Research & reports

Zai Xue-ming · Horticulture & Seed · Global

A Chinese report on building a practical teaching system for applied urban horticulture talent, using the College of Horticulture at Jinling Institute of Technology as a case example, addressing systematic skills training, improving the occupational skills of urban gardening talent, and enhancing students' innovation and entrepreneurial capability.

Dan Stafford · · United States

A library web page introducing the presenters for a school garden workshop at Kutztown University in the United States, describing it as a learning opportunity for educators and parents featuring speakers and demonstrations on building a sustainable community partnership.

Kristen B. Crossney, Emily Shellenberger · · United States

A study examining the relationship between neighborhood quality and the presence of community gardens in Philadelphia, United States. Neighborhoods were characterized by population and neighborhood factors including race, ethnicity, and income, and t-tests assessed the statistical significance of differences between areas with a community garden and other parts of the city. The statistical results showed that while areas with community gardens faced more socioeconomic challenges, they underwent more positive change and improvement between 2000 and 2010 than other parts of the city.

LI Weishu, Lingxian Zhang, Zetian Fu, Ren Xi, Li, Wei-Shu, Zhang, Ling-Xian, Fu, Ze-Tian, Ren, Xi · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · China (Beijing)

This study analyses the development situation of Beijing's modern urban agriculture in terms of agricultural distribution, agricultural foundation and agricultural industrial system. It identifies challenges including resource shortages, environmental deterioration and high production costs, alongside opportunities such as a large market space and advanced agricultural industrial experience, and sets out development directions for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, including strengthening the agricultural foundation, orienting toward mid- to high-end market demand, building a unique product brand, and raising the added value of agricultural products.

Sofie Engberg · · Global

This study takes a corporate perspective on urban farming to identify factors enabling value creation, using a qualitative approach combining a literature review with a case study -- document analysis and interviews -- of an urban farming corporation that uses greenhouses for production. Drawing on stakeholder theory, triple-bottom-line theory and hybrid organisation theory, it concludes that urban farming can generate economic, environmental and social value simultaneously, that enabling factors include favourable resource availability and active stakeholder dialogue, and that greenhouse cultivation allows for minimal use of pesticides and fertilizers.

FALLETTI, MADDALENA · TERRITORIO · Italy

This 2012 introductory piece for the Italian journal TERRITORIO reorganizes contributions on urban agriculture by subject matter to surface several contradictory aspects of the ongoing debate. It offers three interpretive keys: the first reproduces the debate within its own sealed compartments while attempting comparison through juxtaposition of contrasting attitudes; the second highlights a transverse conceptual dichotomy with strong implications for planning — urban agriculture as a remedy for city problems versus the urban countryside as a new form of urban plan; the third examines the debate in the specific context of Milan.

John Jacob, Samuel E. Kakulu · American Journal of Chemistry · Nigeria

Soil and vegetable samples (spinach, jute mallow, and tomato) were collected from farms and gardens across 20 zones within Kaduna, Nigeria, plus two rural control villages about 30 km from the city, and analyzed for heavy metals by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Pollution Load Index results showed soils in the city farms were moderately enriched with cadmium and chromium and strongly enriched with lead and nickel from anthropogenic sources. Mean soil concentrations of lead and cadmium exceeded WHO/FAO permissive limits for agricultural soil (nickel and chromium did not), while vegetable metal concentrations exceeded the permissive limits for every metal except nickel — a finding flagged as concerning given the toxicity of lead and cadmium in particular, which have no known biological use.

Amadou Diop, Seyni Ndiaye · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Senegal

A study replicating earlier field surveys on crop yields and nutritional benefits of urban farming in Dakar, Senegal, using standardized sampling across selected urban villages. Crop yields from the replicated plots showed an average increase of 15% over initial estimates, with significant variation between crop types such as vegetables versus grains. Nutritional analysis found that urban farming increased micronutrient content in staple foods by up to 20%, particularly in leafy greens and fruits.

Zilian LIN, K. Akiyama · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Taiwan

A study examining the progress of Taiwan's rural planning policy, implemented by the government for more than five decades, from the perspective of community building. As a case study focused on seven points, the analysis finds that an industrial-prosperity policy supporting rural communities, carried out in cooperation with relevant authorities, resulted in rural community promotion. Residents were generally satisfied with the implementation of the plans, but the study also identifies remaining issues, including strengthening a direct-sales system, better grasping residents' needs, coordinating with broader-based plans, maintaining urban agricultural land, and government support services.

Zoey Rogers, Elizabeth Bragg · Ecopsychology · Australia

This study examined what motivates residents of Melbourne, Australia, to lead an environmentally sustainable lifestyle, focusing specifically on the role of "sense of place." Nineteen in-depth interviews were conducted with residents engaged in three types of sustainability activism: personal (e.g., energy and water saving, shopping at farmers' markets), group (e.g., community gardens, sharing neighborhood goods), and political (e.g., lobbying and organizing for structural change). Participants did report a sense of place in Melbourne, but what motivated their action was a broader sense of connection with nature and the planet, awareness of the human-made and cultural/political environment, and their personal health, relationships and community — not necessarily tied to a specific geographical location within the city. Motivating factors differed slightly across activist types, though connection with nature was consistent across all groups; the authors suggest that in urban settings, local sense of place may act as an enabler and reinforcer of action — providing a place to act and people to act with — rather than as a motivator in itself.

Sally Brown, Ingrid Clausen, Mark A. Chappell, Kirk G. Scheckel, M. Newville, Ganga M. Hettiarachchi · Journal of Environmental Quality · Global

Against a background in which the safety of urban farming has been questioned because of possible contamination in urban soils, this study tested whether high-iron biosolids-based composts could reduce the bioaccessibility of soil lead (Pb) and arsenic (As), using two laboratory incubations and a field trial. Pb and As bioaccessibility were assessed with an in vitro assay, and changes in Pb, As, and Fe speciation were analyzed on select samples using micro-X-ray fluorescence mapping and micro-XANES. A compost with iron added to wastewater-treatment residuals (Fe WTR compost), applied to soil at 100 g/kg, decreased Pb bioaccessibility in both laboratory incubations, though results for As were mixed. In contrast, the composts tested in the field trial (with iron added as Fe powder or FeCl) did not reduce bioaccessible Pb and showed only limited reductions in bioaccessible As; these same composts also had no effect on Pb bioaccessibility in the second laboratory incubation. The study concludes that high-iron biosolids compost is effective at reducing Pb accessibility only for certain types of iron-rich materials.

Rolando León Aguilar, Ramón Liriano González, Dania Bárbara Núñez Sosa · Centro agrícola · Cuba

A study at the intensive garden of the Universidad de Matanzas in Cuba evaluated the effect of organic matter and vegetative ground cover on water resource sustainability for urban agriculture, growing lettuce and cucumber. Using a randomized block design with six treatments and five replicates, soil moisture content and yield components were measured and analyzed with Tukey's test at 95% confidence; organic matter and vegetative cover increased soil water content and retention by more than 10% compared with bare soil, and both applied singly or combined produced a positive response in the yield components of lettuce and cucumber.

Maira Echeverry, Sebastián Gutiérrez, Julián Pineda, Nelson Ravelo · · Colombia

This account describes Barrio San Luis, an informal settlement on the eastern hills of Chapinero, Bogotá, Colombia, formed by rural-to-urban displacement and still undergoing legalization, where residents obtained services such as a community-run water system through collective organizing. It describes the Casa Taller Las Moyas, a project founded roughly seven years earlier to serve neighborhood children and youth left without care while parents work, offering workshops in baking, ceramics, crafts and urban agriculture in two daily shifts organized around school schedules; the text ends mid-sentence and provides no further data on the seed-conservation activities named in the title.

Gail Langellotto, Abha Gupta · HortTechnology · United States

Using peer-reviewed studies of garden-based nutrition education programs delivered to children in the United States, a study applied meta-analytical techniques to examine effects on children's nutrition knowledge, preference for fruit and vegetables, and consumption. Compared with experimental controls (no nutrition education) and nutrition education programs without a gardening component, a vote-counting analysis found most outcomes nonsignificant in the control and nutrition-education-only groups, but positive and significant in the gardening group. The quantitative meta-analysis was limited by the small number of studies reporting full descriptive statistics, but one robust result stood out: gardening increased vegetable consumption in children, while the impact of nutrition education programs alone was marginal or nonsignificant.

Annelies De Nijs, Pei-Chun Wen, Di Wu · TERRITORIO · China

In contemporary China, where the evolution of productive land relates to specific government policies and the nation's changing spatial conditions, a paper describes urban agriculture — particularly developed in the friction zone between the ever-growing urban and threatened rural territories — through three cases in Beijing's peri-urban periphery: Liuminying, Xiedao, and Taihu. The first two, Liuminying and Xiedao, show a major concern for sustainable production and agro-tourism but a weaker embedding in their local contexts, while the Taihu project is more rooted in its locale and provides a stronger response to the site's ecological sensitivity. The paper argues the Taihu case exemplifies an alternative to China's ever-booming and seemingly randomly placed agro-tourism sites.

엄기철, 정필균, So Hyun Park, 유성녕, 김태완 · · South Korea

A study quantitatively evaluated the effect of vegetation on urban heat island mitigation across six cities in South Korea, analyzing climate change data over 30 years (1979-2008) and estimating evapotranspiration (ET), CO2 uptake, O2 emission and ozone concentration. The hottest period was late July to early August, and the highest 10-day average urban ambient air temperature (UAAT) over the 30 years was 35.03°C. The mean maximum ET of rice and soybean in urban areas was 6.86 and 6.00 mm/day, respectively. Rice and soybean cultivation lowered UAAT by 10.5°C and 3.0°C in Suwon, while the differences between UAAT and canopy temperature at urban paddy and upland fields in Ansung were 2.6°C and 2.2°C. Urban gardens in Suwon lowered UAAT and building surface temperature by 2.0°C and 14.5°C, respectively. CO2 uptake by rice and soybean was estimated at 20.27 and 15.54 kg CO2 per 10a per day, and O2 emission at 14.74 and 11.30 kg O2 per 10a per day. During the hottest summer period, ozone concentrations were estimated to be reduced by 21.0, 8.8, and 4.0 ppb through rice cultivation, soybean cultivation, and urban gardening, respectively.

Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne, Wade Pendleton · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · Sub-Saharan Africa

A paper on rapid urbanization and rising urban poverty shifting the historical locus of food insecurity from rural areas to the cities of Africa uses baseline survey data from the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN), carried out in 11 cities in 9 southern African countries in 2008-2009, to demonstrate extremely high levels of urban food insecurity. It finds that lack of access to food results primarily from household poverty, high unemployment, and limited income-generating opportunities rather than any absolute food shortages. The paper also shows the growing importance of supermarkets, and finds that urban agriculture plays a relatively insignificant role in the food sourcing strategies of the urban poor.

임주호, 이경환, 윤인숙, 윤은주 · · South Korea

This study estimated new-town residents' willingness to pay for urban garden plots on public land, using a 1.5-bound dichotomous-choice contingent valuation method (CVM) survey of residents in Bundang and Dongtan, South Korea. 72.6% of respondents said they would use urban garden plots if part of a park or green space were developed and leased as an urban farm, indicating latent demand; willingness to pay was estimated at about 236,000 won per year for one plot (16.5 m2 basis), exceeding rental costs at existing weekend farms near the capital region. Gender, age and occupation significantly affected willingness to pay, while other socioeconomic characteristics, possible visit frequency and desired stay duration were not significant.

Ross Wilson · Journal of Urban History · United Kingdom

A historical study using archive material and newspaper reports examines the development of allotment gardens in the northern English city of York in the early twentieth century. Applying Giddens's structuration theory, it investigates how relationships between citizens and the York City Corporation developed, and reexamines allotment gardens as a lens for understanding wider urban life in Britain. It argues that although allotment gardens have featured only partially in studies of civic reform, identity and governmentality, their centrality to working-class life in Britain warrants greater scholarly attention.

Thomas D. Eatmon, Zachary Piso, Elyse Schmitt · IGI Global eBooks · United States

Against a backdrop of a growing number of organizations in the US Great Lakes region growing local food year-round despite cold-climate conditions, this chapter uses diffusion of innovation theory to explain the adoption of commercial aquaponics (combined indoor fish and produce production). It notes that research has shown significant challenges to maintaining profitable commercial aquaponics ventures in temperate climates, even as the technology's popularity in urban agriculture appears to be increasing, and argues that perceptions of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability may explain its adoption despite these financial challenges.

李焕荣, 孙英键 · 教育教学论坛 · China

A 2012 discussion paper in the journal Jiaoyu Jiaoxue Luntan examines how to train veterinary medicine professionals for an urban agriculture context, using Beijing as the example. It reviews the ecological function of urban agriculture and trends in industrial-structure optimization, characteristics of suburban agricultural areas, Beijing's five-year livestock development plan centered on shifting breeding structures to meet urbanization needs, the state and problems of Beijing's pet industry, requirements for veterinary professionals, and features of the 2011 "12th Five-Year Plan" training scheme, concluding with an outlook on future training for urban-oriented veterinary talent.

Ziying Zhang · Ningxia Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology · Global

A brief review that starts from the definition of urban agriculture, outlines the main models of urban agriculture found abroad, and summarizes the experience and lessons of foreign urban agricultural development. No quantitative data are presented.

Anthonia N. Asadu, E. M. Igbokwe, Jane M. Chah, I A Enwelu · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Nigeria

A study of Enugu Urban, Nigeria, examining farmers' perceptions of the health and environmental hazards posed by keeping livestock in urban areas, and the implications for climate change mitigation. Seventy-five heads of household were freely sampled and interviewed, with data analyzed using percentages and means. Most farmers kept improved chicken breeds under an intensive system. All respondents were aware of health and environmental implications of urban livestock keeping, but only 4.0% were aware that livestock could contribute to climate change. Reported environmental issues included crop destruction (89.3%), filth in urban areas (89.3%) and noise (88.0%); health issues included disease spreading (50.7%), accidents (46.7%) and bad smell (86.7%). Perceived control measures included proper waste disposal (mean 1.79), seeking veterinary services (mean 1.85), regular shed cleaning (mean 1.80) and provision of extension services (mean 1.85). The study recommends integrating urban agriculture into urban health and environmental policy and having extension services raise awareness of livestock's climate impact among urban keepers.

José Luis Fernández de Casadevante, Nerea Morán Alonso · Hábitat y Sociedad · Spain

This article examines community allotment gardens as an emerging phenomenon in Spanish cities, focusing on Madrid. It describes how allotments have arisen through the efforts of neighbourhood associations, social groups, and ecologists, in a dynamic that has proliferated over the preceding six years, building a critical discourse around urban sustainability and forming coordinated structures able to introduce the topic into the public sphere and the political agenda. These allotments are spaces articulating experiences of reflection and participative intervention around the city, public space, group identities, and procedures of spatial appropriation. The initiatives are also described as approaching the notion of food sovereignty as a strategic issue for the future of cities.

Donovon Ceaser · The Journal of Environmental Education · United States (New York City)

Noting broad agreement on the goals of environmental education (EE) but continued debate over promoting student action, this case study examines how a critical urban farming school — Our School at Blair Grocery in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward — addresses student action through critical environmental education (critical EE), which combines critical reflection with local action on social and environmental problems. The results found that critical learning within an egalitarian, youth-centered community in a disadvantaged area produces students who are more enlightened and empowered to create change. However, concerns about funding and safety led staff to depart from maintaining an egalitarian ethic, undermining the individualism and unpredictability that critical EE depends on and producing "disconnects" in students' education.