Research & reports

Linda Weintraub · Nature-Based Solutions · Global

This essay examines five contemporary artists whose works address urban food insecurity through individually and community-scaled, nature-based approaches rather than large-scale production and distribution systems. Analyzing both the content of the artists' food-related concerns and the unconventional strategies used to convey them, the essay argues these works are relevant to nature-based solutions (NBS) for urban food, noting some approaches appear suited to scaling up while others point to a need to relax regulations that inhibit experimentation.

Tarek Ben Hassen, Hamid El Bilali · · Global

This book chapter combines bibliographical and topical analysis of scholarly and gray literature with case studies from Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries to examine the state of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) amid regional climate pressures — rising temperatures and frequent droughts damaging limited water resources and threatening agriculture and food security. The chapter reports that UPA in the region lacks adequate infrastructure and resources, including access to water, suitable land and equipment, and that in many MENA cities, the absence of government initiatives combined with land tenure problems and high land prices makes UPA less prevalent and less viable; it concludes that improved policy support and enabling regulations — including zoning rules and financial and technical support — are needed to expand UPA in the region.

Bambang Tri Kurnianto · West Science Nature and Technology · Global

A review article examining urban farming practices — including rooftop gardens, vertical farms and community gardens — as approaches to the land scarcity and food-security pressures of rapid urbanization. Drawing on case studies from cities worldwide, it discusses their reported role in improving food access, reducing carbon footprints and fostering social cohesion, and argues for integrating urban agriculture into urban planning together with supportive policy and community engagement. The article does not report original data, a defined study site, or quantified outcomes.

Rosli Muhammad NAIM, Maisarah Abdul MUTALIB, Aida Soraya SHAMSUDDIN, Mohd Nizam LANI, Indang Ariati ARIFFIN, Shirley Gee Hoon TANG · Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering · Global

A review article on sustainable agriculture and food systems characterizes sustainable agriculture as farming practices that meet immediate needs while preserving future generations' capacity to meet theirs, with sustained productivity, pollution reduction, and economic viability as primary aims. Drawing on existing research, it reports benefits including climate resilience, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved water quality, enhanced biodiversity, improved soil fertility, and stronger rural livelihoods, alongside challenges such as substantial transition costs, conflicting policy objectives, and the persistence of conventional methods. The review identifies strategies including agroforestry, agroecology, urban agriculture, farmer knowledge exchange, ecosystem-service payments, and shorter supply chains as ways to accelerate progress, contingent on appropriate policy and incentive support.

CapitaLand · CapitaLand · Singapore

The rooftop of Singapore's Funan mixed-use development hosts an approximately 18,000-square-foot urban farm operated by Edible Garden City, growing more than 50 types of fruits and vegetables including mushrooms, edible flowers, and watermelon. CapitaLand frames this and its other greened properties as delivering functional benefits — reduced energy consumption, improved air quality, and enhanced employee wellness — beyond aesthetic appeal.

Pei-Yuan Chen, Chuan-Ching Pang, Guan-Yi Sung · Heliyon · Global

This study analyzes how evapotranspiration and substrate moisture variations affect indoor temperature reduction from a green roof, developing two multiple linear regression models: an operation-stage model based on field observations and an integrated planning-stage model combining hydrological and building energy simulations. The operation model achieved RMSE 0.64C and adjusted R2 0.55, the planning model RMSE 1.02C and adjusted R2 0.80, with maximum summer indoor temperature reduction reaching 10.65C and an average of 5-6C.

· Wikipedia · Singapore

According to the English Wikipedia article 'Vertical farming', Sky Greens Farms opened the world's first commercial vertical farm in Singapore in 2012. It is three stories high and currently has over 100 nine-metre-tall towers. It is cited as the starting point of commercialized urban vertical farming.

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.

Benedicta Yayra Fosu-Mensah, Nathanael Nii-Odai Laryea, Daniel Darko, Michael Mensah · Heliyon · Ghana (Accra)

In the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area of Ghana, which generates about 2,291 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily (roughly 14% plastic), researchers analysed two municipal solid-waste composts, two dried sewage sludges and a reference soil with five replicates each. Microplastic loads were highest in sludge 1 at 4,316 ± 968 particles/kg, followed by compost 1 at 3,572 ± 1,196, compost 2 at 3,104 ± 418 and sludge 2 at 2,024 ± 562, against 232 ± 62 in the reference soil. Polyethylene, polyester and polypropylene dominated. The results show that returning urban organic waste to soil also carries microplastics into soils and crops. Limitations: only five sampling sources, and FTIR polymer identification applied to a 10% subsample.

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.

Alcaldía de Medellín (Secretaría de Inclusión Social y Familia) · Alcaldía de Medellín · Colombia

An article on Medellín's municipal Social Inclusion and Family Secretariat program supporting home gardens for household self-consumption through training workshops, provision of agricultural supplies, and technical visits. The program benefits 670 households, who must attend at least 5 of 7 scheduled educational sessions to receive materials and products.

· 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.

Tracey D., Gray T., Sweeting J., Kingsley J., Bailey A., Pettitt P. · Health & Social Care in the Community (Wiley/Hindawi), 2023:5570089 · Global

The first systematic review to summarize the benefits of community gardening for vulnerable populations such as low-socioeconomic-status and culturally diverse groups. Analyzing 33 studies, it finds social connection, health, education, and nutrition to be the most frequently reported benefits, supporting social inclusion and welfare.

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.

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.

Moghimi F., Asiabanpour B. · Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 25:1837-1855 · Global

Presents the first quantitative model evaluating the economic prospects of vertical farming in a competitive market, analyzing investment and operating costs against market prices to identify conditions for profitability and the central role of energy cost.

Chicoine M., Rodier F., Durif F. · Agriculture and Human Values 40(3):1153-1170 · Global

Analyzes how companies use commercial urban agriculture labeling in product marketing, examining the consumer-perceived benefits and risks of leveraging urban farming as a brand and value proposition.

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.

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.

Berkhout E., Sovová L., Sonneveld A. · Sustainability (MDPI) 15(3), 1818 · Global

Analyzes urban-rural connections across four resilience dimensions (agency, buffering, connectivity, diversification), positioning mid-size cities as key hubs for rural food supply and drawing lessons for post-COVID food systems in low- and middle-income countries.

Srinivasan K., Yadav V.K. · Sustainable Cities and Society · Global

A bibliometric integrated review of urban and peri-urban farming literature (2002–2022), identifying food security, local food systems and sustainable agriculture as core themes, with IoT, resilience and LCA emerging as new directions.

Bertolini A.M., Jaime P.C., Di Giulio G.M. · Saúde e Sociedade (SciELO), 32(3):e230330 · Global

A historical review of urban and peri-urban agriculture's contribution to food security from the post-war era to the COVID-19 crisis, reassessing urban-rural food connection through the lenses of food justice and global health.