Research & reports

Vika Adriati Praditriyani · Visualita Jurnal Online Desain Komunikasi Visual · Indonesia (Bandung)

This research designed and tested a mobile application to support urban agriculture activities in Bandung, Indonesia. Targeting community members aged 18-30 with environmental interests, the app provided content on urban agriculture concepts, utilizing narrow land for productive green spaces, and plant care information. Testing showed that most users found a flexible digital medium helpful and necessary for maximizing urban agriculture activities in the city.

Sandra Kurfürst · · Vietnam (Hanoi)

This chapter explores the production sites of vegetables perceived as clean and safe by Vietnamese consumers, specifically urban gardens in Hanoi and rural areas. It identifies a semantic shift in gardens from aesthetics to utility due to food anxiety and examines access to and social control over public and sacred spaces used for gardening. Urbanites also rely on personal rural-urban food supply networks for food safety, with the rural signifying safe foods based on its image as a place of intimate social relations and nature.

Jeffrey Hou · Urban Studies · Taiwan (Taipei)

This study examined the ongoing outcomes of Taipei's 'Garden City Initiative' amidst rising concerns for food security and climate adaptation. Based on interviews and participant observations during the initial period of advocacy, planning, and implementation between 2014 and 2017, it suggested that policy formation and implementation may require opportunistic actions involving a variety of actors. The case of Taipei indicates the need for strategic adaptation of the existing bureaucratic structure, while mobilizing its strengths and resources.

Hana Sakura Putu Arga · PrimaryEdu - Journal of Primary Education · Indonesia (Bandung)

This classroom action research, conducted in 3 cycles with 12 meetings, aimed to improve the ecoliteracy of fourth-grade students at SDN 038 Kiaracondong Bandung, Indonesia, through urban farming activities. The study found an increase in students' ecoliteracy, evidenced by behaviors such as planting on school land, using waste for pots, caring for plants, and distinguishing waste types. These improvements were observed in both school and home environments.

김정식, 한미영 · · South Korea

This study examined the suitability of urban agriculture expert training programs in South Korea, surveying students in Daejeon in 2018. Over 60% of students viewed experts as knowledge transmitters, with most motivated by qualification acquisition. While major city programs focused on basic cultivation, the study concluded that current curricula are insufficient for future urban agriculture trends. It recommended adding programs on urban community understanding, industrialization, cooperative agriculture, and farm management.

Jung-Min 최정민Choi, Yu-Na 김유나Kim, Dong-Chan 박동찬Park · 주거환경(한국주거환경학회논문집) · South Korea

This study explores the concept and direction for Korean community gardens, distinguishing them from urban agriculture based on semantic network analysis. Urban agriculture keywords relate to cultivation and economic effects, while community garden keywords involve residents, exchanges, and community formation. The paper proposes a definition and classification of Korean community garden types from broad (four types) and narrow (horticulture-centered 'Nuri garden' with four sub-types) perspectives. An expert survey indicated a preference for joint cultivation types within residential areas, walking distance, and open designs.

Lutfi Asnan Qodri · SKRIPSI Jurusan Ekonomi Pembangunan - Fakultas Ekonomi UM · Indonesia (Malang)

This qualitative exploratory study assessed the prospects of the "Gelintung Go Green" urban farming village in Malang City, Indonesia. It analyzed initial formation data, vision, mission, roadmap, and development efforts to examine its prospects from economic, social, and ecological aspects. The study concluded that the village has good prospects for future continuation if these three aspects are adequately fulfilled.

Rakhmawati Indriani · JMSP (Jurnal Manajemen dan Supervisi Pendidikan) · Indonesia (Malang)

This qualitative case study at SMAN 7 Malang, Indonesia, described the management of its School Garden program, including its background, planning, implementation, evaluation, and supporting factors, as part of the Adiwiyata program. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. The study found that the program's success was evident in the school's achievements post-Adiwiyata implementation, and its execution and management were strongly influenced by the support and participation of all school members.

Zhenzhong Si, Theresa Schumilas, Steffanie Scott · · China

This chapter proposes a typology of alternative food networks (AFNs) in China, including community-supported agriculture farms, ecological farmers' markets, buying clubs, and garden plot rentals, illustrating each with specific cases. It then examines the socio-economic and political conditions shaping China's AFNs, arguing that Chinese AFNs are consumer-driven and that there is a potential inconsistency in values between AFN organizers and their customers. This consumer-driven feature is argued to shape the AFNs' alternativeness by foregrounding food safety requirements as a core attribute while giving less prominence to ecological and social values.

A-Young Lee, Seon-Ok Kim, Sin-Ae Park · HortTechnology · South Korea (Seoul)

A 21-item questionnaire was administered over three weeks in October 2017 to 1,268 students in grades 4-6 at four elementary schools in Seoul, South Korea. 73.7% reported awareness of and need for urban agriculture and 86.8% (n=1,048) expressed intent to participate, while only 35.4% (n=400) recommended it as a learning activity, 20.9% (n=236) cited stress reduction, and 16.2% (n=183) cited leisure/hobby purposes; preferred indoor activities were planting (21.8%) and preferred outdoor activities were harvesting (20.8%). Female students reported greater perception, experience, awareness of necessity, and willingness to participate than male students (P=0.01), and lower-grade students perceived urban agriculture as more necessary than higher-grade students (P<0.001).

Apri Kuntariningsih · Jurnal kesehatan komunitas (Journal of community health) · Indonesia

A qualitative study in schools in Blitar and Kediri, Indonesia, surveyed 30 participants — 10 students, 5 teachers, 5 food vendors at school, and 10 parents. Child malnutrition was linked to children's food consumption habits, and parents' nutrition knowledge was found lacking, particularly regarding what is consumed at school; school gardens were identified as a means of providing children with fundamental nutrition knowledge, and the study called for government policy to be strengthened to encourage sufficient fruit and vegetable consumption.

문보희, 위사양, 오충현 · 한국환경생태학회 학술발표논문집 · South Korea

From June 1 to November 27, 2017, a field survey covered 697 middle and high schools in Seoul (382 middle schools, 315 high schools), examining buildings, rooftops and on-site land use. Urban agriculture was already under way at 473 schools (68%), covering 55,413 m² in total — ground-level plots (20,103 m², 36%), rooftop plots (16,783 m², 30%), box planters (14,954 m², 27%) and flower beds (2,573 m², 7%). An additional 544 sites totaling 711,636 m² were identified as usable for urban agriculture, present at 304 of 382 middle schools (383,199 m², 80%) and 240 of 315 high schools (328,437 m², 76%). By type, rooftop space accounted for the large majority of this usable area (685,026 m², 96%), with box planters (16,136 m², 2%) and ground plots (10,474 m², 2%) contributing little, and flower-bed introduction judged difficult. Of flat-roofed buildings, 67% remained unused for solar panels, green roofs, or rooftop gardens.

Hayuning Anggrahita, Guswandi Guswandi · Jurnal Wilayah dan Lingkungan · Indonesia (Jakarta)

In Jakarta, Indonesia, where urbanization is converting agricultural land and other green open space to built-up use and agriculture contributes only 0.1% of the city's economy, a study using descriptive quantitative analysis together with interviews and scientific photography set out to identify the multifunctionality of urban agriculture. The results show that Jakarta's agriculture is scattered due to urbanization pressure, and that it persists by transforming from a single staple-food-production function into multiple functions, environmental, cultural, property-rights protection and others, creating new urban values.

Yun-Cheol Nam · Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering · South Korea

A case study of the development process and community life of the Sanneoul eco-village in South Korea, created to welcome urban dwellers choosing to return to rural life and to help prevent rural depopulation. Nearly fifty community meetings were held by residents during construction. Public funds covered most basic construction costs, with residents paying only for property, land and buildings. The village includes rainwater recycling, grass blocks, rooftop gardens, an ecological sewage plant, solar heating, a pellet boiler, a fireplace and ondol floor heating, and residents actively participate in recycling garbage, food waste and human waste; the study reports residents are content with the village's eco-friendly features.

Sheila Savitri · Jurnal Perpustakaan Pertanian · Indonesia

A bibliometric study of the Buletin Pertanian Perkotaan (Urban Agriculture Bulletin), published by BPTP Jakarta (Indonesia's agricultural technology assessment center) over its first six years, 2011–2016, examining author profession distribution, subject distribution, article distribution, citation currency, citation source distribution, author collaboration levels, and author productivity, using bibliometric methods and the Subramanyam formula for collaboration level. Across 2011–2016 the bulletin published 56 articles by 46 authors, both from within and outside BPTP Jakarta; researchers were the most common author type (25 people: 19 from BPTP Jakarta, 6 external), and agricultural cultivation was the leading subject with 25 articles. Article output peaked in 2013–2015, at 10 articles per year each. Citation currency needs improvement: per LIPI's 2012 guideline requiring cited references to be five years old or newer, the majority of references in the bulletin's articles—701 of them—were over five years old. By subject, socio-economic agriculture articles drew 43% of their citations from sources under five years old, while post-harvest articles were dominated (43.8%) by citations over ten years old. Citations from scientific journals accounted for only 46.5% of citation sources, well below LIPI's required 80% threshold.

Hok Bun Ku, Yan Hairong · · China

China's food-security crisis, caused by unsustainable development, has diminished the country's farmland through large-scale land acquisitions, ecological restoration projects, agricultural structural adjustments, natural disasters, and pollution, among other factors. This chapter argues that local producers and consumers are not passively waiting for government policy changes but, organized by green social workers, are actively searching for alternatives to achieve self-sufficiency and food security through a new initiative called the "rural–urban alliance." Framed within the social economy perspective advocated by green social work as a way to rethink economic development and consider alternatives to capitalism, the rural–urban alliance and community-supported agriculture (CSA) are positioned as a potential new route for China's sustainable development that could change the pathway of economic development forms that cause inequality and undermine livelihoods. This is a proposed, forward-looking argument, however; the abstract does not report empirical evidence that CSA or the rural–urban alliance have actually mitigated the food-security crisis.

Hae Sun Paik, Young Hwan Lee · Journal of the Korean housing association · South Korea

A South Korean study, set against the November 2011 enactment of the Act on Development and Support of Urban Agriculture, examined whether urban agriculture could help offset the negative image of public rental housing complexes and ease residents' relative sense of loss. Because criteria and systems for establishing community gardens within housing complexes were judged insufficient, the study sought ways to improve the relevant system and regulations. It conducted field studies and manager interviews at 18 domestic housing complexes with community gardens, identifying construction type, garden type and location, and operating systems. The case studies found that community gardens have a positive effect on activating resident community life, and the study concludes that regulatory improvement is needed to formally include community gardens as a type of communal facility.

Taipei City Government · Taipei City Government · Taiwan

This Taipei City Government article introduces the city's 'Garden City' initiative, converting idle land and school grounds into farming plots. It aims to give residents land and growing guidance, foster children's understanding of local food, and promote physical and psychological wellbeing through contact with plants and soil. It reports that 230 schools have received approval to enter the trial phase.

Turreira-García N., Vilkamaa A. M., Byg A. · Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society · Thailand

Documents 55 leafy vegetable species (32 families) in Chiang Mai fresh markets and assesses, via interviews with sellers, residents, and traditional practitioners, how diversity, use, and knowledge persist amid urbanisation.

· Landscape Architecture Frontiers · China (Shanghai)

Presents Shanghai's Clover Nature School community gardens, describing how an 'urban permaculture' approach fosters public participation and community building through edible landscapes.

Kees Krul, Peter Ho · Sustainability · China

A study in urban China examined the role of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in addressing food safety and sustainability issues through surveys and interviews with key stakeholders. The CSA model demonstrated an innovative approach to dealing with these issues and future food demands. However, the movement's structural embeddedness is bound by several limitations and contradictions.

Reni Amaranti · ETHOS (Jurnal Penelitian dan Pengabdian) · Indonesia

This community service activity provided assistance to communities in Indonesia to manage organic waste at the local Rukun Tetangga (RT) level. The aim was to support urban farming programs by addressing the uneven spread of knowledge and low public participation in waste utilization. The activity focused on helping communities utilize their existing potentials and resources for waste management.

위사양, 문보희, 김선영, 오충현 · 한국환경생태학회 학술발표논문집 · South Korea

This study aimed to derive urban forest creation and management plans considering urban biodiversity enhancement for Goyang Ecological Park in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. The research analyzed the park's current status using SWOT analysis, reviewed domestic and international cases, and conducted a GAP analysis to derive strategic directions and management plans. Proposed measures include re-zoning internal spaces, enhancing connectivity between ecosystems, promoting biodiversity through artificial management, and indirectly enhancing biodiversity through environmental education.

Muhammad Solihin · MINDA BAHARU · Indonesia (Batam)

This community service program in Sei Pelungut, Sagulung District, Batam City, Indonesia, aimed to promote urban farming and educate residents on hydroponic cultivation methods due to high vegetable prices. Using a descriptive qualitative method with observation and interviews, the program involved introducing hydroponic growing media, seedlings, planting techniques, and harvesting times. The community, particularly women from Kavling Flamboyan, showed high enthusiasm and participation in the activities.

Geneva Rawlins · · United States (Gary, Indianapolis)

This study aimed to examine how three urban agriculture programs in Gary and Indianapolis, United States, impact high school students' academic performance and future goals. Questionnaires were used to collect qualitative data from program leaders, organizational partners, and upper-class students. Due to low participant levels, there was insufficient data to draw definitive conclusions regarding academic performance. However, the study captured a snapshot of positive attitudes among student participants and identified commonalities among the programs.