Research & reports

J.N. Hogard, Julius N. Fobil, Godfred K. Ofosu-Budu, D. Carboo, Nii‐Ayi Ankrah, Alexander K. Nyarko · · Ghana

This study in Ghana investigated the macro-nutrient content and heavy metal concentrations in solid waste composts to assess their potential for soil fertility amelioration and health implications in urban and peri-urban agriculture. Overall NPK concentration was low, with agricultural waste composts showing higher total N, K, and organic carbon than municipal solid waste (MSW) composts. Heavy metal concentrations for Ni, Zn, Cu, and Cd were generally low and within Australian standards. However, lead (Pb) concentration in mixed MSW composts was significantly high during the dry season, exceeding the Australian limit of 150 mg/kg Pb for unrestricted use. Seasons and composting processes were found to be important determinants of toxic metal concentrations in final compost products.

Consuelo Montes Rojas, Víctor Felipe Terán Gómez, Diego Fernando Ortiz Tovar · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Colombia

This research aimed to design a hydro-organic vegetable production system for small areas in Popayán, Colombia, utilizing recycled materials and urban solid waste. The system was evaluated using three nutritional treatments (organic leachate, supplemented organic leachate, common nutrient solution) with cilantro as a biological indicator. The urban vegetable production system achieved yields of up to 627 g m-2, surpassing traditional agriculture (227 g), with the commercial nutrient solution identified as the best nutritional source.

CJ Arene, G.I.O. Mbata · Agro-Science · Nigeria (Abuja)

This study analyzed the profitability of urban agriculture using metropolitan organic waste in Abuja, Nigeria. The enterprise was found to be profitable, with output price being the most significant determinant of variable profit, while other price factors were not significant. Farmer's education level, age, per capita farm income, and household size were identified as important determinants for choosing urban agriculture and influencing willingness to pay for it.

Graciela Arosemena Díaz · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Global

This thesis proposes a methodology for introducing urban agriculture into urban planning to achieve urban sustainability by closing nutrient cycles. It aims to integrate urban and agrarian systems by balancing urban waste production with vegetable needs and cultivated space output with nutrient restitution. The research develops formulas to define criteria for urban agriculture introduction, including required cultivated area and organic waste reuse, and analyzes historical and contemporary green systems in relation to agriculture.

Euis Suryaningsih · Jurnal Hortikultura · Indonesia (Bandung)

From January to July 2001, a field experiment on vegetable disease control in a mosaic farming system in periurban agriculture was conducted at a farmer's field in Rancaekek, Bandung, Indonesia. Treatments included white plastic net cages, biorational pesticides, Bacillus subtilis, a mixture of Mancozeb and Bacillus subtilis, and an unsprayed control. All tested alternative control methods were very effective against major diseases of chili pepper, shallot, eggplant, beans, and cucumber, but the use of poisonous synthetic pesticides in periurban agriculture increases the likelihood of contaminating humans and the environment.

Luis L. Vázquez Moreno, Emilio Fernández Gonzálvez · · Cuba

A participatory research study conducted in 2003–2005 across municipalities and representative production systems of Havana's urban and peri-urban agriculture — where synthetic pesticides are prohibited in "organopónico" and other orchard systems — characterized farmers' pest management practices. Farmers were found to have adopted agroecological innovations including managing floristic diversity, crop rotations and associations, corn and other plant barriers, repellent plants, peripheral live fences, natural-enemy reservoirs, biopesticide applications, and botanical preparations.

George Danso, Pay Drechsel, Olufunke Cofie · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Sub-Saharan Africa

A book chapter (in Parrot, Njoya, Temple, Assogba-Komlan, Kahane, Ba Diao and Havard, eds., "Agriculture and urban development in Sub-Saharan Africa: environment and health issues," L'Harmattan, 2008) addresses large-scale urban waste composting for urban and peri-urban agriculture in West Africa as an integrated approach to support municipal authority decision-making. The abstract provided is only the editorial citation, with no method or findings stated.

Erisman, Jan Willem, Sutton, Mark A., Galloway, James, Klimont, Zbigniew, Winiwarter, Wilfried · Nature Geoscience · Global

On 13 October 1908, Fritz Haber filed his patent on the synthesis of ammonia from its elements, for which he was later awarded the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This Nature Geoscience piece examines how, a century on, the world has been transformed by and become highly dependent on Haber-Bosch nitrogen.

環境省 · 環境省 · Japan

In the Edo period, human waste and ash were stabilized hygienically in 'koidame' pits and traded to surrounding farms as fertilizer, sustaining a regional circular economy that kept cities clean. After WWII, land reform and the spread of chemical fertilizer left human waste with nowhere to go, prompting a shift from the Sanitation Law (1954) to the Waste Management Law (1970); municipal composting facilities built in the 1960s-70s were largely abandoned due to contamination, odor complaints, and the labor burden on aging farmers.

European Commission · European Commission — Directorate-General for Environment · Europe

This European Commission page on the Waste Framework Directive states the directive entered into force on 12 December 2008. It notes the EU generates around 2.5 billion tonnes of waste per year (roughly 5 tonnes per person annually). An amended version, effective 16 October 2025, includes food-waste reduction targets.

Haney D. H. · Landscape Journal, 26(2), 201-218 · Germany

Analyzes Migge's 1919 'Green Manifesto', one of the most overtly political tracts by a landscape architect, proposing that intensive vegetable gardens for everyone could solve Germany's social and economic problems through a technologically modern synthesis of garden and dwelling.

Jayakody P., Gunawardana I., Guneratne S., Clemett A., Dissanayake P. · IWMI Research Reports (WASPA Asia Project Report 8), International Water Management Institute · Sri Lanka (Kurunegala)

This IWMI report documents peri-urban paddy cultivation using diverted municipal wastewater around Kurunegala city, highlighting the practice as representative of urbanization impacts on Sri Lankan agriculture while identifying significant public health risks from untreated effluent irrigation.

Do Thuy Trang, Kåre Mølbak, Phung Dac Cam, Anders Dalsgaard · Tropical Medicine & International Health · Vietnam (Hanoi)

A cross-sectional study in a peri-urban area of Hanoi, Vietnam, surveyed 400 agricultural households and examined 807 stool samples from 620 adults and 187 children for helminth infections. The study found that 39% of samples were infected with helminths, with Ascaris sp. at 21.6%, Trichuris sp. at 9.8%, and hookworm at 21.8%. Wastewater exposure was not a major risk, but lack of sanitation facilities and use of fresh or inadequately composted human excreta in agriculture were important risk factors for infection.

Virginia Hamdan, Paula Natinzon · REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE AGROECOLOGIA · Argentina

This study quantified the organizational sustainability of 41 agroecological urban gardens within the UNMdP Food Autoproduction Program in Argentina. It developed a Socio-Organizational Sustainability Index (ISO) based on Group Potential, Capacity of Automanagement, and Organizational Practices. Most gardens showed a "Middle" degree of ISO, primarily due to Capacity of Automanagement and Organizational Practices.

Ma. Neftalí Rojas-Valencia, Ma. Teresa Orta de Velásquez, Víctor Franco · Linnaeus Eco-Tech · Mexico (Mexico City)

This study investigated the efficiency of applying organoponic techniques to urban crops in Mexico City, utilizing organic compounds, recyclable solid waste, homemade organic fertilizers, and treated wastewater. Three wastewater disinfection methods were tested: Ozone, APT, and a combination. Results showed that Ozone not only disinfected wastewater but also contributed oxygen and nutrients to the soil, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers. Ozone also reduced infection risk by eliminating pathogenic microorganisms and increased plant growth.

Viola Devasirvatham, P. S. Cornish · International Journal of Water · Australia

Peri-urban horticulture in Australia requires irrigation for year-round vegetable production. Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI) offers higher water use efficiency and crop yields, with the potential to reduce environmental risks from drainage and runoff. However, SDI has potential disadvantages, including poor germination or crop establishment and uneven wetting patterns. Research is needed to solve these problems and enable environmentally acceptable vegetable production.

F Ortega Sastriques, Rosa Orellana Gallego · Revista ciencias técnicas agropecuarias · Global

In many cities, potable water is expensive, and its availability is limited and will decrease in the future. Urban agriculture is an aspect to consider in this context.

Mark Anderson-Wilk · Journal of Soil and Water Conservation · Global

This abstract discusses the concept of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), pioneered in Japan and Europe in the 1960s and introduced to the US in the mid-1980s. CSAs are described as a model where individuals become farm members, sharing the risks and benefits of food production and receiving shares of local produce. The abstract introduces the question of whether CSAs support natural resource conservation but does not present any specific findings or conclusions regarding this question.

F Ortega Sastriques, Rosa Orellana Gallego · · Global

Due to high prices and limited availability of drinking water in many cities, urban agriculture will require the use of alternative water sources. Groundwater and surface currents near cities are typically polluted, and this paper points out aspects to consider for safe irrigation using sewage water.

Innocent Nhapi · Water and Environment Journal · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This paper investigated the sustainability of urban water cycle practices in relation to water quantity and quality management in the Chivero catchment, the main water supply for greater Harare, Zimbabwe. Data on population, water supply, water and wastewater treatment, and river flows were collected from urban councils and government departments to assess consumption, wastewater generation, treatment, disposal, river flow trends, raw water abstractions, and demand patterns. Results showed that the current situation is unsustainable, with water quantity soon to be a problem at current consumption levels and water quality already problematic, especially regarding nutrient levels.

Pedro Antonio Rodríguez-Fernández, Sergio Antonio Silva-Soria · Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) · Global

In an intensive home garden under urban agriculture conditions, a two-factor, fully randomized design with six treatments and four replicates tested three levels of partially weathered manure (0, 10 kg/m2 sheep manure, 10 kg/m2 cattle manure) with and without foliar humus (10 kg/ha) on soil bacteria and fungi counts and on productivity of pepper (Capsicum annuum L., variety Espanol 16). Analysis of variance and Tukey's test showed that 10 kg/m2 of either manure combined with foliar earthworm humus was the best treatment, increasing fruit yield, lowering cost per unit weight and raising profitability.

Carla Ellen Lima Lemos, Eduardo Sevilla Guzmán · REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE AGROECOLOGIA · Argentina

A research note from Rosario, in southern Santa Fe province, Argentina, focused on migrant groups who moved to Rosario from Argentina's northern provinces over the past twenty years, some from the historical Guaraní cultural sphere, bringing agricultural work experience along with their language. Building on a history of resistance to industrial models of nature management through the Ligas Agrarias and, after repression under military dictatorship, work in traditional subsistence gardens within popular cooperativism, the paper sets out to open a line of research at CEPAR testing the hypothesis that Guaraní management forms exist in Rosario's community organic gardens. If supported, this could be termed a "Rosario agroecological gardening style"; the urban agriculture model that has taken shape is described as arising from the interaction between immigrant groups' knowledge and modern conventional agronomic technique.

Shane R. de Solla, Pamela A. Martin · Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry · United States

Because many reptiles oviposit in soil within agricultural landscapes, this study evaluated the toxicity of two commonly used nitrogenous fertilizers — urea and ammonium nitrate — to snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) egg survivorship. Eggs were incubated, unmanipulated and under ambient conditions, in a community garden plot treated with urea at realistic rates up to 200 kg/ha in 2004 and ammonium nitrate up to 2,000 kg/ha in 2005, and separately in covered laboratory bins designed to minimize nitrogen loss through volatilization or leaching. In the field, neither urea nor ammonium nitrate affected hatching success or development, despite ammonium nitrate showing overt toxicity to native plants. In the laboratory, however, both fertilizer exposures reduced hatching success, lowered body mass at hatching, and reduced post-hatching survival compared with controls. The authors attribute the field's lack of toxicity to leaching and atmospheric loss of nitrogen in soil, and conclude that nitrogenous fertilizers likely have little direct impact on turtle eggs deposited in agricultural landscapes.

Arjan van Timmeren, Daniel Sidler, Marleen Kaptein · Journal of Green Building · Europe

This paper is a case study of the integration of a combined wastewater/energy system into a semi-public building, the EVA Centre, within EVA Lanxmeer, a "deep green" district in Culemborg, the Netherlands, consisting of 250 houses, offices, and a City farm. The district lies in an ecologically sensitive drinking-water extraction and retention area, and the approach centres on closing nutrient, water, and carbon cycles and integrating energy generation with waste management using the concept of exergy. The core system is based on anaerobic digestion (treating black wastewater and garden/park waste) combined with Combined Heat and Power generation, alongside a four-storey double-skin-façade closed greenhouse with vertical "hanging gardens" that incorporates wastewater treatment based on the Living Machine concept for educational purposes, recovering surplus CO2 from the biogas plant and storing heat/cold in an underlying aquifer. This "Sustainable Implant" concept is described as connecting the residential district and the EVA Centre, and its inhabitants and visitors.

Adolphe Monkiédjé, Michael Spiteller, D. Fotio, Premasis Sukul · Journal of Environmental Quality · Cameroon (Yaounde)

This study evaluated the effect of different land uses on soil health indicators in peri-urban agricultural areas of Yaounde, Cameroon, by comparing five tilled sites with native forest land. While most cropped land showed higher levels of many soil health indicators, cultivation of crops like corn and sugarcane significantly impacted native soil quality. Specifically, phenol oxidase, microbial biomass C/organic C, and microbial biomass C/microbial biomass P were negatively affected, indicating negative management impacts on soil health.