Research & reports

Choi S.-W., Shin Y. J. · Sustainability (MDPI) · Korea

Uses input–output analysis to compare the production- and value-added-inducement ripple effects of Korean smart farms against conventional agriculture, demonstrating the economic impact of fourth-industrial-revolution, business-oriented smart farming on the national economy.

Oh S., Lu C. · The Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology 98(2):133-140 · Global

Review of commercial vertical farming with IoT-based precision control, discussing its contribution to food security and the sustainability and profitability challenges facing the indoor farming industry.

Wang L., Liu C., Lu N., Takagaki M. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 7:973341 · China

Case study investigating China's plant factory and vertical farm industry, analyzing corporate deployment and challenges, and proposing policy and technical countermeasures to advance commercialization.

松井 崚, 栗山 尚子, 水野 優子 · 日本都市計画学会関西支部研究発表会講演概要集 21巻 pp.49-52 · Japan

Typologizes private-sector housing-district regeneration including Daiwa House's Livnest Town project (Midorioka Neopolis), showing that in developer-responsibility types, firms lead diverse initiatives such as community hubs and cultivation businesses.

多摩地域都市農業振興協議会, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Case report on using the Rural Revitalisation Grant (urban agriculture function measures) to build an urban-agriculture community network around Hachioji in the Tama area through a regional council supported citizen and experience farms.

農と親しみ江東区の共生社会を考える協議会, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Grant case study creating a children's farm-contact space in Toyosu, Koto Ward, using urban farmland creation support — a report on ward-council-business collaboration for vacant-land farming, food education and an inclusive community.

株式会社Tryfe, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Fukuoka case report on using MAFF grants for exchange markets linking urban farmers and citizens, promoting local food and interest in citizen and experience farms with municipal collaboration.

株式会社ネイバーズファーム, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Hino case report on opening a farm for neighbourhood markets using national urban-agriculture symbiosis grants and municipal collaboration, linking citizen-farm produce distribution with community building.

かきつ畑プロジェクト推進協議会, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Chiryu, Aichi grant case linking local schools to promote urban agriculture, documenting a model of municipal-school-farmer collaboration in experience farms and food education near Nagoya.

一般社団法人KOBE FARMERS MARKET, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Kobe grant case report on youth-oriented farmers markets using urban agriculture function grants, documenting city-farmer-civic collaboration to secure urban farmers and activate citizen farms and direct sales.

大阪府摂津市, 農林水産省 · 農林水産省 農山漁村振興交付金事例 · Japan

Settsu City grant case installing signage for disaster-cooperation farmland, showing a municipal public-support model linking urban farmland's disaster and green functions with conservation of citizen farms.

神奈川県 · 神奈川県 調査報告書 · Japan

Kanagawa prefectural tabulation of citizen farms by municipality — including 285 in Yokohama and 64 in Kawasaki — enabling comparison of public, cooperative and farmer-led setups across the prefecture.

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.

Kwartnik-Pruc A., Droj G. · Land (MDPI), 12(2):325 · Global

A systematic review of 162 peer-reviewed papers (1978–2022) organizing the role of allotments and community gardens into six themes (community, health, economics, pollution, urban planning, sustainable environment). Ecologically, it concludes that gardens create habitat mosaics that act as refugia for urban biodiversity and that urban agriculture enriches plant diversity, helping conserve native and agricultural biodiversity — and calls for planning and policy frameworks that treat gardens as part of urban green infrastructure alongside greenspace restoration and heat-island mitigation.

FAO · FAO — background paper for SOFI/SOFA 2023 · Global

Urban populations in low- and middle-income countries are growing at ~3% a year. An empirical, cross-country analysis of food supply, food security and diets across the rural-urban continuum, examining how urbanization shapes access to healthy diets.

Xue H., Zhai Y., Su W.-H., He Z. · Agriculture (MDPI) 13(9), 1681 · China

Analyzes the governance response of China's urban food systems during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing out from cases the disruption of rural-urban food distribution, the reality of administrative intervention and its challenges.

Hermesse J., Vankeerberghen A., Lohest F., Truyffaut A. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Belgium (Brussels)

Examines six co-creative, transdisciplinary research projects in Brussels that engaged diverse stakeholders to co-produce knowledge on urban food production, distribution, and equitable food access, highlighting recommendations for institutional and legislative reform to support food system transitions.

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.

Bayot R.S., Schreinemachers P., Mwambi M., Dominguez D.D., Oro E.M., Gonsalves J.F. · World Vegetable Center (CGIAR) · Philippines (Metro Manila)

This scoping study evaluated urban community gardening sites under the Philippines' National Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture Banner Program (NUPAP) across Metro Manila, covering 26 sites in 7 cities. Findings showed the program lacked targeted support for vulnerable populations despite coordinating numerous urban farming initiatives.

Willman K. · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, Vol. 22, No. 2 · Finland (Tampere)

Through discourse analysis of interviews with eight Tampere city officials, this study reveals how bureaucratic caution and institutional ambiguity create a constrained operational space for community gardening, despite political-level support for its expansion.

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.

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.

Samuel J. W. Peters, Sydney M. Warner, Eri Saikawa, P. Barry Ryan, Parinya Panuwet, Dana B. Barr, Priya E. D'Souza, Gil Frank, Rosario Hernandez, Taranji Alvarado, Arthur Hines, Chris Theal · GeoHealth · United States (Atlanta)

Using community-engaged research, researchers and community gardeners co-designed a study measuring soil lead concentrations via XRF and ICP-MS at 19 urban agricultural and residential sites in west Atlanta and three rural Georgia sites. Most sites were below the EPA residential screening levels but above the University of Georgia's low-risk agricultural levels, and some sites containing metal-refining waste or slag reached three times the EPA level. The findings led local and federal agencies to initiate cleanup of the slag residue.

Hannah Ramer, Kristen Nelson · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · United States (Minneapolis)

Using a contextualized case comparison of the City of Minneapolis and the independently elected Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, this study examines how urban garden land policies granting access to publicly owned land can either reduce or exacerbate racial inequities. It argues that seemingly minor policy details systematically shape who benefits, and that the Park Board went substantially further on racial equity—aided by more intensive public participation in developing the policy details.

Stacy M. Philpott, Peter Bichier, Genesis Perez, Shalene Jha, Heidi Liere, Brenda B. Lin · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United States (California)

This study examined how garden physical features, garden "luxury," and land-tenure security influence plant species richness, functional diversity, and composition in community gardens on the California central coast. It found that land-tenure-secure gardens had higher plant and crop richness, while luxury-associated variables raised ornamental richness and flower abundance but lowered crop richness.