Research & reports

Kanhaiya Sapkota · Geographical Journal of Nepal · Nepal

A study conducted between November 2005 and January 2006 in the Manahara river basin of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, interviewed 20 vegetable growers to investigate their knowledge and practices regarding local versus modern agricultural inputs. Farmers have intensified production using improved green revolution techniques, showing a link between scientific and indigenous knowledge. They also recognize the necessity of institutional extension support for proper input use.

Heaven E Masashua, Frank George Haule Hawassi, Provident Dimoso · · Tanzania (Dar es Salaam)

A study in Kinondoni Municipal, Dar es Salaam, examined the contribution of urban vegetable production to poverty reduction using 59 respondents. The study found that urban vegetable production increased income for smallholder farmers, improved food security, and enhanced access to health and education services. It concluded that urban horticulture has significant potential for poverty reduction.

Sserunkuma Muhumuza, Kajenye Amadi · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Uganda (Kampala)

A study in Kampala slums, Uganda, investigated the impact of micro-finance support on urban agriculture expansion. A mixed-methods approach combining quantitative analysis of financial records with qualitative interviews of farmers was used. Micro-finance support significantly increased average farm yields by 15% compared to baseline, and farmer confidence in economic strategies improved by 20 percentage points.

Roberta Sonnino · International Planning Studies · Global

This paper analyzes emerging integrated food policies in cities like New York, Rome, and London, which extend beyond traditional urban agriculture. It argues for a new research agenda on urban public food provisioning and policy-making to facilitate knowledge-building and exchange. The paper concludes that comparative studies of urban food strategies are needed to understand cities' potential for sustainable linkages with surrounding regions.

Mark Redwood · Open House International · Global

Urban farmers often produce food on land with limited or no security of tenure, exposing them to the risk of being evicted for more profitable land uses. Without legal status, most forms of credit are inaccessible to farmers, pushing them to the margins. Recent projects suggest that banking systems need to develop a methodology to value informally controlled lands and indicate that advocacy groups can increase security and access to land for urban farmers.

Alain Santandreu, Alberto Gómez Perazzoli, R. Terrile, Mariana Ponce · · Uruguay (Montevideo)

Urban agriculture has become a permanent activity in Rosario, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay. While important for feeding cities during crises, it is currently promoted by civil society and local governments to enhance social inclusion and employment for urban farmers, particularly the poor. This transforms challenging situations into new opportunities within the urban landscape.

Hong Xin-xing · · Global

This study analyzed the characteristics of urban agricultural enterprises based on their concept. It also illustrated the significance of the study.

Marielle Dubbeling, Laura Bracalenti, Laura Lagorio · Open House International · Argentina (Rosario)

In Rosario, Argentina, city planners and university staff collaborated with two low-income communities to design and implement a multifunctional neighborhood park, public square, and road reserve for urban agriculture. A step-by-step participatory design process was followed. This participatory design contributed to improving socio-economic and environmental conditions in the city.

Yamila Santana Esponda, Ramiro Renol Ortega Vera · DELOS Desarrollo Local Sostenible · Cuba

This work aims to provide guidance on urban agriculture as a beneficial option for food production in cities and their peripheries in Cuba, especially given rising food prices and global economic crisis. It seeks to enhance knowledge about urban agriculture as a path to sustainability in upper secondary education, focusing on Sagua la Grande, Villa Clara province.

Crispen Dirwai, P.M. Makonese, N. Mboto · Figshare · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study investigated how urban poor (Mabvuku-Tafara) and urban rich (Mabelreign, Marlborough, Westgate) communities in Harare, Zimbabwe, addressed the food crisis between 2005 and 2008. Using a mainly qualitative methodology to compare urban agricultural activities, findings showed that the urban poor engaged in seasonal, often inorganic, less paying off-yard farming, exposed to nature's vagaries. In contrast, the urban rich practiced on-plot perennial, often organic, researched (including soil testing) farming with greenhouses, which yielded better returns.

O Beatriz Vera · Revista Urbano · Chile (Valdivia)

This study characterized 22 urban agricultural micro-enterprises in Valdivia, Chile, focusing on their economic, productive, and commercial aspects, and the employment they generate. Using the Snowball method to identify urban farmers, the research found that urban agriculture is a significant source of permanent employment in Valdivia, also providing temporary work during the summer season.

Shahzad Kouser, Mr. Abedullah, Abdus Samie · The Pakistan Development Review · Pakistan (Faisalabad)

This study, conducted in 2006 with 200 farmers in two peri-urban villages of Faisalabad, Pakistan, estimated the economic values of negative health externalities from wastewater use in cauliflower production. While wastewater use appeared profitable without considering externalities, factoring in health costs strongly discouraged its use. The health externalities for a three-month cauliflower crop on 741 acres amounted to Rs 3.2 million, and for 5,283 acres of vegetables cultivated with wastewater in Faisalabad, the annual total was Rs 90.7 million. The findings indicate a significant economic loss due to wastewater use, suggesting that installing a water treatment plant is a viable option to minimize these external effects.

S. Al-hassan · The IUP Journal of Agricultural Economics · Ghana

Using cross-sectional data from 196 urban agriculturalists (136 vegetable farmers and 56 non-vegetable farmers) in the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Northern Region, Ghana, a 2009 study examined the factors determining the decision to cultivate vegetables. Results showed vegetable production in the study area was influenced by extension services, use of inorganic fertilizer (manure), and availability of farmland. The study recommends training existing extension agents in modern vegetable production techniques so they can in turn train farmers, with emphasis on quality seed production, variety selection, diversification and quality control; directing extension services toward efficient manure application; encouraging vegetable farmers to form cooperatives to network with livestock producer associations; and having policymakers provide large, suitable irrigable land for vegetable production.

G. Palaniappan, Christine King · Queensland's institutional digital repository (The University of Queensland) · Australia

A conceptual paper framing local food production systems—termed "alternative farming"—against a backdrop of global environmental changes (retreating sea ice, landscape drying, shifts in seasonal timing and animal migration) and climate-driven increases in energy prices and dependence on fossil fuels, which the authors say have raised interest in localization and sustainability among communities worldwide. It examines systems including organics, natural farming, biodynamics, permaculture, community gardens, and community-supported agriculture (CSA) in terms of how they might contribute to localizing food production and consumption, and discusses the transition from globalized to localized farming and re-localization's ecological and social dimensions. The paper argues that sustainability can be grounded in local ecological, social, economic, and political systems, but the discussion is conceptual rather than based on presented empirical data.

Sinan Koont · Monthly Review · Cuba

An article describes the development, over roughly fifteen years since the 1990s, of urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba, a capital city of more than two million people. It notes that the term "urban agriculture" in Cuba is used more inclusively than typical usage, encompassing urban fringe and suburban lands — the entire cultivated area of the Province of the City of Havana is classified as urban agriculture. The article provides no specific yield or participation figures.

Sharashkin L. · University of Missouri-Columbia (PhD Dissertation) · Russia (Vladimir Region)

A PhD dissertation examining 1,500 Vladimir Region families to show that household food gardens underpin more than half of Russia's agricultural output and fulfil wide-ranging economic, social, and cultural functions.

· International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · Malawi

Case study in two Malawian districts finding that adopters of low-cost treadle pump irrigation had higher net farm income per hectare than non-adopters.

Sophie Graefe, Eva Schlecht, Andreas Buerkert · Outlook on Agriculture · Niger (Niamey)

Semi-structured interviews with 130 households in Niamey, Niger, characterized urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) and assessed resource use. The study found high use of livestock manure and indiscriminate use of nutrient-loaded wastewater for irrigation, leading to significant nutrient surpluses in UPA gardens. Initial calculations suggested large gaseous emissions of nitrogenous compounds and and leaching of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to groundwater.

Sue Wells · Western CEDAR (Western Washington University) · Tanzania

This paper examines the transferability of six Smart Growth concepts to Tanzanian cities (Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza, Dodoma, Zanzibar) given their extreme poverty and agrarian base. Primary research conducted in May-June 2007 and related publications were used. The study suggests that Smart Growth strategies from the Global North may be unsuitable for the Global South, indicating that urban agriculture in this context presents both a promise and a problem.

Pay Drechsel · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Global

This paper discusses the global food crisis, which has caused skyrocketing food prices and riots in some countries. Underlying the food crisis is the deeper issue of the looming water crisis.

Friedhelm Streiffeler, Elsamawal Khalil Makki, Ali Ayoub · Econstor (Econstor) · Sudan (Khartoum)

This research in Greater Khartoum, Sudan, investigated urban and peri-urban agriculture as a livelihood strategy for internally displaced persons. While urban agriculture significantly reduces absolute poverty, its implementation faces many problems due to natural, economic, and social differences in the new environment, resulting in a low degree of agricultural development. Migrants with smaller fields and lower agricultural development showed a greater desire to return to their homeland, and social integration also influenced the decision to stay or return.

Chris Hillbruner, Rebecca Egan · Food and Nutrition Bulletin · Bangladesh (Dinajpur)

A study in Dinajpur, Bangladesh, from 2002 to 2003, investigated the impact of seasonality on food security and nutritional status in approximately 600 low-income urban households. Data collected through surveys and child measurements revealed significantly higher rates of food insecurity, wasting, and inadequate growth during the monsoon season compared to the dry season. While dietary diversity and lost work due to weather were identified as pathways affecting food security, child illness was not found to be a significant mechanism contributing to seasonal nutritional declines.

María Amalia Lorda, Jezabel Franza, María Belén Kraser, Daniel Paoloni, Silvina Raitzin, Gabriel Oscar Reiter · Revista de Lengua y Literatura (National University of Comahue) · Argentina (Bahia Blanca)

This communication provides the foundations for implementing "Park-Gardens" in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, to recover urban and peri-urban spaces. Park-Gardens are described as multifunctional public spaces, participatively managed by the state and civil society using ecological cultivation techniques. They contribute to local development, strategic planning, improved sanitary conditions, strengthened biodiversity, and sustainable resource management, while enabling agrochemical-free food production.

Wei Xu · Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment · Global

This study examines the interaction between the sustainable development of urban agriculture and the increase in peasants' income, treating them as a combined system. It identifies a synergistic relationship between increased peasant income and urban agriculture development, but also a competitive relationship between maximizing short-term income and ecological sustainable development. The research suggests that a sustainable urban agricultural resource allocation mechanism can foster coordination and positive interaction, with urban circular agriculture economy being a basic strategy for this coordination.

Rui Chen · Chinese Agricultural Mechanization · Global

Urban agriculture is based on a combination of manufacture, life, and ecology, emphasizing urban and rural development in step, and the co-prosperity of economy, ecology, and society. This study adopted the analytic network process (ANP) to construct an evaluation index system of urban agriculture, based on domestic and international research. Theoretical foundations of ANP were discussed, and dependence and feedback among indexes were analyzed. The result of the ANP model for the index system was obtained with SD software.