Research & reports

Norbert Goldfield · · Israel

A chapter on an HATD-funded joint farming initiative between Israeli Jews and Bedouin in southern Israel, covering the geographic setting, the organizations involved, the initiative's activities, preliminary results and possible future directions. It cites prior US research on community-supported agriculture, including a randomized clinical trial reporting that CSA participation produced clinically meaningful improvements in diet quality, and describes White Hill Farm (WHF) as one of only a handful of efforts concretely promoting engagement between Israeli Bedouin and Israeli Jews amid ongoing tension between the two groups.

Sérgio Manuel Serra da Cruz, Anja Steglich, Pedro Vieira Cruz, Ana Claudia Macedo Vieira · · Global

A book chapter, noting that the world's largest cities continue to grow amid urbanization processes that differ in complexity between developed and developing countries, argues that well-managed urban spaces can offer opportunities for economic and social development. It investigates current challenges and opportunities in urban agriculture (UA) and discusses whether adopting urban computing (UC) and information and communications technologies (ICT) can help urban dwellers, farmers and planners advance UA in global north and global south countries such as Germany and Brazil, also touching on new joint-research possibilities raised at the 8th Brazil-Germany Frontiers of Science and Technology Symposium (BRAGFOST).

Giovanni Delnevo, Roberto Girau, Chiara Ceccarini, Catia Prandi · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · Global

This study combines Social Internet of Things sensing (solar radiation, humidity, air temperature, soil moisture) and communication, crowdsourced image collection and classification, and deep learning for plant disease detection, engaging farmers and community garden owners and experts, to build a system that predicts whether a plant will develop a disease with a given degree of precision. It presents the architecture, deep learning model, and a responsive web app, reporting experimental evaluations and usability/engagement tests alongside limitations and future work.

Paulo Germán García Murillo, Laura Belkis Parada Romero, Juana Yaira Martín Perico · · Colombia

In Bogotá's Teusaquillo locality, Colombia, an urban agriculture project was carried out in 2021 with teachers and fifth-grade students at Colegio El Carmelo during the pandemic, aiming to build awareness of STEAM competencies (environmental, technological, pedagogical, artistic). Two home-based experimental practices were designed using cargamanto bean seeds, chosen for being easy to obtain during food-supply crises, covering sustainability, STEAM and learning competencies. The pandemic period led the project to involve students' families as well as the students themselves, and the resulting reflections on food security, nutritional culture, prototyping culture and scientific citizenship are compiled as a record of the educational practice.

Tarmo Pikner, Hannes Palang · · Estonia

A study of dacha-style allotment gardens in the border city of Narva, Estonia, on the eastern edge of the European Union, used ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews to examine how plural mobility and emotional human-nature interactions shape periurban landscapes. Results indicated a persistent rural dimension and multiple engagements with nature within Narva's wider urbanization dynamics. Plural mobility and emotional care motivated and sustained by allotment gardening constituted dispersed landscapes as connective tissue across periurban features. Landscape histories of the periurban area showed particular ruptures and reassemblies tied to shifts in the state-border regime.

M B Bayer, Susanne Neugart, Tobias Pöhnl · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Global

This study compared kale (Brassica oleracea var. sabellica L.) grown in all four cardinal directions of a residential building, including indoor cultivation behind UV-filtering glass windows. Total carotenoid concentration benefited from sun-exposed growing locations, including the indoor glass condition, while concentrations of nutritionally important lutein did not differ among locations despite their differing abiotic stress conditions (sun exposure, temperature, water). Total phenolic concentration profited most from direct sunlight but was severely reduced behind glass windows. Satisfying growth rates were achieved under all tested conditions.

Isaac Asirifi, Steffen Werner, Stefanie Heinze, Courage Kosi Setsoafia Saba, I. Lawson, Bernd Marschner · Agronomy · Ghana

In a field experiment on irrigated urban agriculture in the Guinea savannah zone of Ghana, this study assessed the transient effect of rice husk biochar (20 t ha-1) and/or mineral fertilizer (NPK 15-15-15) on microbial respiration, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and enzyme activities in soils irrigated with wastewater and tap water. One year after biochar application, soil organic carbon (SOC) increased by up to 123%, hot water extractable carbon (HWEC) increased by 11-26%, and MBC increased by 34%. Basal respiration increased significantly by up to 46% in mineral-fertilized soil but decreased by 12-45% under wastewater irrigation. The metabolic quotient (qCO2) indicated reduced microbial community stress and higher carbon use efficiency with biochar application and wastewater irrigation. Total enzyme activity increased under wastewater irrigation, and biochar-treated soils showed a more diverse composition of carbon-cycling enzymes and higher aminopeptidase activity. Biochar and wastewater showed positive effects on biological soil properties that contributed to soil fertility, and the results suggest biochar may have beneficial long-term effects on non-biochar SOC stocks.

Yassine Moustanjidi · · Morocco

Taking Casablanca, Morocco as a case study, this work analyzes the development trends of growing megacities and the challenges they face, particularly in developing countries, and proposes approaches, methods and tools for integrating green, productive infrastructure based on urban agriculture as a multifunctional component of urban planning. Casablanca is characterized as facing an urban and ecological crisis driven by rapid urban and demographic growth since the early twentieth century combined with a chronic lack of integrative urban strategies, including a housing crisis, social segregation, high unemployment, persistent congestion, air and water pollution, and a near-absence of open and green space. The work repositions urban agriculture within the discourse on sustainable urban development and climate change impacts, proposes a new multifunctional model of urban management, and redefines the role of green open spaces in Casablanca's urban development context, focusing on regenerating inner-city brownfields and vacant spaces as multifunctional facilities built around urban agriculture.

Anne Forbes, Vinesh Chandra, Linda Pfeiffer, Rachel Sheffield · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Global

This is a chapter from an Australian STEM education textbook for pre-service primary teachers, introducing the theory, skills and practice of teaching STEM through project-based learning. It integrates STEM elements (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) with the Australian Curriculum via a school garden project case study, exploring topic areas such as health, shelter and space through age-appropriate project examples, and connects discussion of assessment, learning spaces, community and STEM futures to classroom teaching practice.

Hannah Hemmelgarn, John F. Munsell · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Global

This exploratory synthesis examines functions beyond food production that urban agroforestry systems — urban forest gardens (UFGs) — can serve, focusing on their capacity to include diverse, biologically important, and culturally relevant non-timber forest species with medicinal properties, decorative and landscaping uses, and craft raw materials. Reviewing literature on the social and ecological aspects of designing "beyond-food" specialty crops in UFGs, the study identifies a need for collaborative, participatory, and culturally relevant decision-making that addresses access inequities, potential contamination from urban pollutants, and continued gaps in education and awareness of UFG multifunctionality. It argues these spaces can serve as a biological and cultural repository for otherwise overlooked species, but notes that case studies showing contextual implementation details are still needed to establish specific cultural and health-sovereignty benefits.

Johanna Lochner, Marco Rieckmann, Marcel Robischon · Sustainability · Global

A study of Virtual School Garden Exchanges (VSGEs)—which link local gardening with global thinking by having elementary and secondary school students in different parts of the world exchange information about their school gardens and related topics via digital media—focused on educators' perspectives and the learning outcomes they observed, given ongoing controversy over whether VSGEs are suitable for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and whether they produce the learning outcomes educators expect. The researchers conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with VSGE educators, analyzed abductively and qualitatively. Results showed substantial overlap between observed and expected learning outcomes and ESD aims, but the data also revealed that learners engaging with international peers were affected by stereotypes and norms in varying ways: on one hand, VSGEs can lead to "Othering," which is not congruent with either ESD or the expected learning outcomes; on the other, they can inspire Transformative Learning that contributes to ESD aims. The study concludes that VSGEs hold potential for ESD depending on a complex interplay of factors, but are not guaranteed to constitute good ESD practice.

Johan Colding, Stephan Barthel, Robert Ljung, Felix Eriksson, Stefan Sjöberg · Social Inclusion · Global

A conceptual paper drawing on the authors' prior research on urban commons to examine their role in climate-proofing activities. It distinguishes three types of environmentally oriented urban commons: "urban green commons" such as allotment and community gardens, which the authors say contribute to environmental learning that supports climate-change mitigation and adaptation; "coworking spaces," framed as reducing commuting and domestic transportation through a sharing economy; and "community climate commons," where local communities pool resources to create shared low-carbon assets. The paper closes by identifying determinants for scaling up such commons, without presenting original empirical data.

Masato Kobiyama, Karla Campagnolo, Marina Refatti Fagundes · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Global

This literature review traces the institutional and scientific history of hydrology's growing focus on urban areas, where population density and socioeconomic and environmental problems concentrate. It argues urbanization has negative hydrological effects by removing natural vegetation, soil, and rainwater conditions, and revisits the concept of "ruralization"—proposed in 2000 as the reverse of urbanization—through hydrological, philosophical, and applied lenses, detailing measures such as urban rainwater storage, rainwater harvesting, and urban agriculture, while stating that all such practices should be grounded in data obtained from experimental watersheds (bacias-escola).

Ferne Edwards, R Gerritsen, G Wesser · · Global

This chapter examines how food practices enter, move through, settle into, disrupt, and redesign cities—as community gardens and foraging sites, health food stores and farmers' markets, freegan and vegan forms of protest and dietary reform, shared tables, and food trucks and new forms of food delivery—arguing that people's engagement with food shapes the form and feel of the city through tactile, affective, and embodied relationships between people, place, and products. It reviews the "sensory turn" in the social sciences and research methodologies that go beyond the written word, and closes with a summary of the edited volume's sections addressing migration, memory, home, inclusion, politics, and care.

Martin Daniel Florez Camelo · Observatorio Ambiental de Bogotá · Colombia

The Bogotá Environmental Observatory reported on 4 October 2021 on "Bogotá es mi huerta," a digital co-creation platform jointly launched by the Bogotá Botanical Garden (JBB) and the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI). The article states the city has more than 20,000 urban farmers and over 4,000 gardens, with surplus-producing gardens generating about 1,778 kilograms of vegetables, herbs and fruit per month. Since 2004, the Botanical Garden's urban agriculture program has cumulatively trained 71,286 people, provided technical assistance to 55,426 gardeners, and supported 25,022 gardens.

Guido Lautaro Padin · La tinta / Revista InterNos · Argentina

Reporting on Rosario's 2021 WRI Cities Prize win ($250,000, selected from 262 proposals across 54 countries), this article explains the programme's mechanics and history: 40 hectares across 7 Park Gardens (2.5-3 ha each) producing 2,500 tonnes a year, over 250 participating families/organizations, land granted through free indefinite loan (comodato). It also notes that around 2000-2002, roughly 800 community gardens sprang up within two years serving about 40,000 people, and that the municipality has reserved 700 hectares of peri-urban land as a protected 'green belt'.

Alessio Russo, Giuseppe T. Cirella · Agriculture, 10(8), 358 · Global

An empirical study analyzing ten edible green infrastructure (EGI) urban-regeneration case studies in Italy's Campania region through the lens of community development, involvement and education. It documents how citizen-engaged urban gardens contribute to public health (stress reduction, physical activity) and the regeneration of derelict land, with sustainability strengthened by far-sighted urban planning across all five provinces.

Vernooy R., Sthapit B., Bessette G. · Development in Practice · Global

Drawing on case studies from Bangladesh, Cote d'Ivoire, India, and Zimbabwe, examines how community seed banks operationalize farmers' rights through conservation, access, and seed sovereignty at the local level.

Orsini F., Pennisi G., Michelon N., Minelli A., Bazzocchi G., Sanyé-Mengual E., Gianquinto G. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 4, 562513 · Global

Reviews multifunctional urban agriculture in the Global North, systematizing six functions (food production, ecosystem services, social integration, education, health, economy) and showing the functional continuity between rural and urban farming.

Resler M.L., Hagolani-Albov S.E. · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Global

Constructs the concept of 'agroecological urbanism', discussing—at the intersection of food sovereignty and food democracy—the political and social transformative power of urban-rural food connection.

Feola G., Suzunaga J., Soler J., Wilson A. · Journal of Rural Studies · Colombia (Sogamoso)

Drawing on a survey of 160 peri-urban farming households in Sogamoso, this study applies the concept of 'quiet sustainability' to challenge dominant urban development discourses that frame peri-urban agriculture as backward, demonstrating its role in strengthening social cohesion and environmental sustainability.

Dissanayake L., Dilini S. · Open Journal of Social Sciences · Sri Lanka (Kandy)

A questionnaire-based study in the Kandy municipal area found that urban home gardens significantly contributed to household food security and quality of life during COVID-19 lockdowns, with social well-being and mental health benefits highlighted across all satisfaction levels.

Scott T.L., Masser B.M., Pachana N.A. · SAGE Open Medicine, 8:2050312120901732 · Australia

A study of older Australians examining links between home and community gardening and psychosocial and physical well-being. Older gardeners reported greater self-esteem, sense of productive endeavour, social engagement and exercise, associated with more positive attitudes to ageing. It shows allotments and gardening groups can protect older adults from isolation and support positive ageing.

· Journal of Cleaner Production · Malaysia

Uses a university case study and life-cycle assessment to demonstrate community-scale food waste composting; with leaves as bulking agent it took 7 months, yielding 30% compost meeting organic fertiliser standards.

Muhammad Mumtaz Khan, Muhammad Tahir Akram, Rhonda Janke, Rashad Qadri, Abdullah M. Al‐Sadi, Aitazaz A. Farooque · Sustainability · Global

This study reviews contemporary urban horticulture, illustrating traditional and innovative developments, as a response to global concerns about food supply and environmental protection in urban settings, exacerbated by factors like population growth and the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights how current urban cropping systems can be enhanced with modern techniques like vertical gardening and hydroponics. These methods are presented as eco-friendly, energy-saving, and capable of ensuring consistent fresh food supplies and more sustainable agriculture.