Research & reports

Yang Tingting · The World of Chinese · China

This article profiles Clover Nature School, led by Professor Yuelai Liu, which is converting abandoned urban spaces across China into community gardens. The initiative has established over 1,000 gardens nationwide, with Shanghai aiming for 2,040. In one Urumqi case, a neighboring restaurant's monthly revenue rose from 120,000 to 180,000 yuan after a garden was created.

City of Johannesburg, Department of Social Development · City of Johannesburg · South Africa

A 2024 policy document adopted by the City of Johannesburg's Department of Social Development, stating that approximately 9.6% of households in the city are indigent households constantly threatened by food insecurity (StatsSA, 2018), and citing a 2021 estimate that 30.9% of people are threatened by food insecurity (Rudolph et al.). It outlines interventions including regional agricultural resource centres, farming hubs, and food parcel distribution.

Neetu Choudhary, Alexandra Brewis · Journal of Urban Health · Global South

A narrative review of 169 papers on food and nutrition in cities of low- and middle-income countries. Urban agriculture is the most common theme, and studies report gains in dietary diversity and food expenditure — but the review notes it is the relatively well-off, not the poor, who are found to practise urban agriculture, and land-access constraints exclude the poorest from those benefits. It also documents the nutrition transition toward processed, high-fat and high-sugar foods and a resulting double burden of malnutrition. Cash assistance shows promise during crises, but social protection alone is insufficient against food insecurity. Four evidence gaps are named: gender dynamics, WASH linkages, equity and intersectionality within cities, and the role of local government.

Namenge Philip Tendet, George Alliwa Makalliwa, Daniel Nyamongo Sagwe · The Pan African Medical Journal · Kenya (Nairobi)

A survey of 328 urban farmers in Kasarani sub-county, Nairobi County, Kenya (85.42% response rate) plus five agricultural extension officers and five chiefs. The strongest constraints on urban farming were flooding (mean 3.66), lack of rain (3.52) and pests and diseases (3.49), followed by poor yields and soil erosion. Institutional barriers were also reported: harassment by city authorities, insecure land rights and restricted access to plots. Respondents were 65.55% male, 63.41% married and 41.46% casual labourers, with 63.11% earning USD 40–80 a month — indicating that urban farming here is concentrated among low-income households facing both climate stress and weak institutional support. Limitations: not all urban farmers could be interviewed, and comparison outside the study sub-county was restricted.

Reyes Tejada N., Kooy M., Zwarteveen M. · Water International · Mozambique (Maputo)

A study grounded in the Infulene Valley, Maputo's main green belt, showing that irrigated urban agriculture drawing on various water sources has been consistently present throughout the Mozambican capital's history. The authors trace how urban planning evolved from 1960 onwards and what those policies meant for urban farming and the livelihoods depending on it. Documenting the city's imaginaries across four eras of Maputo's development, they find that agriculture occupied a prominent place in the post-colonial city and remains significant despite its vague recognition within urban planning after the shift to neoliberalism, and argue for acknowledging urban irrigated agriculture as an intrinsic feature of the city.

内閣府 · 内閣府 · Japan

A nationwide survey report on Japan's specified nonprofit corporations (NPO houjin), published by the Cabinet Office in March 2024 and covering fiscal 2023. It tabulates corporate profiles (location, year of establishment, age and gender of the representative), activity (field of work, volunteer numbers, problems faced, partnerships with companies, international activity), accounting, disclosure and digitalisation practices, and financial realities such as main income sources, borrowing and membership-fee revenue, separating certified from non-certified corporations. Responses are organised into seven regional blocks from Hokkaido-Tohoku to Kyushu.

一般財団法人 日本民間公益活動連携機構 · 一般財団法人 日本民間公益活動連携機構（JANPIA） · Japan

JANPIA's evaluation guideline for the intermediary distribution organisations, activity-support organisations and executing organisations that deliver Japan's dormant-deposit-funded programmes, first issued in July 2019 and revised in May 2024. It sets out the basics and purpose of evaluation within the dormant deposits scheme, who evaluates and when, and the governing principles, then devotes a separate chapter to social impact evaluation and its structure. The document shows how evaluation is built into every tier of the funding chain as a condition of the money.

Government Outcomes Lab, University of Oxford · Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab), Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford · Global

Published 5 November 2024, announcing that the INDIGO Impact Bond Dataset run by Oxford's Government Outcomes Lab had reached 300 projects, described as the world's largest open-access resource of its kind. It lets governments, practitioners, investors and researchers share standardised data on outcomes-based contracts. The outcomes-based financing pipeline has more than tripled over the past three years, and eight practitioners from South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and the UK describe using INDIGO to inform programme design and research.

Stadtverband Leipzig der Kleingärtner e.V. · Stadtverband Leipzig der Kleingärtner e.V. · Germany

A page in which the Leipzig city federation of allotment gardeners collects national figures for the organised allotment system: 20 state federations, more than 13,310 clubs, 503 regional, district and area federations, and about 890,000 members. Counting family and friends, roughly five million people use a plot, and the nationwide average wait is three years. On costs it gives an average ground rent of 0.18 euro per square metre per year, working out at about 66.66 euro a year for an average 370-square-metre plot.

Agência Senado · Agência Senado (Senado Federal) · Brazil

An Agência Senado article reporting that Law 14,935/2024, sanctioned on July 26, 2024 and published in the official gazette on July 29, 2024, created Brazil's National Policy on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (PNAUP). The law defines urban and peri-urban agriculture as farming and livestock activity integrated into the urban ecological and economic system, and lists seven objectives including expanding food security for vulnerable urban populations, occupying idle urban spaces, generating alternative income, linking production to public procurement, promoting family labor and cooperatives, encouraging agroecological production, and spreading organic-waste recycling.

AIPH (International Association of Horticultural Producers) · AIPH (International Association of Horticultural Producers) · Brazil

AIPH's Green City case study on Curitiba, Brazil (associated with the 2024 AIPH World Green City Awards), describes an urban agriculture program dating to the mid-1990s comprising 147 gardens — 47 community, 43 school, and 36 institutional — covering 17 hectares (177,000 m²). The gardens produce about 160 tons of vegetables per month and benefit 37,000 people; 89 beehives are also installed.

· LCR Diario Digital · Argentina

A regional Argentine newspaper report on the national Ministry of Human Capital's March 2024 discontinuation of ProHuerta, the national program providing free seed kits for household gardens. In the Villa Regina area of Río Negro province, the local Comisión de Fomento of Valle Azul stepped in to purchase and freely distribute 100 seed kits for the spring-summer season, while INTA (the national agricultural technology institute), though no longer funded to buy seeds, continues to offer free technical advice on soil improvement and pest control.

Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario, Provincia de Buenos Aires · Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario, Provincia de Buenos Aires · Argentina

The official page for the Buenos Aires Province Urban Garden Programme, launched by the provincial Ministry of Agrarian Development in the second half of 2024. It offers training, seedlings and technical support for community gardens of at least 40 square meters run or planned by schools, hospitals, clubs and civic organizations, and supports municipalities in setting up or strengthening local seedling nurseries; its first edition worked mainly with school, hospital and organizational community gardens.

Câmara dos Deputados (Agência Câmara de Notícias) · Agência Câmara de Notícias, Câmara dos Deputados (Brasil) · Brazil

A Brazilian Chamber of Deputies news article reporting that Law 14.935/24 — originating from Bill PL 906/15 introduced by federal deputy Padre João — was published on July 29, 2024, creating a National Policy on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture. Its stated objectives include expanding food security for vulnerable urban populations, putting unused urban and peri-urban land to use, generating alternative income for urban residents, linking food production to public procurement (schools, hospitals, prisons), supporting family farming and solidarity-economy organizations, promoting environmental education and organic farming, and encouraging reuse of organic waste and rainwater; implementation is to be decentralized across federal, state and municipal governments, civil society and educational institutions.

Kishimoto K., Yan W. · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (Cambridge), 38:e54 · Japan

Quantitatively classifies roughly 430 registered allotment gardens in Tokyo by number of plots, plot size, price, contract duration, and facilities, mapping their spatial distribution and providers. Most allotments were founded after 2000 and are owned by local governments, yet demand for plots exceeds supply across much of the metropolis.

Hall S.M., Tikku V., Heiger-Bernays W.J. · Environmental Health Perspectives, 131(11):115001 · Global

Examines equity and safety in urban organic-waste cycling through a case study of waste-to-compost activities and legislation in four US cities. It warns that contaminants such as pesticides, lead, and PFAS and inconsistent regulation can worsen racial inequities in access to urban farmland and safe compost, and recommends justice-oriented policy with multilingual education and proper waste disposal.

Goralnik L., Radonic L., Garcia Polanco V., Hammon A. · Land, 12(1):68 · United States

A qualitative study of a food-bank-run community garden in Lansing, Michigan, examining what fosters inclusion for refugee and immigrant gardeners. It shows how garden management practices promote inclusion that builds social capital, an outcome important for refugee and immigrant wellbeing.

Alves, D., Villar, I., Mato, S. · Environmental Science and Pollution Research (Springer), 31(7):9873-9885 · Spain / Europe

A study comparing methodology, bulking agents, and compost quality across community composting centres (CCC) and community gardens used by local governments to treat biowaste. It shows how population density and the presence of green areas determine the siting of decentralized local composting infrastructure.

Coulibaly S.F.M., Aubry C., Provent F., Rousset-Rouvière S., Joimel S. · Environmental Research Letters, 18(7) · Global

A review synthesizing existing research on how far green roofs can support urban biodiversity, framed by their design and modes of use. It finds green roofs can provide habitat for soil organisms and pollinators as well as plants, but that the effect depends strongly on design such as substrate depth and vegetation diversity, and recommends integrating soil communities into construction guidelines and increasing heterogeneity at roof and landscape scales.

Bell N.C.S., Ascher J.S., Hayes J.J.-M., Langellotto G.A. · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 5:1102360 · Global

A systematic review covering roughly five decades of bee research in urban and community gardens, analyzing 227 publications through early 2022. It clarifies the potential of gardens to support diverse bee communities, the role of citizen-tended green spaces in pollinator conservation, and existing research gaps, pointing toward future directions for urban pollinator conservation and participatory monitoring.

神戸市 · 内閣府地方創生推進事務局（地域再生計画認定） · Japan

A regionally certified revitalization plan that Kobe City submitted to the Cabinet Office. Building on the Gastropolis Kobe 2020 vision, it sets KPI targets for local-food consumption, exchange population, new farmers and food-business startups through programs such as EAT LOCAL KOBE, farmers markets, citizen and tourist farm experiences, and student-farmer product development.

Iida A., Yamazaki T., Hino K., Yokohari M. · npj Urban Sustainability 3:4 · Japan

Focusing on Tokyo, the study quantitatively verified how access to local food through urban agriculture relates to residents' subjective well-being, physical activity, and food-security concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. It showed that walkable-distance urban agriculture supported community health and food-system resilience.

Nakajima Y., Akita N. · 都市計画論文集 58(3):767-773 · Japan

Addressing urban farmland repositioned from 'land to be converted to housing' to 'land that should exist' under the 2015 Urban Agriculture Promotion Plan, the study examines how municipalities should strategically position productive green areas and operate the purchase-request system to preserve them, using Setagaya Ward—an early adopter of such purchases—as a case study.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省（令和5年9月策定） · Japan

The core strategy of Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism aiming to mainstream and 'build in' green infrastructure across all sectors with the public and private sectors working in tandem. It sets out seven perspectives—collaboration, community, technology, evaluation, finance, global and digital—and positions a broad range of spaces, including urban farmland and everyday greenery, as multifunctional green social infrastructure for stormwater management, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, health and community.

Shigita Gentaro, Tran Phuong Dung, Pervin Mst. Naznin, Duong Thanh-Thuy, Imoh Odirich Nnennaya, Monden Yuki, Nishida Hidetaka, Tanaka Katsunori, Sugiyama Mitsuhiro, Kawazu Yoichi, Tomooka Norihiko, Kato Kenji · Breeding Science, 73(3): 263-275 · Japan

Genotyping-by-sequencing of 755 melon accessions in the NARO Genebank identified ~39,000 SNPs to clarify genetic relationships and population structure and to construct a World Melon Core Collection, supporting conservation and use of genetic resources.