Research & reports

川崎市 経済労働局 都市農業振興センター · 川崎市 調査報告書 · Japan

Kawasaki status report on farmland area, producers, productive greenbelts, tourism farms, citizen farms and regional exchange farms, quantifying small-scale urban production and publicly supported experience farms.

Riaño-Herrera D.A., Varela-Martínez D.A., Chenet J.G., García-García D.A., Díaz-Verus S.D. · Sustainable Cities and Society · Colombia (Bogotá)

This case study analyzed rooftop organic agriculture in Bogotá over 11 months, documenting an 82.1% relative yield from 336 harvested vegetables and estimating food autonomy potential for over 11,000 families through 432 projects.

Purnomo D., Sitepu G.L., Nugraha Y.R., Rosiyan M.B.P. · Sustainability · Indonesia (Bandung)

Using a social metabolism framework derived from individual variables, this paper analyses urban farming activities in Bandung's Buruan SAE programme and finds that implementation paradoxically stifled agricultural development, with most groups unable to sustain activities beyond two years. The study reveals how top-down policy formulation undermines the emergence of independent urban farmers.

Ngetleh N., Bime-Egwu M., Tambi M. · Agricultural Sciences · Cameroon (Bamenda)

This study identifies the socioeconomic and institutional drivers behind innovative urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) adoption in Bamenda City, Cameroon, demonstrating that UPA is a critical livelihood strategy for the urban poor amid rapid urbanization. The findings inform policy recommendations to support sustainable urban food production.

Kueh Yung Shin K., Tan P.P., Goh Boon Ling M., Chong C.J., Bolhassan N.A. · HardwareX, 16:e00498 · Malaysia

An open-hardware study designing and publishing SMART GROW, a low-cost automated IoT hydroponic system paired with an Android app for small-scale urban farming. It monitors and controls basic parameters such as pH, EC and water level and can be readily replicated, self-built and customised at home. It exemplifies DIY and maker culture in which citizens tackle urban food production with self-built equipment.

Kerstin Schreiber, Klara J. Winkler, Killian Abellon, Graham K. MacDonald · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States

This study analyzes 25 local food strategy and action-plan documents from 22 major US and Canadian cities (over 300,000 residents) to assess how cities plan for peri-urban and rural food production. It finds that topics such as farmland access and quality, farm viability, agricultural training, processing infrastructure, and the needs of marginalized groups (including BIPOC) are often overlooked, and that fewer than half of cities defined how progress would be measured.

· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · China (Beijing)

Examines the state and challenges of urban vegetable production in Beijing, China.

· Foods · China (Pearl River Delta)

Quantifies the foodshed and food self-sufficiency of the Pearl River Delta megacity region using land footprints, finding regional and urban self-sufficiency is not achievable.

· Agriculture · China (Pearl River Delta)

A study classifying urban agricultural functional regions at the county level in the Pearl River Delta, China, and analyzing their carbon effects from 2002 to 2020.

· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Germany

Analyzes Community-Supported Agriculture (Solidarische Landwirtschaft) in Germany as a form of food-democratic experimentalism, in which producers and consumers share the costs, risks and governance of production.

De Simone M., Pradhan P., Kropp J. P., Rybski D. · Sustainable Cities and Society · Germany (Berlin)

Evaluates five urban space types (residential areas, allotments, rooftops, supermarket parking lots, cemeteries) and estimates the potential to produce a large share of Berlin's vegetable consumption locally.

Schäfer, Kleemann, Spyra · Sustainability · Germany (Leipzig)

Analyzes allotment garden products in Leipzig and their contribution to sustainable and resilient cities.

· Agriculture · Global

Presents a conceptual design and simulations of a self-assembling, low-cost, fully automatic vertical farm with a small footprint intended to be installed and used by a non-specialist. Cost minimisation is achieved by using one set of resources moved by a robot arm to service the plants.

· Instrumentation Mesure Métrologie · Global

Develops a low-cost, modular vertical farming rig based on a steel cuboid enclosure constructed with sustainable and locally sourced materials. Monitoring and control use a Raspberry Pi with microcontrollers and IoT sensors/actuators for remote automation.

· HardwareX · United Kingdom

Designs and validates MACARONS, a scalable, customisable, open-sourced modular platform for plant care, monitoring, and transportation. It offers per-plant dosing, automated logging of temperature/humidity/images, and Python-programmable behaviours, validated by autonomously caring for five lettuce plants over five weeks under artificial lighting.

· IoT (MDPI) · Global

Design of a low-cost IoT smart drip irrigation system comprising an ESP32, solenoid valve, and soil-moisture, temperature, humidity and water-flow sensors that automates watering based on sensor readings.

· Journal of Biosystems Engineering · Global

Development of a low-cost plant growth chamber using open-source technology that controls internal temperature, LED lighting and aeroponics with remote operation; the prototype achieved over 600 umol m-2 s-1 PPFD and 21/17 degree C day/night temperatures.

Mahmoud M.M., Darwish R.R., Bassiuny A.M. · Journal of Engineering Research · Egypt

An economically oriented smart aquaponic system was developed and implemented, using IoT technology to monitor and control aquaponic operations.

Pham · Asia Pacific Viewpoint · Vietnam (Hôi An)

Case study of peri-urban agriculture in Hôi An, Vietnam, analyzing how agrotourism development and rapid urbanisation jointly pressure farming.

· Current Issues in Tourism · International

Analyzes the push and pull motivations of international volunteer workers (WWOOFers) who participate in labour and exchange on organic farms.

· Cogent Economics & Finance · Tanzania

Analyzes household participation in agri-food based livelihoods across urban and peri-urban contexts of Tanzania.

Marini M., Caro D., Thomsen M. · Land Use Policy · Europe (Barcelona, Lyon, Trieste, Udine)

Reviews 83+ policy documents and surveys local managers in four EU cities. Finds land-use frameworks fail to prioritise urban agriculture, that only allotment gardens are meaningfully supported, and that local policies are formulated ad hoc outside any comprehensive UA framework, weakening effectiveness.

· Cities · Portugal (Lisbon)

Cost-benefit analysis showing that Lisbon's flat, city-wide green-roof subsidy design is suboptimal—constant subsidy values fail to optimize public funds because ecosystem-service benefits vary spatially, evidencing a poorly targeted (wasteful) green-infrastructure incentive.

Dorr, E., Hawes, J.K., Goldstein, B., Fargue-Lelièvre, A., Fox-Kämper, R., Specht, K., Fedeńczak, K., Caputo, S., Cohen, N., Poniży, L., Schoen, V., Górecki, T., Newell, J.P., Jean-Soro, L., Grard, B. · Agronomy for Sustainable Development · Global

A citizen-science study collecting data from 72 urban agriculture sites across France, Germany, Poland, the UK and the USA to analyze yields and resource use. Most plots yielded between 0.5 and 2 kg/m².

Chipo Hungwe · Journal of Women & Aging · Zimbabwe (Bulawayo)

A qualitative case study based on interviews with 19 older women heading grandmother-headed households in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Urban agriculture did not reduce food insecurity or social exclusion for these participants. The barriers reported were difficulty obtaining land to cultivate, health problems associated with ageing, and the physically demanding nature of the farming work itself. The author concludes that social assistance, rather than reliance on urban agriculture as a livelihood strategy for elderly-headed households, is what these households need.