Research & reports

张兆康 · 上海蔬菜 · China

This short report on a Chinese suburban district notes that vegetable cultivation, with its short cycle and high returns, has become a key route to prosperity for suburban farmers and the leading industry of urban agriculture there. It states that base vegetable area reached 381.2 hectares, plus 840 hectares of year-round vegetable area in farming zones, bringing the district's total vegetable area to 1,220 hectares, or 14.4% of its cultivated land.

Tony Binns, Roy Maconachie, Adamu Idris Tanko · Land Degradation and Development · Nigeria (Kano)

This paper examines health and environmental concerns associated with urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in Kano, Nigeria. Empirical evidence indicates that industrial and domestic toxins are reaching dangerously high levels, leading to significant pollution of soils and water channels. This raises serious questions about the sustainability of UPA and the long-term health implications of toxin exposure.

Derek Eaton, Thea Hilhorst · Environment and Urbanization · Africa

A 2003 paper examined the links between urban solid waste management and peri-urban agriculture in Bamako and Ouagadougou. Farmers near both cities value urban waste as an organic matter source and are willing to pay for it, but uncertain land tenure provides little incentive for safe disposal of dangerous elements in solid waste. Current plans to eliminate this recycling practice and promote large-scale composting are noted to be too costly for farmers, creating an incentive for illicit waste acquisition.

Ogunyemi Awodoyin, Taliat Opadeji · Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture · Nigeria (Ibadan)

A 2003 study in Ibadan, Nigeria, investigated heavy metal contamination of Amaranthus cruentus L. grown on domestic refuse landfill soils. Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd) concentrations in soils from four landfill sites and a control site ranged from 110.5 to 678.5ppm for Pb and 2.01 to 3.20ppm for Cd. Metal accumulation in Amaranthus cruentus L. tissues was proportionate to soil Pb concentrations, while Cd levels in crop tissues exceeded soil levels. Crop growth and yield were significantly reduced due to Pb and Cd contamination, leading to the conclusion that Ibadan landfills are unsafe for Amaranthus cruentus cultivation, with heavy metal concentrations in the vegetable tissues much higher than FAO/WHO dietary allowances.

Pierre Donadieu, André Fleury · Revue de géographie alpine · Europe

This paper discusses the role of agriculture in the "country town" project in Europe. Peri-urban areas, once unpleasant environments despite their essential urban functions, have recently become attractive to new inhabitants seeking countryside amenities. Urban planning supports this concept by creating green belts and integrating agriculture as an essential element of natural spaces.

Sylvaine Lemeilleur, Ludovic Temple, Moïse Kwa · Agritrop (Cirad) · Cameroon (Yaoundé)

This study states that urban development, a key feature of socioeconomic change in developing countries, presents the challenge of increasing food supply to meet urban consumer demands. While peri-urban agriculture offers favorable conditions for intensifying production systems, there is limited research specifically on bananas. Therefore, this work aims to identify banana production systems in the peri-urban agriculture of Yaoundé, Cameroon's capital (1.4 million inhabitants).

N. Bertrand, Nicole Rousier · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France (Grenoble)

In the Grenoble urban region, agriculture holds relatively minor economic importance despite the region's strong technological development. However, the region's 2000 master plan assigned an essential role to farming. Peri-urban agriculture is a key issue in planning policies, engaging local officials, planners, and farming community representatives, but its economic weight remains low.

Bernard Keraita, Pay Drechsel, Philip Amoah · Environment and Urbanization · Ghana (Kumasi)

This study in Kumasi, Ghana, investigated the influence of urban wastewater on stream water quality and peri-urban agriculture through interviews and water quality assessments. It found that population increase and underinvestment in sanitation facilities led to large volumes of untreated wastewater entering streams. High levels of faecal coliform were recorded in the city's streams, downstream areas, and on vegetables sold in Kumasi’s markets due to contaminated wastewater.

André Fleury, Paule Moustier, Jean-Jacques Toiron · Agritrop (Cirad) · Global

This project aims to analyze the specificities and contributions of peri-urban agriculture to the transformation of peri-urban spaces into urban territories. It seeks to unify analytical concepts for agriculture in urban areas and produce intervention tools for urban planning and agricultural policy. The project hypothesizes that the sustainability of peri-urban agriculture depends on its ability to integrate into urban policy and projects, leveraging diverse urban demands.

Nathalie Bertrand, Nicole Rousier · Revue de géographie alpine · France (Grenoble)

This study analyzed the economic role of agriculture in the Grenoble urban region, France. From an economic perspective, agriculture was considered an activity of relatively minor importance in this region, known for its strong technological development. However, in the regional master plan approved in 2000, farming occupies an essential position. The study aimed to understand the role of peri-urban agriculture in the preparation of the urban region's development plan by specifying its assigned functions and analyzing how agriculture has been considered in regional plans.

You Shao · · China (Chongqing)

This paper examines the development of urban agricultural industrialization in the metropolitan periphery, using Chongqing, China, as an example. It identifies the position, role, and favorable conditions of urban agriculture, which embodies economic, social, and ecological functions. The study also highlights existing problems in Chongqing's agricultural industrialization and proposes countermeasures.

李群生, 刘汉文 · 湖北农机化 · China (Wuhan)

This survey reports on the situation in the suburbs of Wuhan City since July 2003, where agricultural machinery services have contributed to increased agricultural efficiency and farmer income in urban agriculture development, while also addressing high temperatures and drought. Agricultural machinery was utilized for harvesting early rice and corn, tilling paddy fields and vegetable plots, and pumping water for drought relief.

吳宗瓊, 鄭智鴻, 楊淑涓, 莊庭禎 · · Taiwan

This study examined visitor characteristics, recreation motives, experiences, and satisfactions in Taiwanese citizen farms, and analyzed product service strategies. It found significant differences in visitor characteristics and visiting patterns between "Farm-practices-oriented" and "Recreation-oriented" types of citizen farms. The paper discusses product service and marketing strategies for both types based on these empirical findings.

Alberto Gurovich Weisman · Cuadernos del Cendes · Chile

This paper examines the creation and persistence of a state territorial intervention model called Worker and Family Orchards, tested from 1929 and legitimized in 1941 through the Caja de la Habitación Popular. The Caja acquired the La Pintana estate in 1942 and built housing on 500 half-hectare plots, opening the first stage in 1946 and further stages in 1950 and 1957. During the critical settlement period of 1979-1985, the number of resident families rose by 327.73%, equivalent to 12.94 times the average for Greater Santiago.

Jeroen H. J. Ensink, Wim van der Hoek, Yutaka Matsuno, Sarfraz Munir, Muhammad Rizwan Aslam · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Pakistan

The use of untreated wastewater for irrigation is widespread in Pakistan's peri-urban agriculture, driven by water scarcity and lack of treatment funds. This practice has led to an uncontrolled expansion of wastewater use. The paper emphasizes the need to document this practice to find improvement methods within the financial constraints of low-income countries.

Maurizio Tiepolo · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Niger

This paper investigates whether urbanization in Niamey, Niger, generates or aggravates urban food insecurity by examining agro-pastoral production, food demand, and buying power. It found that Niamey's high rate of urban growth has increased food insecurity for its inhabitants. This insecurity is attributed to low productivity of peri-urban agriculture, insufficient food influxes, rising prices, extreme poverty, and a nutrient-poor diet, with current measures failing to address root causes like land tenure uncertainty.

Nigel Poole, DS Bhupal, Fiona Marshall, Dolf te Lintelo · · India

New knowledge is presented on the impacts of urban and peri-urban (UPU) environmental pollution on food safety attributes of vegetable marketing systems in India. Air pollution reduces crop yield and nutritional quality, and is a major source of particulate contaminants that accumulate at toxic levels in edible crops. The study explores the balance between public and private quality assurance initiatives and identifies wholesale markets as a potential entry point for quality assurance.

E. Mensah, Philip Amoah, Pay Drechsel, Robert Clement Abaidoo · CABI Publishing eBooks · Sub-Saharan Africa

This work, presented as case studies from Accra and Kumasi, addresses environmental concerns of urban and peri-urban agriculture. It focuses on waste composting for urban and peri-urban agriculture, aiming to close the rural-urban nutrient cycle in Sub-Saharan Africa.

E. Mensah, Philip Amoah, Robert Clement Abaidoo, Pay Drechsel · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Ghana

This document presents case studies on environmental concerns related to urban and peri-urban vegetable production in Kumasi and Accra, Ghana. It is part of a larger work on waste composting for urban and peri-urban agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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.

Camillus J. Sawio, Lori A. Spies, Djibril Doucouré · CABI Publishing eBooks · Africa

This chapter provides an overview of international efforts and initiatives to strengthen urban and periurban agriculture, with special reference to related networks in Africa.

Jens Færge, Jakob Magid, F.W.T. Penning de Vries · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Sub-Saharan Africa

This 2001 entry from CGSpace references a publication titled "Waste composting for urban and peri-urban agriculture: closing the rural-urban nutrient cycle in Sub-Saharan Africa." The publication, edited by Drechsel and Kunze, focuses on waste composting to manage nutrient flows between rural and urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa.

J.J. Tolron · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Europe

This article examines peri-urban agriculture, which is subject to land constraints imposed by nearby cities. Two case studies in the Mediterranean region illustrate that adaptations to the peri-urban context trigger radical changes in agricultural systems' functioning rationale, leading to sometimes paradoxical operations. The study emphasizes the diversifying effect on systems and the challenges linked to land management.

Frank Lohrberg · OPUS Publication Server of the University of Stuttgart (University of Stuttgart) · Global

This study argues that agricultural production forms near cities, often overlooked by municipal and environmental policy, are innovative, consumer-oriented, and economically efficient. It suggests that urban and and open space planning should abandon the prejudice that agriculture on the city outskirts is an outdated model. A differentiated view reveals an "urban" agriculture that is more vital than its rural counterpart and can provide important impulses for more sustainable cities and efficient planning.

Dick Foeken, Samuel Owuor · · Kenya

A 2001 study examines "multi-spatial livelihood" households — those with a livelihood foothold in both urban and rural areas — from the urban perspective, based on Nakuru Town, Kenya. According to 1999 survey data, over 60% of Nakuru households can be considered to have a multi-spatial livelihood. While one-adult and low-income households are relatively under-represented in the survey, multi-spatial livelihoods may be particularly important for the food security of the latter group. However, the results indicate that rural farming by urban dwellers should be understood mainly in terms of "opportunity," in contrast to urban farming, which is framed in terms of "necessity."