, inspiring cooperative enterprises and later contributing to social entrepreneurship and B-corps. This philosophy also led biodynamic farmers to establish CSAs, where consumers share farm costs and risks.

Mohd. Ramzi Mohd. Hussain, Norul Hafizah Yusoff, Izawati Tukiman · · Global

This paper aims to discuss the literature framework of the growing demand for urban farming activities within the city environment and how they benefit the concept of environmental sustainability. It describes the advantages of urban farming activities from environmental, economic, and social perspectives that contribute to urban sustainability, evaluating the benefits and potential of implementing urban farming within limited urban spaces.

Hayford Mensah Ayerakwa · Geographical Research · Ghana

This paper descriptively analyzed the contribution of household engagement in agriculture to urban food security in Techiman and Tamale, Ghana, using household data. The study found that nearly half (43%) of urban residents participate in food production, primarily for consumption and surplus sale. For households engaged in both urban and rural agriculture, agricultural income was the highest, contributing 43% of total cash income in Techiman and 33% in Tamale.

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.

Praptiningsih Gamawati Adinurani · · Global

Massive urbanization without adequate human resources support will cause problems, including the provision of food. Urban farming activities by urban communities, utilizing yards or abandoned land, can address food needs. Increased knowledge and skills of urban farming practitioners can be achieved through counseling, discussion, and training in various agricultural techniques such as verticulture, hydroponics, and polybag systems. After participating in training, urban agriculture practitioners can produce vegetables and fruits for their consumption and for sale, produce seeds and fertilizer, and model various farming practices.

Norul Hafizah Yusoff, Mohd. Ramzi Mohd. Hussain, Izawati Tukiman · PLANNING MALAYSIA · Malaysia

This paper reviews and analyzes the importance of a framework for urban farming activities within cities, describing the community's role in achieving environmental, economic, and social sustainability. It evaluates the benefits and potential of urban farming in limited urban spaces, noting its contribution to improving quality of life and addressing food shortage crises. The paper concludes that the community's role is crucial for implementing urban farming activities in urbanized areas.

Joshua Sbicca · Digital Collections of Colorado (Colorado State University) · Global

An article examining food as an entry point into the politics and processes of gentrification, discussed with reference to cities globally rather than a single case. Where traditional explanations of gentrification hinge on either political-economy or cultural drivers, the article shows the relationship between the two to argue that food gentrification is multifaceted, changing a neighborhood's class and ethnoracial demographics, foodscapes and foodways, and housing. It states that poor communities in cities around the world can experience harmful effects of food-driven gentrification, such as developers using urban agriculture to attract new residents and increase property values. It also describes food itself as being gentrified in two ways: for communities marginalized by race or ethnicity, culturally important foods become "cool," unaffordable and dispossessed from them, while the upscaling of food retail displaces former bars, cafes, restaurants, grocery stores and gardens. The article closes with a brief discussion of social movement strategies and policy approaches to prevent these harmful effects.

Imogen Bellwood‐Howard, Eileen Bogweh Nchanji · CABI eBooks · Ghana

This book chapter argues that the market function of urban agriculture, combined with characteristics of the urban zone, allows urban farmers and marketers to reconnect ecological aspects with social and economic ones in their livelihood strategies. Drawing on urban political ecology and livelihoods frameworks, it shows this occurring to varying extents across the Global North and Global South, depending on the degree of politicization and connection between producers and consumers. The chapter draws on primary data on vegetable marketing in Tamale, northern Ghana, comparing it with case studies from the Global North, and concludes by considering implications for the future of market-oriented urban agriculture in both regions.

James Ward, John Symons · Horticulturae · Global

A two-stage linear programming model examined the net value of urban agriculture across different climates and water prices, treating crop type and yield as decision variables constrained by dietary food-group bounds, protein and energy requirements, and area per person. The model found optimal crop regimes to be similar across climates and water prices because high-profit-margin crops were consistently selected, and that smaller per-capita garden size was optimal for water-use efficiency and net value, with a modest, well-chosen food garden shown to be cost-effective even under conservative yield and water-use assumptions.

Fatemeh Kalantari, Osman Mohd Tahir, Raheleh Akbari Joni, Ezaz Fatemi · Journal of Landscape Ecology · Global

This paper critically reviews 60 published documents on vertical farming — cultivating plants and livestock on vertically inclined surfaces such as skyscrapers in land-scarce urban areas — assessing it against environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability, and notes that published critical reviews on the topic remain scarce. Economic viability is named as one of the challenges considered alongside environmental and social factors, but the abstract does not present specific cost, revenue, or failure data to support this; it concludes, without citing supporting figures, that vertical farming can be "potentially beneficial" for food production, quality, safety, and food security.

Kasper Lange, Gijsbert Korevaar, Inge Oskam, Paulien Herder · Sustainability · Global

This paper addresses "Symbiotic Urban Agriculture Networks" (SUANs), a class of symbiotic networks aiming to close material and energy loops between cities and urban agriculture, and the difficulties private and public stakeholders face implementing technological and organisational design interventions given the complexity of the agricultural and urban environment. Arguing that existing research on Industrial Symbiosis (IS) dynamics relies mainly on historical practice data and provides only a partial understanding of symbiotic networks as sociotechnical complex adaptive systems, it proposes a conceptual Design Science method combining Design Science theory, participatory methods and agent-based modelling to develop grounded, tested design rules for SUANs. It also lays out a research agenda for further strategy, design intervention and model development through case studies, but reports no results from an actual case application.

Fábio Cunha Coelho, Enilce Maria Coelho, Monika Egerer · Scientia Agricola · Global

A review paper on the consumption of locally produced food examines its relationship to local and global sustainability, the effect of transport distance ("food miles"), low-carbon farming practices, urban agriculture's contribution to local food, and links to nutrition and health. It states that transportation is not the sole determinant of how efficiently local food is consumed — the agricultural technologies used are often more responsible for the degree of sustainability — and that local production does not always mean lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Buehler D., Junge R. · Sustainability 8(11):1108 · Global

Survey of commercial urban rooftop farms worldwide, classifying them into hydroponic greenhouse and soil-based open-air types, and analyzing the technologies and business realities of for-profit rooftop food production.

Leitgeb F., Schneider S., Vogl C.R. · Agriculture and Human Values · Cuba (Havana)

Using semi-structured interviews with 15 urban farmers in Havana, this study examines how Cuba's 2008 land reform and 2011 Lineamientos policy created conditions for food sovereignty while generating new marketing opportunities, though reducing subsidies raised consumer prices.

· Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy · Global

Proposes an economic assessment framework aimed at achieving sustainable composting quality in low-cost, small-scale composting contexts in developing countries.

Sarah James, Philip O’Neill · Australian Geographer · Australia (Sydney)

This study collated and analyzed existing Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and non-ABS data on Sydney agriculture between 1992 and 2011. It found that accounting for the Sydney Basin's farmlands remains opaque due to difficulties in acquiring reliable data, and existing data are often contested. The findings reveal trends in Sydney Basin agriculture that invite debate on assumptions about peri-urban agriculture, emphasizing the need for more reliable and consistent longitudinal data for future planning.

Steve G. Hallett, Lori Hoagland, Emily Toner · Horticultural reviews · Global

This chapter discusses urban agriculture from economic, environmental, and social perspectives, acknowledging differences between urban agriculture in small and large cities, as well as the Global North and South. Urban farms and community gardens can have both positive and negative environmental impacts, such as reducing or increasing energy consumption, improving water infiltration, and beautifying neighborhoods, or producing odors and contaminating water. The chapter also attempts to frame policy recommendations that might help guide urban agriculture's development.

Florence Chimbwanda · Journals & Books Hosting (International Knowledge Sharing Platform) · Zimbabwe (Masvingo)

This study investigated participants' attitudes and perceptions toward urban gardening in Mucheke town, Masvingo, Zimbabwe, using questionnaires, focus group discussions, and field observations with a sample of 40 participants. It found that urban gardening is important for the community and income generation, with participants reporting benefits like additional income, family consumption, and socialization. However, participants identified challenges including theft, dilapidated canals, a single water point, and limited market access.

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

This study evaluated how new food-related economic forms, such as urban gardening, food coops, and community-supported agriculture, contribute to reshaping consumption practices and market relationships to foster a sustainable food economy. Based on empirical data, the research elucidated the specific characteristics and transformative potentials of these initiatives. The question is whether these initiatives can transform the prevailing food system from the bottom up.