Research & reports

Xiomara Asunción, Moreno Lorenzo, Reynier Rodríguez Rico, Eduardo San, Marful Orbis · · Cuba (Cienfuegos)

This study aimed to characterize urban agriculture in Cienfuegos city, Cuba, and identify strategic axes for the further implementation of its land use and urban plan. Through SWOT analysis and variable identification and spatial analysis using GIS, the positive and negative impacts of urban agriculture on the urban, environmental, economic, and social spheres were determined, leading to the enunciation of strategic priorities for urban planning. This article reports on this experience.

Marzieh Rezaei Qaleh, Hossein Medi, Mahdi Sheybani · Cumhuriyet Science Journal · Iran (Qazvin City)

This study investigated the role of urban agriculture in sustaining the urban environment, using Qazvin City, Iran, as a case study. Qazvin City, historically surrounded by traditional gardens that created a favorable urban environment, is now experiencing the destruction of these garden environments due to development processes, posing a risk of breaking the chain of environmental sustainability. The research, based on content analysis through observation and document study, proposed solutions considering environmental concerns, including preserving old irrigation methods, restoring native plant species, and focusing on existing water resources.

Noortje Marres · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · Global

This text explores the concept of "material participation," where everyday material practices like gardening, washing, and cycling are proposed to facilitate engagement in social and public life. It suggests that material environments, such as kitchens and allotment gardens, have unique capacities to involve people and make broader social problems accessible for intervention. The text raises questions about the legitimacy, efficacy, and distinctiveness of these explicitly material forms of engagement.

Ana Lucrecia Nadal Fuentes · Temes de disseny · Global

This article discusses the historical relationship between cities and agriculture, noting that while agriculture was central to ancient civilizations, it was excluded from modern 20th-century urban plans. The study highlights that current and projected demographic growth in urban areas has increased the value of urban agriculture.

Barrientos Gómez, Yuly Anthoula · · Global

A paper examining that, while much research has attempted to establish the range of benefits and services attributed to urban agriculture across social/community, environmental, economic, political, and technical dimensions, uncertainty remains about the outlook from an environmental-management perspective, how the scholarly effort around the topic has evolved, and where this knowledge has been produced. Aiming to systematically evaluate the state of knowledge on urban agriculture through a literature review, the article presents a quantitative review of 300 studies on urban agriculture, examining the origin of publication, number of authors, type of publication, language, type and nature of the investigation, publication source, country of origin, and research objectives categorised by field of knowledge.

Pay Drechsel, Keraita, Bernard N. · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Global

A CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) perspective piece on food and water challenges at the urban-rural interface amid global urbanization. It states that in low-income countries, investments in waste management and sanitation are not keeping pace with population growth, so the urban "return flow" of waste is not adequately managed. Where polluted water is used for irrigation to feed cities, food safety becomes a crucial component of food security. The piece explicitly states that urban and peri-urban farming systems — often run by the informal sector — are the systems most affected by this resource competition and pollution. It describes CGIAR's Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) research program as working at the interface of agriculture and sanitation to address these urbanization-related challenges and opportunities.

Shoujun Chen, Nikolay Popov · Unitec Research Bank (Unitec Institute of Technology) · Global

This 2015 paper, addressing projected population growth in Auckland, New Zealand, surveys planning concepts for peri-urban agricultural development. It notes that while Auckland is the country's largest customer of food markets, its fossil-fuel-based agricultural system is vulnerable to urban growth and climate change. The paper reviews various peri-urban agriculture planning concepts and evaluates their applicability to a specific site, the Special Housing Areas (SHAs) in Belmont.

Michelle L. Kaiser, Michele L. Williams, Nicholas T. Basta, Michelle D. Hand, Sarah Huber · Journal of Food Protection · 米国・オハイオ

Focus groups (n=67) in four low-income Ohio neighbourhoods plus soil tests at six sites. Residents wanted gardens for fresh produce but worried about soil. Lead, zinc, cadmium and copper were present (paint likely main source); arsenic/chromium and PAHs were low. Further management to cut Pb/Cd bioavailability is needed before food crops; longer-established gardens showed lower contaminant signals. Critical evidence that vacant-lot gardening requires soil risk assessment.

Blanca Jiménez, Toshiyuki Asano · Water Intelligence Online · Global

A book surveying water reuse practices worldwide, organized by regions sharing similar water availability and social conditions, covering the water-quality requirements for different uses—agricultural, urban agriculture as a special case, municipal, and industrial—as well as indirect potable reuse through aquifer recharge. It addresses ethical and economic dilemmas, differing government policy roles and international standards, and public acceptance, and compares case studies from Japan, Germany, Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico, Windhoek (Namibia), the Mediterranean region, Israel, Spain, Cameroon, Nepal, and Vietnam.

Joseph Claghorn, Francesco Orsini, Carlos Restrepo, Christian Werthmann · urbe Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana · Colombia

A report on a four-phase research and implementation proposal to anticipate and mitigate landslide risk in low-income settlements on the mountainous urban periphery of Medellín, Colombia. A collaboration between a team of landscape architects from Germany and urbanists in Medellín proposes five pilot projects testing risk-mitigation strategies: monitoring and early-warning systems, drainage improvements, urban agriculture, slope forestation, and site development with basic services.

Elisa Botella Rodríguez · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Cuba

This article examines cooperatives in Costa Rica and urban agriculture in Cuba from 1990 to 2008 as two cases of best practices that let small-scale farmers expand production and secure long-term survival amid globalization. It concludes these pathways might offer similar opportunities to smallholders in other developing economies operating under different agricultural policies.

Simon Meisch · ·

A paper arguing, via the social philosophers Michael Sandel and Alan Gewirth, that sustainable food production and consumption require substantial public debate on their aims and social organisation. It reviews debates over different food regimes and different institutional settings, consumer information/certification versus participatory approaches such as community-supported agriculture, and contends that public debate can be guided by moral principles that carry universal claims while remaining open to different ways of life.

André Viljoen, Johannes Schlesinger, Katrin Bohn, Alex Drescher · University of Brighton Repository (University of Brighton) · Global

A refereed book chapter commissioned by the international RUAF Foundation and the international Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems, supported by the FAO and the CGIAR research consortium, appears in a book conceived as a decennial "state of the art" publication on international developments in urban agriculture. It presents an overview of developments and drivers affecting intra- and peri-urban agriculture, drawing on the authors' research on integrating agriculture into urban and city-region land use planning and urban space design. Citing examples from the Global North and South and themes from an international Arts and Humanities Research Network led by Viljoen and Bohn, it offers an international perspective on spatial and policy impacts in this rapidly transforming practice.

Roberto Aguilera Peña · OBSERVATÓRIO DE LA ECONOMÍA LATINOAMERICANA · Colombia

This paper argues that an "integral farm" (granja integral) functions as a life project for families in rural communities and in the large cities of Ecuador and elsewhere, offering not only improved nutrition but also an opportunity to live in harmony with nature while conserving and preserving the environment without significant impacts on ecosystem components or biocenosis. Urban gardens are described as contributing to community food provision while also creating business opportunities, and the paper argues for the importance of building alliances between small food producers on integral farms and supermarkets. It describes supermarkets as a distribution channel with growing demand, with much of the fresh food supply coming from urban or rural family and community gardens applying good agricultural practices, creating opportunities for sustainable strategic alliances.

惠子 重冨, Keiko Shigetomi · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Global

This paper examines the transformation of the integrated harmony system in the indigenous Andean worldview of the Central Andes — combining "harmony with nature" and "harmony among communities," historically centered on llama caravans — as it erodes under modernization, urbanization, industrialization and mass consumerism. As the market economy gains importance, indigenous peasants are converted into agricultural producers, and mutual relations among rural communities give way to an increasingly invisible relationship between producers and consumers; yet the paper also identifies an emerging tendency toward solidarity between producers and consumers that values both ecological and social sustainability while using the market. It cites Ecological Agriculture promoted by the Asociación de Organizaciones de Productores Ecológicos de Bolivia (AOPEB) and Urban Agriculture promoted by the FAO as examples of this new trend toward harmonic integration.

Nathanael Bacon · International Review of Mission · Global

Drawing on the author's ministry experience in Guatemala, this essay (2015) examines themes of injustice, loving service, need, and promise across three documents — the Lausanne Movement's The Cape Town Commitment, the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, and the ecumenical mission and evangelism text Together Towards Life — with a particular focus on justice and Christian mission. It depicts the elements common to these texts through the image of a community garden exhibiting biodiversity and requiring a diversity of talents to flourish.

Andreas Wesener · Journal of Urbanism International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability · New Zealand

In Christchurch, New Zealand — struck by a series of major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 — community gardens, urban agriculture, art installations, event venues, cafés and pocket parks emerged as temporary uses on vacant post-earthquake sites. Through a review and analysis of exemplary transitional community-initiated open spaces alongside related literature, this paper examines how the post-disaster urban context shaped particular aspects of temporary urbanism compared with case studies in non-disaster settings. Focusing on the anticipated benefits of community-initiated open spaces, it discusses their relevance to urban sustainability in relation to community resilience, while raising unresolved questions about their possible long-term value.

Maurizio Lanfranchi, Carlo Giannetto, Angelina De Pascale, Remus Ion Hornoiu · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Global

This paper examines the application of Qualitative Risk Analysis to several public projects based on urban and peri-urban agriculture as a model of sustainable territorial development. Following a literature review of Qualitative Risk Analysis and stakeholder involvement in public-sector decisions, several urban and peri-urban agriculture projects advanced by local public administration were evaluated, classified according to defined risk categories, and represented graphically through a probability-impact matrix. The matrix showed that data scores and rankings vary significantly across the different projects. The findings indicate that the success of a marketing policy based on sustainable marketing depends not only on the characteristics of the territory analyzed but also on the level of "riskiness" associated with the projects, and the paper suggests this can guide public organizations with limited resources in assessing and prioritizing projects using riskiness as a criterion.

Daniel Augusto Hernández Penagos, María Camila Mateus Jaime, Nilton Arley Parra Peña · · Colombia (Bogotá)

A report on the "Agroecology and Conscious Consumption" project at the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Bogotá campus, aimed at engaging the university community in reflection on Colombia's agrarian issues alongside consumption awareness and food security, through the practice of urban agriculture with an agroecological approach. Using a Participatory Action Research methodology, the project raised awareness of the concepts and built knowledge through talks and fieldwork, and ultimately evaluated the intervention process through a statistical survey and management indicators.

Municipality of Milan · Milan Urban Food Policy Pact · Global

The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP), launched by the Municipality of Milan in 2015, is an international agreement among cities to develop sustainable, inclusive, resilient and diverse food systems. According to the official site, 330 cities have signed the pact, covering an estimated 550 million residents.

Emily Gustafsson-Wright, Sophie Gardiner, Vidya Putcha · Brookings Institution · Global

A Brookings Institution report published on 9 July 2015 examining the 38 impact bond deals in existence as of 1 March 2015, with six more contracted by July. It defines impact bond structures, inventories existing deals, sets out policy frameworks and the motivations of each type of stakeholder, and tests the claims made for impact bonds. The authors express cautious optimism while stressing that the field remains nascent and needs greater transparency and continued research.

Corporación de Promoción Económica CONQUITO · CONQUITO · Ecuador

The bylaws of CONQUITO, Quito's economic promotion corporation. Article 1 establishes it as a private-law nonprofit legal entity; Article 28 sets the Board (Directorio) at seven members, including two permanent seats held by the Metropolitan Mayor (or delegate) and the president of the Chamber of Small Industry; Article 35 assigns the presidency of the Board and General Assembly to the Metropolitan Mayor of Quito or a permanent delegate. Approved at the Ordinary General Assembly on March 13, 2015.

Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente de Bogotá · Observatorio Ambiental de Bogotá · Colombia

The Bogotá Environmental Observatory reported on 11 September 2015 that the city, via Acuerdo 605 de 2015, established guidelines to institutionalize a sustainable, low-cost Urban and Peri-urban Agroecological Agriculture program. The program includes eight farming systems -- vertical agriculture, biointensive systems, floating roots, raised beds, agricultural recycling, family farming, biological fertilizer production and biocontrol preparation -- coordinated by the District Secretariat of Environment together with the José Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden and the Secretariats of Social Integration, Economic Development, Government and Health.

Peano C., Migliorini P., Sottile F. · Ecology and Society · Global

Develops an indicator-based sustainability assessment tool translating Slow Food's 'good, clean, fair' principles into criteria spanning economic, ecological, social, cultural, and quality dimensions, applied to the Slow Food Presidia project.

Kloppenburg J. · The Journal of Peasant Studies · Global

Argues that food sovereignty requires seed sovereignty, examining the Open Source Seed Initiative's attempt to apply open-source legal tools against corporate enclosure and intellectual property rights over plant genetic resources.