Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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潜心育种 播洒希望——记杭州市种子总站站长兼党支部书记孙利祥
2008何晓萍 · 浙江人事 · China
This profile article introduces Sun Lixiang, director and Communist Party branch secretary of the Hangzhou Seed General Station in China, described as a senior extension researcher. He is credited with long-term work in the seed industry, introducing, screening, and promoting numerous new crop varieties, and contributing to agricultural industrial restructuring, increased agricultural output and income, and the development of urban and efficiency-oriented agriculture in Hangzhou. He is reported to have received 16 provincial and municipal science and technology progress awards, published 16 scientific papers in provincial-level or higher publications, contributed to four professional books, and received a special allowance from the Hangzhou municipal government.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityExtreme Local Food: Two Case Studies in Assisted Urban Small Plot Intensive Agriculture
2008Lenore Newman · · Global
This 2008 paper examines barriers to urban agriculture expansion in North America—poor urban soils, lack of knowledge, zoning restrictions, and personal time constraints—through two case studies of assisted urban small-plot intensive farming in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia. In both cases, entrepreneurs installed and tended small plots on participants' land, selling the harvest at local farmers' markets or sharing it directly with the landowners. The paper notes that both projects had strong educational components and engaged a diverse demographic, and that having one farmer tend multiple plots could help address concerns about the carbon footprint of small-plot farming raised elsewhere in the literature.
CommunityFood educationEconomicsMANEJO AGROECOLÓGICO DE PLAGAS Y ENFERMEDADES EN LA AGRICULTURA URBANA. ESTUDIO DE CASO CIUDAD DE LA HABANA, CUBA
2008Luis L. Vázquez Moreno, Emilio Fernández Gonzálvez · · Cuba
A participatory research study conducted in 2003–2005 across municipalities and representative production systems of Havana's urban and peri-urban agriculture — where synthetic pesticides are prohibited in "organopónico" and other orchard systems — characterized farmers' pest management practices. Farmers were found to have adopted agroecological innovations including managing floristic diversity, crop rotations and associations, corn and other plant barriers, repellent plants, peripheral live fences, natural-enemy reservoirs, biopesticide applications, and botanical preparations.
Organic cycleCommunityPolicyIncreasing recognition of urban and peri-urban agriculture: emerging declarations for its support and policy review
2008Camillus J. Sawio · Journal of Building and Land Development · Global
A largely literature-review paper on the growing international, regional and local recognition of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) compared with three decades earlier. It frames UPA as increasingly understood to contribute to feeding poor urban populations especially in developing countries, alleviating poverty, and addressing hunger, food security and sustainable urban and environmental management, and credits organizations including the Support Group on Urban Agriculture (SGUA), The Urban Agriculture Network (TUAN), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Netherlands-based RUAF network, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNDP, and CGIAR with systematically organizing regional consultative seminars and workshops that produced municipal declarations supporting UPA. The paper states the impact of these declarations on policy review still remains to be seen.
PolicyFood sovereignty & justiceAnálisis económico del empleo de la fuerza de trabajo en la Agricultura Urbana del Municipio de Sancti Spíritus (Referencia bibliográfica)
2008Irenio Curbelo Tribicio · OBSERVATÓRIO DE LA ECONOMÍA LATINOAMERICANA · Cuba
Set against Cuba's demographic backdrop of accelerating urbanization, declining birth rates, gradual population aging and an uneven distribution of the workforce, this reference paper argues for the need to understand imbalances between labor supply and demand in urban agriculture and to establish measures to improve its use. It states that wage and incentive systems must align with the rational use of human resources in order to secure workers' fair compensation under the principle of socialist distribution. No specific survey findings or figures are presented.
EconomicsCommunityPrecaster plays central role in design of rooftop garden
2008Sue McCraven · PCI Journal · United States
A short article on the 909 Walnut Street Parking Structure in Kansas City, Missouri, which received PCI's Best Sustainable Design award in 2007. John Tanner, P.E., senior engineer at project specialty engineering firm FDG Inc. of Arvada, Colorado, discusses the challenges of building a parking structure engineered to support a rooftop garden.
Community宁夏首家“农民生态公园”建成开放
2008丁婕 · 中国花卉园艺 · China
A news brief reports that Ningxia's first "farmer ecological park" was completed and opened to the public at the Taqiao flower garden zone in Xingqing district, Yinchuan city, China. Xingqing district is described as shifting its agricultural development model toward modern urban agriculture and urban-rural integration, positioning facility agriculture and the flower industry as the centerpiece of agricultural restructuring and a new source of farmer income.
CommunityPeri-urban agricultureEconomicsUrban Farming: Lead Problems and Remediation Solutions
2008Evan Green · · United States (California)
A literature meta-analysis on lead contamination in urban farms was applied to Alemany Farm in San Francisco, California, where soil lead concentrations range from 60 to 720 ppm. It found that every food crop except tree fruits may pose a health risk if grown in Alemany Farm's soil. A phytoremediation plan using Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) to remove lead was found to exceed the farm's available budget, and its timescale made it impractical. The study concludes that phytoremediation is generally not feasible for small-scale urban farms and that other measures are needed to reduce lead exposure for urban farmers.
Contamination & food safetyHealthCommunityCalifornia communities deal with conflict and adjustment at the urban-agricultural edge
2008Alvin D. Sokolow, Sonja Varea Hammond, Maxwell Norton, Evan E. Schmidt · California Agriculture · United States (California)
An exploratory study compared high- and low-conflict urban-agricultural edges in four crop-growing communities across two California counties, where about 2.5 million agricultural acres lie adjacent to or near nonfarm residences; a separate sidebar analyzed two edge situations involving animal and nursery operations in San Diego County. High conflict levels were found to stem largely from residents' unfamiliarity with agricultural activities, though conflict also related to specific farming practices; the study presents these as tentative generalizations and poses questions for further systematic research rather than firm solutions.
PolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageGröna upplevelser för alla
2008Ann Hallén · · Sweden
A landscape-design thesis proposing a school garden for Jallaskolans upper secondary school outside Uppsala, Sweden, which had requested a garden for students including those with special needs. Based on a site inventory, literature review and visits to other educational and therapeutic green spaces, the author produced a plan scheme intended to stimulate the senses and serve a habilitating function for all visitors. The work stops at the design proposal stage and does not report construction or measured outcomes.
Food educationCommunity北京都市农业种植制度的发展方向——春玉米-熟制
2008赵华甫, 张凤荣, 李佳, 唐衡 · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni · China (Beijing)
A study on Beijing's urban agriculture cropping system, arguing that a rational choice of planting system is needed to overcome water resource constraints, realize agriculture's ecological service function of suppressing dust, and meet farmers' need for supplementary income, using a combination of literature research, experiments, and field surveys to examine the necessity of adjusting the planting system and the benefits of different systems. Comparing multiple benefits of a spring-maize single-cropping system against a winter-wheat/summer-maize double-cropping system, the spring-maize single-cropping system showed somewhat lower economic benefit than the double-cropping system, but better environmental benefit, lower water consumption, and greater potential for farmers' supplementary income. The study concludes that the spring-maize single-cropping system better matches the requirements of Beijing's urban agriculture development.
PolicyClimate changeEconomicsBudget of Heavy Metals in Small-Sized Vegetable Farming System in a Typical Peri-Urban Agricultural Area
2008XU Yong-xian, Biao Huang · Soils · China
A study of a small-scale vegetable farming system in peri-urban Nanjing, China, monitored heavy metal balances and pollution potential from July 2003 to July 2004. Heavy metals entered the soil mainly through fertilization and irrigation, with organic manure application accounting for more than 98% of inputs. Annual heavy metal input in the area was significantly higher than in European farmland, while annual output was very low, under 10% of input, leading to accumulation of heavy metals in the plots; long-term vegetable cultivation had already caused heavy metal buildup in the soils. Copper, lead, zinc, and cadmium concentrations in vegetables and soil were still below national safety standard limits, so the vegetable farming system was assessed as currently safe. However, an evaluation that incorporated atmospheric deposition showed the region carries a high risk of copper, zinc, and cadmium contamination, and the study concludes that intensive vegetable cultivation will aggravate soil heavy metal pollution, potentially pushing the soil to Second Grade of the National Soil Environment Quality Standard within several decades.
Contamination & food safetyHealthPeri-urban agricultureUrban agriculture in Accra metropolis: dimensions and implications for urban development
2008Olufunke Cofie, Larbi, Theophilus Otchere, George Danso, Ernest Mensah Abraham, S.K. Kufogbe, N. Obiri-Opareh · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Ghana
A book chapter addressing urban agriculture in the Accra metropolitan area, Ghana, included in Parrot et al. (eds.), "Agriculture and Urban Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Environment and Health Issues" (Paris: L'Harmattan). The available abstract consists only of this bibliographic citation; no study methods or findings are given.
CommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceL'agriculture urbaine et périurbaine à Youndé: analyse fonctionnelle d'une activité montante en économie de survie
2008Prosper Nguegang Asaa, Véronique Joiris, Jean Lejoly, Isaac Roger Tchouamo · · Africa
This study characterizes urban and peri-urban agriculture in Yaoundé, Cameroon, that has emerged amid rapid urbanization unaccompanied by economic growth, analyzing the interaction of actor types, space types, crops, products, and average incomes. The analysis found this agriculture employs close to 2,000 people, mostly young people and especially women with an average age of 35, concentrated on land under heavy pressure — marshy lowlands, foot of slopes, and roadsides. Crops were mainly vegetables, food staples, and flowers, varying across the urban ring, peri-urban zone, and rural hinterland. Marketing occurred through long, short, and direct circuits, with prices set by demand rather than fixed in advance. Profitability analysis of celery, ndolé, and black nightshade accounts found an average daily gain of about three euros per producer, and some market gardeners reported preferring to stay in their gardens rather than take a roughly 75-euro/month wage job; the study also found no legal or regulatory framework governing the activity, and no law authorizing it.
EconomicsCommunityWelfareFoundation of Information Sharing and Service Platform for Agricultural Science and Technology in Tianjin
2008Wang Jian-chun · Agriculture Network Information · China
Building on Tianjin's existing agricultural information infrastructure, this article describes an effort to establish a "110" information sharing and service platform for agricultural science and technology in Tianjin, China, aiming to build an information service system responsive to the city's urban agricultural development. It states the platform draws on a phone consultation system, the internet, a short-message platform, farmers' science and technology reading rooms, agricultural information collectors, and agricultural technology training, but reports no data on outcomes or evaluation of implementation.
PolicyDigital agricultureLarge-scale urban waste composting for urban and peri-urban agriculture in West Africa: an integrated approach to provide decision support to municipal authorities
2008George Danso, Pay Drechsel, Olufunke Cofie · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Sub-Saharan Africa
A book chapter (in Parrot, Njoya, Temple, Assogba-Komlan, Kahane, Ba Diao and Havard, eds., "Agriculture and urban development in Sub-Saharan Africa: environment and health issues," L'Harmattan, 2008) addresses large-scale urban waste composting for urban and peri-urban agriculture in West Africa as an integrated approach to support municipal authority decision-making. The abstract provided is only the editorial citation, with no method or findings stated.
CommunityOrganic cycleCompostPeri-urban agricultureConstruction of urban modern fishery in Shanghai
2008Yang Zheng · Zhongguo shengtai nongye xuebao · China (Shanghai)
A text on Shanghai, China (2008) discusses the concept, characteristics, and scope of "urban modern fishery" as a component of urban agriculture and a foundation of Shanghai's ecologically sustainable development, analyzing the status and function of fishery within Shanghai's urban agriculture. It proposes that the structure of urban modern fishery in Shanghai incorporate three sectors: an economic sector covering ordinary aquaculture, specialty-species aquaculture, distant-water fishery, aquatic product manufacturing, and modern aquatic logistics; an ecological sector covering aquatic ecological industry and recreational fishery; and a knowledge-based sector covering hatchery fishery, fishery information industry, and fishery technology services.
EconomicsCommunityPeri-urban agriculture주말농원 참여자의 현황 및 재배작목 다양화에 대한 요구도 분석
2008김영, 김은자, 이상영, 이승주 · · South Korea
A South Korean study (2008) surveyed allotment (weekend farm) garden participants on their cultivation status and demand for herb crops, alongside interviews with garden plot proprietors, and reviewed program trends run by organizations serving allotment gardens. Participants cultivated roughly ten crop species on average, with seed and seedling purchases mainly dependent on the landowner and crop selection made jointly by spouses; 5.7% of participants were currently or had previously cultivated herbs, while 62% had not because they did not know how. Reported herb uses were medicine/beauty (22.0%), spices (22.0%), and enjoyment (29.0%), with future interest at 34.0%, 39.0%, and 31.7% respectively; 78.3% of participants said they had considered or would consider growing herbs if the landowner supplied plants, and expressed interest in guidance on planting, management, and post-harvest use. The study found that introducing new crops was more feasible among participants with more than four years of farming experience and relatively advanced cultivation skills, and concluded that crop and soil-management choices, seedling provisioning, education tailored to participants' skill levels, and rental arrangements were essential to sustaining and expanding allotment garden participation.
CommunityFood educationOkoljevarstvena problematika zaseznih zelenjavnih vrtov na vodovarstvenih območjih Ljubljane = Environmental protection: Private vegetable gardens on water protected areas in Ljubljana
2008Sara Strajnar · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Europe
An abstract from a graduation thesis (2008, Europe) on two types of "small-scale agriculture" in water-protected areas in and around Ljubljana, Slovenia — allotment gardens and private vegetable gardens — states that these gardens matter for environmental protection because of their production intensity and large number of gardeners. The author investigated gardening habits in detail, combining field-work data with numerous measurements of phytopharmaceutical (pesticide) products and nutrients in soil and vegetables.
BiodiversityAssessing Fuel Efficiency and CO2 Emissions of Two Local Food Distribution Options in Iowa
2008Rich Pirog, Rebecca Rasmussen · Iowa State University Digital Repository (Iowa State University) · United States
This study determined which transportation option -- farmer delivery or customer pick-up -- consumed less fuel and emitted less CO2 for an Iowa community-supported agriculture (CSA) enterprise. The method used the CSA farmer's actual delivery route(s) including customer addresses, the type of delivery vehicle used, and a hypothetical central pick-up location and time, calculating mileage via Mapquest and fuel/emissions using Bureau of Transportation Statistics and EPA data across four vehicle categories: Ford Ranger, Dodge Caravan, Toyota Prius, and U.S. average passenger vehicle fuel economy. Delivery using a Toyota Prius resulted in 2.77 times lower fuel usage and CO2 emissions than customer pick-up using U.S. average fuel economy; however, even if all CSA customers used a Toyota Prius for pick-up, farmer delivery remained more fuel efficient, though only by a factor of 1.35.
CSA & TeikeiClimate changeFood miles & supply chainEconomicsA summing up: Synthesis 2007: Changing the way we manage water for food, livelihoods, health and the environment
2008Larry Harrington, E. M. L. Humphreys, Annette Huber‐Lee, Sophie Nguyen-Khoa, Simón Cook, Gichuki, Francis N., Nancy L. Johnson, Claudia Ringler, K. Geheb, Jonathan Woolley · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Global
A synthesis report summarizing activities and achievements of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) through the end of 2007, an initiative addressing global water scarcity and food security across nine benchmark river basins organized around five themes. Achievements in rainfed environments include advances in no-till conservation agriculture, "slash and mulch" replacing "slash and burn" in hillside farming, dryland water-harvesting systems, understanding of livelihood vulnerability and farmers' coping strategies, and distribution of drought-tolerant sorghum and wheat through participatory varietal selection and seed schemes. In irrigated and salt-affected environments, progress included development and testing of salt-tolerant rice germplasm, understanding of how wastewater can be used in irrigated peri-urban agriculture to grow safe, nutritious vegetables, and development of aerobic rice germplasm and management practices that use less water.
Food sovereignty & justiceClimate changePolicyDesign of a Rainwater Collection System for Irrigation Purposes
2008Philip E. Gates, Libby Gravatt, Tyler Mellos, Alex Miller, Dario Turjanski · Digital Commons - Trinity University (Trinity University) · United States
A rainwater collection system built for a small community garden in San Antonio, Texas, designed to operate as efficiently as possible for irrigation. The paper covers the original design problem and proposed solution, the construction process, and evaluation of the final design, including experiments run to determine specific building parameters. Once built, the system successfully distributed water through the garden plot using its component parts; drip hoses flowed at an average of 0.64 gallons per hour per foot, above the 0.45 GPH/ft minimum target, at a water height of 36 inches from the ground. The paper outlines the complete stepwise construction process and offers recommendations for future or similar systems.
CommunityClimate changeAnálisis económico del empleo de la fuerza de trabajo en la Agricultura Urbana del Municipio de Sancti Spíritus (Proyecto)
2008Irenio Curbelo Tribicio · OBSERVATÓRIO DE LA ECONOMÍA LATINOAMERICANA · Cuba
A research project conducted at the Granja Urbana (Urban Farm) of Sancti Spíritus municipality, Cuba, aiming to apply and evaluate a set of economic and financial analysis tools within the category of "labor force and wages," in order to determine the factors influencing the interrelationship and variation of gross value added (VAB), labor productivity, and average wage. The abstract states only the study's aim and object of analysis; it does not report specific findings or figures from the evaluation.
Economic viabilityEconomicsCommunityBee Richness and Abundance in New York City Urban Gardens
2008Kevin C. Matteson, John S. Ascher, Gail Langellotto · Annals of the Entomological Society of America · United States (New York City)
Bees were surveyed over 4 years in community gardens in heavily developed neighborhoods of the Bronx and East Harlem, New York City, yielding 1,145 individuals from 54 species (13% of recorded New York State bee fauna). Soil-nesting individuals were relatively rare (25%), possibly due to a lack of suitable nesting soils, and parasitic species were scarce (5.6% of species, 2.6% of individuals); exotic species were common, comprising 27% of individuals and 19% of species collected. Compared with other bee faunal surveys in New York and New Jersey, including Central Park and Prospect Park, bee richness in these urban gardens was reduced and the species composition was biased toward exotic and cavity-nesting bees, though the gardens still supported a diverse bee assemblage despite their small size and location within highly urbanized areas.
CommunityPollinatorsBiodiversity“Growing Wellness”: The Possibility of Promoting Collective Wellness through Community Garden Education Programs
2008Michelle Lee D’Abundo, Andrea M. Carden · Community Development · United States
A Community Garden Education Program created to combat obesity in a low-income community in eastern North Carolina, United States, was examined through observations conducted throughout the program and two focus groups held at the end of its first phase. The focus groups found that the administrators' initial program goals, centered on obesity reduction, differed from participants' own goals, which centered on wellness and community development. Participants also reported improved food sustainability as a result of the program.
Food educationHealthCommunity