Research & reports

Gundula Proksch · · Global

"Creating Urban Agricultural Systems: An Integrated Approach to Design" is a resource that documents environmental, systemic, technical, and operational considerations in urban agriculture. It compiles emerging strategies, current practices, and working case studies. This research synthesizes information on inputs and outputs, resource efficiencies, environmental benefits, and operational achievements, based on numerous site visits, examinations of outstanding case studies, and interviews with stakeholders behind innovative farm operations.

Diana Paola Vargas Huertas, Juan–Carlos Ruiz · Ciudad Paz-ando · Colombia (Bogotá)

This case study analyzed the creation process of an agricultural-based socio-economic network (orchards) in the Altos de la Estancia sector of Ciudad Bolívar in Bogotá, from the perspective of social resilience. Using participatory design accompaniment methodologies, the study examined resilience variables, vulnerability, and alternative economies within urban agriculture, and analyzed the social actors involved in the network's formation. The research revealed diverse capacities to face environmental adversity within risk management and community building processes, supported by district institutions, academia, and popular collectives.

George Martin, Roland Clift, Ian Christie · Sustainability · Global

This exploratory study examined three urban cultivation sites in New York, London, and San Francisco to assess their nutritional, ecological, and social sustainability contributions. Field analysis revealed very low food outputs relative to the populations of their catchment areas, indicating that most urban food will continue to come from outside urban peripheries. The study concluded that urban food growing's sustainability benefits are more social than agronomic or ecological.

A. Sempere · Americanae (AECID Library) · Global

This paper argues that the concentration of people in urban areas poses significant ecological and social challenges, such as how to supply food to large population centers that grow at the expense of surrounding agricultural land. According to the United Nations, over half of the world's population currently lives in cities, projected to reach 66% by 2050. Current cities rely on food imported from increasingly distant places rather than food produced in their geographical environment, resulting in cities and citizens disconnected from their ecological and sociocultural context.

Marjorie Freedman, Juliana K. King · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · Global

This research surveyed 536 current and former J&P Organics farm CSA subscribers, categorizing them into four groups based on ordering frequency. Findings strongly indicate that a flexible pay-as-you-go CSA subscription model could increase subscriber membership and possibly ordering frequency, especially for those likely to order less frequently than weekly but who are otherwise similar to traditional pay-up-front subscribers in demographics, motivations, satisfaction, and subscription length.

Joshua Zeunert · UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) · Australia

Urban public green spaces typically require external budgets for maintenance, with most projects costing municipal authorities more money than they generate, making them economically unproductive. For instance, the Adelaide Parklands annually costs AU$9 million for maintenance while generating less than AU$1 million in income. Maintenance spending on public green spaces in the USA, UK, and Australia has been declining, a trend accelerated since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Marie-Dominique Pivetaud et Jean-Claude Legendre, Entrepreneurs chez Nature et potager en ville · · Global

This workshop focuses on the sale of pre-vegetated planters to individuals and businesses as a new market within the urban agriculture sector.

Stefan Hebold, Andrea Frömel · edoc Publication server (Humboldt University of Berlin) · Global

This study aimed to address the lack of scientific documentation on the forms and effects of urban agriculture by investigating the health of urban-produced plant-based foods. Raised beds were established at urban, peri-urban, and rural locations, planted with identical species, and compared with the yields from an ECF container farm hydroponic system. Yields were compared between the hydroponic system and raised beds, while raised beds were compared among themselves based on heavy metal accumulation.

Manase Kudzai Chiweshe, Kudzai MacMillan Muzanago · · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This exploratory study analyzed the emergence of sack potato farming as an alternative empowerment platform for urban women in Zimbabwe, using qualitative methodologies and secondary literature. It found that sack potato production, which gained prominence in Zimbabwe in 2013, can increase food security and income for urban households and promotes micro-economic enterprises among urban women.

Laure‐Elise Ruoso, R. Plant, Brent Jacobs, Pierre Maurel · · Australia (Western Sydney)

This study, based on in-depth interviews with farmers in peri-urban Sydney, Australia, examines how changes in these areas impact farmers' place identity and decision-making. It analyzes how increasing urban development, land subdivision, rising land values, and environmental regulations threaten farming activities. The findings indicate that these factors influence farmers' practices, business management, and decisions to continue or relocate peri-urban farming.

Patrizia Ghisellini, Marco Casazza · Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management · Global

Given cities' near-total dependence on imported resources, this paper offers a short review of research on urban agriculture, energy and urban resilience, alongside a historical overview of the evolving concept of the city-countryside relationship. It concludes that urban agriculture in its various forms partially addresses food security in both developed and developing countries and provides environmental, economic and social benefits, but states that its energetic and environmental impacts have not been adequately investigated on-site in specific locations, leaving it unclear whether urban agriculture is a sustainable option.

Tracey Adams · Lincoln (University of Nebraska) · Global

A University of Nebraska study examined whether urban farming could support future food security through a literature review and hands-on work on small farms. Mapping community garden locations in Omaha, Nebraska against the city's median household income found that urban farming is prevalent even in poverty-affected areas, despite Omaha being surrounded by extensive rural farmland.

E.N. Sabiiti, Constantine Bakyusa Katongole · Water science and technology library · Uganda

Wakiso district, the peri-urban area surrounding Kampala, Uganda's capital city (population about 1.51 million), ranks first nationally in poultry production and second in pig production, accounting for 7.4% and 6.3% of the national chicken and pig populations respectively. The chapter finds that agricultural land in these peri-urban areas is increasingly at risk from urban encroachment, driven by population growth, distorted land values, a construction boom, and expanding recreation and leisure facilities competing with farming for land, which is likely to adversely affect the city's food security.

Hiran Roy, C. Michael Hall, Paul W. Ballantine · · Global

This excerpt is the introduction to a chapter on barriers facing hospitality businesses' use of local food; it covers only the background on rising North American and European consumer demand for local food, driven by desire for fresh food access, support for local farmers and communities, and concerns over trust, locality, transparency, animal welfare and food safety, alongside the post-1990s growth of farmers' markets, food box programs and community-supported agriculture. The specific economic barriers and constraints named in the chapter's title are not described within this excerpted text.

Saverio Miccoli, Fabrizio Finucci, Rocco Murro · Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia · Global

Against a backdrop of rising food demand driven by global urban population growth, this paper (2016, no specific region) argues for fostering urban agriculture to integrate with traditional agricultural production, which it characterizes as no longer sustainable on its own. After proposing implementation of integrated urban agriculture systems, it introduces the "Community Esteem Value," a measure of community social appreciation obtained through a deliberative appraisal procedure.

Christine Brown-Paul · Practical Hydroponics and Greenhouses · Global

An overview article (2016, no specific region) surveys the varied forms of urban agriculture — from small community gardens to urban farms spanning several city blocks to intensive indoor hydroponic or aquaculture facilities — describing it as a fast-growing phenomenon with the potential to nourish community health and social fabric and create economic opportunities for farmers and neighborhoods, while also coming with its own set of challenges and opportunities.

Thomaier S., Specht K., Henckel D., Dierich A., Siebert R., Freisinger U. B., Sawicka M. · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 30(1):43-54 · Global

Survey of 73 zero-acreage (building-based) farms across four continents, analyzing innovative technologies, supply patterns, and business networks of commercial hydroponic and aquaponic urban farming.

Poulsen M. N., McNab P. R., Clayton M. L., Neff R. A. · Food Policy 55:131-146 · Global

Synthesizing 35 peer-reviewed studies from 1980-2013, this review finds urban agriculture in low-income countries can improve food availability and dietary diversity, especially benefiting women, though income gains are not always sufficient to ensure household food security.

Visser O., Mamonova N., Spoor M., Nikulin A. · Globalizations · Russia

Introduces the concept of 'quiet food sovereignty' to describe how Russian smallholders practise dispersed, muted, bottom-up food autonomy in the absence of organised rural social movements.

Boukharaeva L.M., Marloie M. · Springer (Urban Agriculture Series) · Russia

A Springer monograph documenting research since 1999 on urban gardening collectives in Russia, analysing the social, cultural, and food-security roles of family urban agriculture and its prospects.

Schreinemachers P., Patalagsa M.A., Islam M.R., Uddin M.N., Ahmad S., Biswas S.C., Ahmed M.T., Yang R.Y., Hanson P., Begum S., Takagi C. · Food Security · Bangladesh

A study of 582 poor rural Bangladeshi women found home garden training increased per-capita vegetable production by 86% and significantly improved dietary diversity and nutrient supply including iron (+284%) and vitamin A (+189%).

· PLOS ONE · Global

Describes the design and construction of an inexpensive homemade plant growth chamber built from low-cost materials as an accessible alternative to costly commercial units for controlled indoor plant growth.

· HortTechnology · Global

An automated irrigation controller built from open-source Arduino boards, capacitance soil-moisture sensors and solenoid valves that logs volumetric water content and triggers irrigation by threshold; inexpensive and suited to home gardens, greenhouses and nurseries.

Love D. C., Fry J. P., Li X. · Aquaculture · Global

An international survey of 257 commercial aquaponics operations found only 31% were profitable in the prior 12 months, with many relying on non-food income such as classes, tours, and equipment sales, documenting weak commercial profitability.

Badami M., Ramankutty N. · Global Food Security · Global

Assessing the urban land needed to grow the urban poor's daily vegetables, the authors conclude urban agriculture can make only a limited contribution to food security in low-income countries where need is greatest, and argue its benefits are often overstated.