Research & reports

Liu Bai-ping · · China

This paper analyzes the status and problems of modern agriculture in Anhui Province, China, and identifies several development modes: advantageous agricultural products, eco-agriculture and characteristic agriculture, rural tourism, and suburban urban agriculture. It proposes measures for advancing Anhui's modern agriculture; no quantitative data are reported.

박은지, 이연숙 · 한국주거학회 학술발표대회 논문집 · South Korea

A study on the initial planning stage of resident-participation community gardens, using a case in Jeonju City, South Korea. Based on a literature and theoretical review together with case studies, it identifies five modes of resident participation in community garden planning and applies them to a community garden construction project in a deteriorated area of Jeonju. The study provides improvement guidelines for the initial planning stage of resident-participation community gardens.

S. A. Materechera · African Journal of Agricultural Research · Africa

A study of soil salinity in irrigated fields used for urban agriculture in a semi-arid region of South Africa. It compares sodium levels (19.3 vs. 9.8), pH (7.13 vs. 6.3) and electrical conductivity ECe (22.1 vs. 7.9 dS/m) between topsoil and subsoil layers, finding that calcium, magnesium and potassium (unlike sodium) were higher in the top than the subsoil layer, while pH and ECe did not differ significantly by depth overall. By irrigation method, basin irrigation produced the highest accumulation of calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium, followed by drip and then sprinkler irrigation, with the same ranking (basin > drip > sprinkler > control) for pH and ECe; sprinkler irrigation was the only method showing higher pH and ECe at 10-20 cm depth than at 0-10 cm. The study concludes that irrigation is increasing soil salinity and points to the need for sound irrigation water management, particularly appropriate irrigation scheduling.

Sinan Koont · University Press of Florida eBooks · Cuba

This chapter describes how Cuba's 1980s economic reforms ("perfeccionamiento empresarial") sought to link urban agriculture workers' incomes more closely to their production output, noting that Cuba's urban agriculture price-formation and supply-demand mechanisms provide relatively high incomes for the workforce, and that non-monetary "moral" incentives—awards such as "de referencia" and "de excelencia" status given to individuals, collectives and provinces, plus an annual December 27 meeting between the President and outstanding urban agriculturalists—operate alongside material incentives to raise workers' self-esteem and social standing.

Katrin Bohn, André Viljoen · University of Brighton Repository (University of Brighton) · United Kingdom

A 2011 paper from the UK discusses the Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL), a strategic concept for introducing interlinked productive landscapes into cities. It focuses on the environmental benefits of integrating urban agriculture as one of CPUL's major spatial and functional components, tracing, with reference to international exhibitions and publications, how urban agriculture has moved from a fringe interest toward the center of contemporary urban and architectural discourse. It concludes that while urban agriculture is attracting more attention, further cross-disciplinary work is needed to build the theory underpinning productive landscape design and the policy rationale to support it.

Monica Caggiano · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · France

This brief article discusses the public health role of urban agriculture in urban contexts, where most of the world's population now lives, noting its contribution to food security in developing countries and ecological services everywhere (citing FAO, 2000). It states that the new interest in urban agriculture reflects diverse and multifaceted needs and trends, illustrated by the notable urban agriculture practices found in the densely built city of Paris.

CONSUELO MONTES R, ASTRID ALEJANDRA GÓMEZ G · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Colombia

This participatory study evaluated Sechium edule (chayote, locally "cidra papa") as an alternative food source for displaced families living in marginal urban settlements of Popayan, Colombia, aiming to recover traditional knowledge of its use and management, identify ecotypes, capture its sociocultural significance as a means of maintaining ties to the countryside, and assess its productivity and management potential in marginal urban spaces. Using participatory methods including recreational activities, awareness workshops, and knowledge- and seed-exchange tours, the study covered three communes in Popayan, applied 116 surveys across four selected settlements, and conducted monthly visits with informal dialogue with participating families. It confirmed that plants such as chayote adapt to conditions in the settlements and can serve as an alternative food source for these populations, and the activities encouraged consumption of underutilized species, knowledge exchange, and conservation of ecotypes and plant species able to withstand marginal conditions.

Samuel W. Lewis · Scholarship @ Claremont (The Claremont Colleges) · United States (California)

In summer 2010, 11 high school students from under-resourced communities in Pomona, Montclair, La Puente, and Chino Hills, California, were paid to participate for six weeks (five days a week, 30 hours a week) in the Youth Earth Connections (YEC) summer internship program, funded by the 2010 Davis Projects for Peace and a Pomona College Summer Undergraduate Research Project Award. The program was designed to connect movements for food and environmental justice with farming work, and weekly survey responses from interns suggest that experiential urban farming programs at the high school level can connect students with issues of environmentalism and social justice and motivate action against the industrial food system and the environmental injustices they experience.

Edna Bonacich, Jake Alimahomed‐Wilson · Souls · United States (California)

The role of capitalism in the ecological crisis and jobs crisis facing the Los Angeles African American community is examined, arguing that sectors of Black Americans, like many people in the Global South, are being pushed out of the formal system of capitalist employment. In response, the paper looks to delinking and the development of economic experiments rooted in community economic self-determination based on anti-capitalist values, reporting on a small urban farming project the authors are starting.

Zhu Dong-guo · Geographical Research · China (Shanghai)

Using mathematical and econometric methods, an ecological security evaluation index system for urban agriculture in Shanghai was constructed for quantitative and comprehensive assessment. From 1993 to 1998, the agricultural resources security index was stable while the agricultural environment security index fluctuated, the agricultural socio-economic development index declined slightly, and the comprehensive agricultural ecological security index rose and fell in turn; from 1999 to 2008, after a small decrease from 1999-2004, the resources security index grew at an annual rate of 10.43%, while the environment security index, socio-economic development index, and comprehensive index grew at annual rates of 6.97%, 24.65%, and 6.88% respectively. By 2008, per-capita cultivated land in suburban districts, fertilizer application intensity per sown area, the ratio of agricultural comparative advantage, per-capita grain in rural areas, and the frequency of acid rain had become major limiting factors with obstacle degrees below 10.00%, with threats mainly originating from the agricultural resources and environment subsystem while the socio-economic development subsystem's negative influence diminished year by year.

石嫣, 程存旺, 雷鹏, 朱艺, 贾阳, 温铁军 · 贵州社会科学 · China

International experience indicates that the development of ecological urban agriculture is inseparable from the rise of a middle-income group, characterized by taking responsibility for social stability, holding non-extreme policy positions, and — in consumption — emphasizing environmental protection and advocating green consumption. The paper argues that urban agriculture must foreground an ecological theme to attract this middle-income consumer group, gain support from a consumer base of sufficient scale, and allow the multifunctionality of ecological urban agriculture to be realized and exercised.

· Lincoln (University of Nebraska) · United States

The May 2011 issue table of contents for NEBLINE, a newsletter published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension. It lists a feature on nature, gardening and science in a butterfly garden, alongside sections on urban agriculture, 4-H and youth programs, nutrition education, and Family and Community Education (FCE) club news.

Sinan Koont · University Press of Florida eBooks · Cuba

An assessment of Cuban urban agriculture's production and distribution outcomes finds that the most successful subprogram is fresh vegetable production, which has grown rapidly island-wide, while other subprograms remain active but less developed. Distribution occurs through thousands of points-of-sale, MALs, self-provisioning, and MAEs, with social consumption at workplaces, hospitals, and schools. Urban agriculture plays a significant role in improving Cuban diets but has not led to food sovereignty; other outcomes cited include employment generation, environmental benefits, and community building.

杨海云, 勾通 · 中国农村金融 · China

This 2011 article profiles a rural credit cooperative in Fucheng District, Mianyang, Sichuan Province, China, located at the urban-rural fringe in an area experiencing rapid urban-rural integration. Amid the Chinese Communist Party central government's Document No. 1 policy focus on rural issues, and as three rural issues (agriculture, rural areas and farmers) and agricultural industrialization advanced, central and regulatory bodies adjusted requirements and policies for financial institutions supporting these areas. The Fucheng District Rural Credit Cooperative, following the principle of supporting local economic development and aligning with local agricultural industrialization projects and structural adjustment plans, seized these policy opportunities and served as a leading force in agricultural support, achieving three shifts — including a shift from supporting rural village agriculture toward supporting urban, suburban and export-oriented agriculture.

Ruth Beilin, Ashlea Hunter · Local Environment · Australia

In Australia, a 2011 study developed a set of social and ecological indicators aligned with local government policy areas and accountability frameworks through a participatory process involving local government officers, community garden (CG) members and industry experts. Since Agenda 21, local governments have sought ways to engage urban citizens in building more sustainable cities, and community garden activities are frequently described as contributing to socially and environmentally sustainable local communities, yet a suitable set of indicators for valuing these benefits had not previously been established. The indicators were designed so individuals could use and learn from them, contributing to policy decisions and being meaningful to urban planners and local gardeners. The study demonstrates the practical necessity of devising indicators that CG participants can realistically monitor and that hold political and ideological value for local governments and wider community stakeholders.

Ardjouma Dembélé, Oumarou Badini, Alessandro Abbà · InTech eBooks · Africa

A book chapter surveying the state of urban agriculture in African cities. As rural-to-urban migration increases demand for food quantity and quality, urban agriculture is described as able to contribute to livelihoods and economic growth; horticulture is called a vital economic sector, citing figures such as Côte d'Ivoire's fruit and vegetable exports to the EU exceeding 360,000 tons, Burkina Faso's 2007 green bean exports of over 925,000 tons, and Mali's tomato and okra production reaching over 17,000 tons and 8,600 tons respectively. The chapter also notes that the horticultural sector, including urban agriculture, faces pest attacks and phytosanitary problems and must comply with pesticide regulations and quality-control (traceability) standards required by export markets.

Bruna Lara Alvarenga Barros, Jackeline Canuto Mendes, Vinicius Moreno Nolasco, Marivaldo Aparecido de Carvalho, Rosana Passos Cambraia · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil

A project in Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil paired students from the Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri with youth and educators at AJIR, a philanthropic institution housing ten at-risk young men. Activities centered on cultivating vegetables, fruit trees and medicinal plants and raising small animals as part of residents' diet, guided by an ecological diagnostic of the local environment-agriculture relationship. The work aimed to valorize popular and endogenous knowledge alongside scientific knowledge and to build agroecological learning practices.

Haruna Haruna · · Africa

A study of soils irrigated with sewage water on Fadama floodplain land in northern Nigeria used sequential extraction to determine the mobility and availability of cadmium, copper, nickel, lead and zinc. The residual fraction held the largest pool of all five metals, but 2.7-70.2% was present in the potentially available, non-residual fraction. Contamination by cadmium and nickel was less severe than by lead, copper and zinc, and mobility/bioavailability ranked Pb > Zn > Cu > Ni > Cd.

Zane Vincēviča–Gaile, Māris Kļaviņš, Vita Rudoviča, Artūrs Vīksna · Environmental and Climate Technologies · Europe

A study quantified element content in root vegetables (onion bulbs and carrot roots) grown in farmlands and allotment gardens in Latvia, using atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. It measured 17 trace elements (Ag, As, Ba, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cu, La, Mn, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sr, V, Zn) and 5 major elements (Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na), finding that carrot roots contained higher amounts of several elements than onion bulbs. Differences in element content were also found between the farmland-grown and allotment-garden-grown sample subgroups, with onions grown in farmlands more affected by contaminants.

Gerald Forkuor, Pay Drechsel, Olufunke Cofie · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Ghana

With land zoning for urban farming remaining a major obstacle to urban and peri-urban agriculture in most developing countries, a study used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and multi-criteria analysis to demonstrate how city authorities can integrate farming into their planning. The study was conducted in five districts in and around Ghana's capital city, creating spatial layers representing six influencing factors. Results show that, of the five districts, Tema municipality has the highest percentage of land suitable for agriculture, while Akuapim South has the lowest.

Borce Dimeski, Philip O’Neill, Sarah James · · Australia

This historical analysis examines the reliability of Sydney-region agricultural data by reviewing Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and non-ABS reports on the Sydney area, including the Gosford and Wyong local government areas, from 1992 to 2009. It finds that although the ABS is widely regarded as the most reliable source for Australia's agricultural data generally, this has not held true for Sydney, where non-ABS reports have repeatedly questioned undercounting of small-scale peri-urban farms, particularly underestimates of the value and number of farms in the fresh vegetable industry; this pushed for methodology changes in the 2005-06 agricultural census that led to substantial upward revisions in ABS estimates of the value, area and number of Sydney farms.

Andrew Kimbrell · Tikkun · United States

This essay criticizes the dominant industrial food model, corporations turning agriculture into agribusiness through heavy chemical, mechanical and genetically altered inputs, as producing profound alienation between the public and food production; it argues that increasing urbanization widens this physical and psychological distance, obscuring the industrial food model's consequences, including forest destruction, animal cruelty, pesticide harm to farmworkers and wildlife, and devastation of farm communities, which together constitute a moral crisis as well as an environmental and health crisis. It also describes a growing organic-and-beyond movement over the past two generations, with millions of Americans joining community supported agriculture (CSA) and opposing pesticide misuse, factory farming and genetic engineering of crops.

Joshua M. Davis · School for International Training Digital Collections (School for International Training) · United States

This paper evaluates the sustainability of the Market Basket (MB), a modified Community Supported Agriculture program run by Post Oil Solutions in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA, that provided local, fresh vegetables to low-income consumers at wholesale prices across two locations over two years, drawing on the author's experience as market coordinator, focus groups, interviews, and secondary data. Over 60 people participated in the MB during that period, and the paper argues the MB was an effective approach for increasing produce consumption, but issues affecting its sustainability remained unresolved — most notably funding to support a coordinator and increasing participation among generationally low-income consumers — with steps to address both currently underway.

Chenggu Li · Journal of Northeast Normal University · China

A study of Xixin, Changchun, China, examining the planning, protection and control of non-constructive land (land not designated for building) at the rural-urban fringe. After analyzing problems stemming from the rapid expansion of construction land at the fringe, it proposes land-use planning approaches - integrating land space, developing urban agriculture, building landscape corridors and ecological barriers, and reserving constructive land - along with three control methods: policy guidance, classification-based regulation, and constraints on the expansion of constructive land.

Marianne Sarkis, Amelia Angevine, Samuel Morrison, Caitlin Raph, Andrea Siemaszko · Clark Digital Commons (Clark University) · United States

A student research project in the United States investigating what factors influence refugees' participation in community gardens. Students conducted observations, informal interviews and focus groups with local refugees, examining location, education, community, economics and access to supplies as candidate factors. The project concluded that a lack of economic and structural flexibility is a significant reason for the low participation observed.