Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
11393 results(433 / 456)
Research Brief #9, Meeting Farm and Food Security Needs through Community Supported Agriculture and Farmers’ Markets in California
2006Patricia Allen, Julie Guthman, Amy Wilson Morris · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)
A research brief examining whether alternative food initiatives (AFIs) such as community supported agriculture (CSA) and farmers' markets can meet the food security needs of low-income consumers, based on interviews and surveys of farmers' market and CSA managers throughout California. The authors conclude that AFIs are not, and cannot be, substitutes for state entitlements in meeting the food security needs of low-income people.
Economic viabilityCSA & TeikeiCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceAspectos socioculturales en la eficiencia productiva del ganado menor en el municipio Primero de Enero, Ciego de Ávila, Cuba
2006Ángela Borroto, Águeda C. Arencibia, J.L. López, Liliam J. Leyva, Carlos Mazorra, Gladys E. Dopico, R. Maurelo, A. Caraballoso · Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) · Cuba
A study in Primero de Enero municipality, Ciego de Ávila province, Cuba, surveyed 19 backyard livestock producers participating in the National Urban Agriculture Program across three local council districts over two years. Ninety percent of producers received family support as a supplementary rather than primary livelihood, and 60% combined this with fixed state-sector jobs. Only 22% were organized or linked to receive training or technology transfer; average rearing experience was three years and average age was 49, with 63% wage workers, 18% retirees and 12.5% housewives. Production results were described as favorable, but practical adoption of more efficient, sustainable rearing methods was not found.
CommunityEconomicsWelfareHortas comunitárias de Teresina : agricultura urbana e perspectiva de desenvolvimento local
2006Juliana Portela do Rego Monteiro, Maria do Socorro Lira Monteiro · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Brazil
A study of 43 urban gardens in Teresina, Piauí state, Brazil, analyzed via primary data collection and field research whether the gardens function as a means of generating work and income and improving socioeconomic conditions without degrading the environment. Most gardeners were women over 45 with incomplete elementary education, earning up to one minimum wage, originally from the state's interior, who had worked in agriculture before joining the gardens and worked them as a family. Most had not participated in training since entering the program, used their own resources for production, concentrated 70.08% of output on cilantro, chives and lettuce, and sold produce mainly on-site; soil amendment relied mostly on manure with limited chemical fertilizer, and only 36.81% of gardeners used pesticides. The study concludes that low remuneration, stemming from limited crop diversity, poor organization and lack of financing, led some family members to seek alternative income.
Economic viabilityCommunityEconomicsWelfareStudy on Landscape Ecological Features and Landscape Ecological Construction of Rural Landscape in Rurban Fringe
2006MA Jun-wei · Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment · Global
This theoretical study addresses the "rurban fringe," the transitional zone connecting city and countryside, discussing rural landscape ecological features and landscape functions before setting out the content of landscape ecological construction. It proposes six elements: (1) rural landscape planning based on landscape ecological principles aimed at protecting regional traditions; (2) seeking optimal patterns for coordinated development between city and countryside; (3) developing tourism agriculture and urban agriculture in place of low-efficiency agriculture; (4) developing local rural landscape resources to promote eco-rurban tourism; (5) green landscape construction; and (6) building landscape corridors and networks for biodiversity protection, concluding by identifying trends in rurban fringe development.
Peri-urban agricultureBiodiversityPolicy全面实施院“十一五”科技发展规划 为推进我市社会主义新农村建设作出新的贡献
2006程春建 · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni · China
This is an institutional annual work report summarizing implementation of the "11th Five-Year Plan" for science and technology development, along with work plans for 2006. It states that, under the guidance of the municipal party committee and government and with support from relevant departments, the institute completed the tasks set out at the start of the year and contributed to the development of urban agriculture, but the text gives no specific figures or concrete results.
PolicyCommunityNourishing with drip irrigation
2006Carol Posthumus · SA Irrigation = SA Besproeiing · South Africa
An extracted text describing an Agricultural Research Council (ARC) project in South Africa that brings lower-cost alternative irrigation technologies, including drip irrigation, to smallholder farmers and community gardens. The project targets areas where water is scarce but irrigation access exists, aiming to establish best management and operation practices that lower costs and save water, with drip irrigation also framed as a way of ensuring food security.
CommunityOrganic cycleMaraîcher à Khartoum : entre intégration et marginalisation
2006Alice Franck · Revue internationale des études du développement · Sudan
A study of market gardeners in Khartoum, Sudan, sheds light on thinking about the integrating capacity of urban agriculture. The uncontrolled urbanization now under way in the Sudanese capital is causing unprecedented competition for property, pointing to limits on the potential integration of these farm-workers in the downtown area. The fact that this activity is strictly commercial and carried out mainly by a migrant population makes the analysis more notable still.
CommunityEconomicsUrban–rural linkage유럽 생태마을의 커뮤니티 정원과 공유공간의 경관적 특징
2006김근호, 조동범, 김미향 · · Europe
A field survey of seven eco-villages in Germany, Denmark, and the UK examined each settlement's background, social and economic aspects, architectural specifications, recycled energy use, and the landscape characteristics of external spaces, analyzing the ecological symbolism of the landscapes residents created. It concluded that eco-village landscapes were oriented neither toward returning to primitive society nor toward controlling nature through technology, but toward coexistence with nature, with primitive nature symbolically restored and community garden landscape design expressing a meaningful relationship between human life and nature.
CommunityBiodiversityWhere am I? Locating Myself and its Implications for Collaborative Research
2006Regina Day Langhout · American Journal of Community Psychology · Global
A paper examining how a younger white female graduate student and an African American female undergraduate student differently understood the relationship between the graduate student and older, working-class African American women, formed around a community garden project. The graduate student framed the relationship around shared gender and class background, while the undergraduate framed it around racial difference and unexamined white privilege. The paper challenges both interpretations as unidimensional, raises questions about why researchers rarely situate themselves through their identities, and argues that reflexivity is essential to community psychology research.
CommunityAgricultura urbana e segurança alimentar: estudo no município de Santa Maria – RS
2006Cristiane Cardoso Pessôa, Marcelino de Souza, Ilaine Schuch · Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional · Brazil
This study interviewed 38 and later 20 families in five neighborhoods of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on the contribution of urban agriculture to household income and diet. Results showed that the activity does not necessarily provide additional income but does produce meaningful savings, since certain foods no longer need to be purchased; the food produced supplies important nutrients but lacks foods richer in minerals, which the families do not grow themselves, and the activity functions more as subsistence, non-market production that supplements diets with fresh food relatively free of industrial contaminants.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityEconomicsContinuable Developing Model of Chinese Urban Agriculture and Its Constructing
2006Zhu Mi-juan · Ecological Economy · China
This paper reviews prior research on urban agriculture and compares Chinese and foreign urban agriculture in terms of their emergence, scope, industry structure, development direction, and functions. It concludes that the basic development models used in foreign countries are not suited to China and that China should build its own "sustainable" (continuable) development model by modernizing and adapting elements drawn from foreign sustainable agriculture practice, rather than adopting foreign models directly.
PolicyCommunityClimate changeCommunity development: Creating spaces for deep democracy, social action, and resistance
2006Heather Mair · Leisure/Loisir · Global
This theoretical paper examines the potential for community development to serve as a vehicle for politics, resistance, and social change, arguing that change-oriented efforts — from community-led initiatives limiting "big box store" encroachment to community-supported agriculture and new forms of media — create important opportunities for public dialogue about, and expression of, power, equality, and democracy. It explores reconsidering the spaces where politically oriented leisure activities occur through the concepts of deep democracy, social learning, empowerment, and resistance. Drawing on Shaw (2000), the author argues that examining these community-led struggles counters the view of leisure as increasingly bound up in individualized, consumption-oriented activity, and can deepen leisure studies by recognizing, understanding, and validating its political nature.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityPolicyDeterminants of Technical Efficiency in Urban Food Crop Production in Ibadan Metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria
2006B. T. Omonona, Edet J. Udoh, Roseline J. Akinlade · Journal of Agricultural & Food Information · Nigeria
This study analyzed the level and determinants of technical efficiency among urban crop farmers in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. A random sample of 85 farmers was selected from three areas where urban food crop production is prominent — Ajibode, Ijokodo, and Eleyele — with data collected via structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics and a stochastic production frontier based on the Cobb-Douglas production function. Results showed that farmland, family labor, and plantlings were statistical determinants of urban food crop production, while fertilizer and hired labor were not statistically significant. In the technical efficiency model, full-time engagement in urban farming and a sole-cropping pattern were positively related to technical efficiency, and increases in age, experience, and years of formal education raised the level of technical efficiency. The study concludes there remains room to raise the current level of technical efficiency in the study area, and that educating farmers to be more receptive to modern technologies from the agricultural research system can raise output per unit of input.
EconomicsPolicySocial Integration of "Village-in-the-urban"
2006Hui Zhi-jua · Journal of Huaibei Professional and Technical College · China
Urbanization is described here not only as a process in which population aggregates in cities, the farming economy transforms into an urban economy, and rural areas become urban areas, but also as a transition in people's behavioral and living styles. "Village-in-the-urban" is presented as a logical result of the expansion of towns and cities in China, where constant collision and conflict, along with interaction and fusion, occur between original rural culture and urban culture, and between native and foreign culture. From a sociological perspective, this paper analyzes the conflict and fusion characterizing villages-in-the-urban.
CommunityUrban–rural linkagePolicyFood educationParticipatory Technology Development for Sustainable Intensification of Urban Agriculture 1
2006Gordon Prain, R. van Veenhuizen · · Global
The production of food, feed, fuel, and construction material in and around cities is almost as old as human settlement itself: the earliest cities of the Fertile Crescent, China, and South and Central America show evidence of local food production that served as an essential component of urban food security in times of conflict. The available abstract text ends at this historical framing and does not describe the specific participatory technology development methods or results referenced in the title.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityThe Analysis of the Urban Agriculture Location
2006Zhao Di-fei · Journal of Minjiang University · China
Urban agriculture (UA), a new form of agriculture that emerged in the 1950s in Europe and America, is examined here through a review of recent Chinese research on the topic. The paper defines UA as a rural-type industry located within urban areas, one that draws on garden landscapes and environmental resources and combines UA with rural industry and rural culture. Using J.H. von Thünen's agricultural location theory as its basis, it analyzes the origin of UA's location and the "UA belt" in China, and examines the production, development, and spatial layout of urban agriculture there.
PolicyCommunityComportamento econômico e produtivo da horta comunitária agroecológica de Nova Descoberta.
2006Myreide Marinez Da Silva, J. L. P. Araujo, Aryon de Almeida Barbosa, Ariana Ferreira da Silva, Leyla Menezes de Santana, C. R. R. S. França · · Brazil
This study assessed the economic viability of an agroecological system for growing vegetables in the Nova Descoberta community, in the interior of Petrolina, Pernambuco state, Brazil. Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) was the economically dominant crop, accounting for nearly 85% of the garden's total monetary income, followed by lettuce (Lactuca sativa) at over 13%, while all remaining crops together reached only 2.3% of total sales value, though the study notes their cultivation was expected to expand with the continuing agroecological conversion process to diversify species grown.
CommunityEconomicsOrganic cyclePeri-urban agricultureMulticultural School Gardens: research report 1
2006Amy Cutter‐Mackenzie, Kate Eastwood · ePublications@SCU (Southern Cross University) · Australia
An evaluation of the Multicultural School Gardens project in Australia, covering its 2006 phase (the project ran through 2008). Six schools took part in 2006 — Rosewell Primary School, Dandenong North Primary School, Bayswater Secondary College, Laverton Primary School, Meadowbank Primary School and St Albans Heights Primary School — and the report draws on children's research plus progress and post-project surveys. It reports the project meeting most of its stated objectives, with key contributing factors including learning outside the classroom, curriculum enrichment, school enthusiasm, health and wellbeing, students' knowledge of plant physiology and development, and alignment with existing environmental education programs. It identifies engaging the community as the greatest challenge, to be a specific focus of future work.
Food educationCommunityWelfareHealthContinuous Productive Urban Landscapes: Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities
2005André Viljoen, Katrin Bohn, Joe Howe · Architectural Press / Routledge · Global
A pioneering work proposing the concept of 'Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes (CPUL)' that integrates urban agriculture into urban spatial planning. It frames urban agriculture as green infrastructure linking food-producing sites with other open spaces into a continuous linear landscape across the city, and has become a theoretical starting point for productive green infrastructure and edible-city research.
CommunityBiodiversityFood educationEconomicsDefining and identifying crop landraces
2005Camacho Villa T. C., Maxted N., Scholten M., Ford-Lloyd B. · Plant Genetic Resources 3(3):373-384 · Global
A foundational paper proposing a working definition of a landrace as a dynamic, locally adapted, genetically diverse population with historical origin, lacking formal crop improvement and tied to traditional farming systems.
Heirloom & landraceBiodiversityCorporate social responsibility: a case study of the UK's leading food retailers
2005Jones P., Comfort D., Hillier D., Eastwood I. · British Food Journal · United Kingdom
Analyzes CSR reporting by the UK's leading food retailers, finding support for local food producers, healthy eating, charitable donations, and local community initiatives as principal CSR themes promoted in stores.
CommunityEconomicsPolicy農のあるコモン広場を備えた住宅地
2005ミサワホーム株式会社 · 都市農地活用支援センター『農のある暮らし』事例集 · Japan
A case report on Misawa Home's Kitasenju detached-housing district 'A Town with Herbs and Orchards', introducing edible landscaping through leasehold housing with common plazas and shared rear gardens as a model for integrating farming and community space into private housing development.
CommunityBiodiversityHealthDesign and fabrication of adjustable red-green-blue LED light arrays for plant research
2005· BMC Plant Biology · Global
A technical report presenting build plans and circuitry to inexpensively fabricate tunable red-green-blue LED arrays, with two fixture designs (small-scale and expandable growth-chamber versions) for adjustable plant lighting.
DIYEconomicsThe use of human waste for peri-urban agriculture in Northern Ghana
2005Olufunke Cofie, Gordana Kranjac-Berisavljevic, Pay Drechsel · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · Ghana
This study investigated the use of faecal sludge (FS) for crop production in Tamale and Bolgatanga, Ghana, involving 90 farmers and sanitation officials. 64% of farmers used FS to improve soil fertility and increase maize and sorghum yields. While perceived to reduce pathogens, 22% of farmers reported itching feet and foot rot after working with FS without protective footwear. Constraints included foul smell, transport issues, and public mockery, yet competition for FS existed due to its benefits.
Peri-urban agricultureOrganic cycleCompostReport on the Environmental Benefits and Costs of Green Roof Technology for the City of Toronto
2005Banting Doug, Doshi Hitesh, Li James, Missios Paul · Munich Personal RePEc Archive (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) · Canada (Toronto)
This report presents findings on the municipal-level benefits of implementing green roof technology in Toronto, Canada. Quantifiable monetary benefits included stormwater flow reduction (including impact on combined sewer overflow), air quality improvement, reduced direct energy use, and reduction in the urban heat island effect. Other benefits like aesthetic improvement, increased property values, use as amenity spaces, food production, and increased biodiversity were identified but could not be quantified in this report, requiring further work.
Climate changeBiodiversityFood education