Research & reports

· Urban Geography · Global

A critical discussion arguing that urban agriculture can drive environmental gentrification: by boosting neighborhood attractiveness through greening it may attract affluent newcomers and contribute to the displacement of lower-income residents and people of color.

· City · Austria (Vienna)

Examines how greening-oriented planning policy shifts in Vienna interact with gentrification pressures, analyzing whether municipal planning instruments mitigate or inadvertently enable green gentrification in a social-democratic housing context.

· Cities · Portugal (Lisbon)

Cost-benefit analysis showing that Lisbon's flat, city-wide green-roof subsidy design is suboptimal—constant subsidy values fail to optimize public funds because ecosystem-service benefits vary spatially, evidencing a poorly targeted (wasteful) green-infrastructure incentive.

Thompson, R., Patel, V., González, M., Nguyen, H. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

Meta-analysis of 78 studies showing community gardens during COVID-19 provided food security for 15+ million households with 40% increase in participation and 35% reduction in anxiety/depression.

Dorr, E., Hawes, J.K., Goldstein, B., Fargue-Lelièvre, A., Fox-Kämper, R., Specht, K., Fedeńczak, K., Caputo, S., Cohen, N., Poniży, L., Schoen, V., Górecki, T., Newell, J.P., Jean-Soro, L., Grard, B. · Agronomy for Sustainable Development · Global

A citizen-science study collecting data from 72 urban agriculture sites across France, Germany, Poland, the UK and the USA to analyze yields and resource use. Most plots yielded between 0.5 and 2 kg/m².

· FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO · Global

The 2023 flagship report jointly produced by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. It analyzes how urbanization is transforming agrifood systems and affecting the availability, affordability and security of healthy diets across the rural-urban continuum.

Chipo Hungwe · Journal of Women & Aging · Zimbabwe (Bulawayo)

A qualitative case study based on interviews with 19 older women heading grandmother-headed households in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Urban agriculture did not reduce food insecurity or social exclusion for these participants. The barriers reported were difficulty obtaining land to cultivate, health problems associated with ageing, and the physically demanding nature of the farming work itself. The author concludes that social assistance, rather than reliance on urban agriculture as a livelihood strategy for elderly-headed households, is what these households need.

Setyardi Pratika Mulya, Heru Purboyo Hidayat Putro, Delik Hudalah · Geography and sustainability · Global

This 2023 global systematic literature review examined peri-urban agriculture (PUA) as an ecosystem service, focusing on urbanization pressures and governance. The review found that PUA is crucial for urban areas in terms of food supply, ecology, biodiversity preservation, disaster mitigation, and recreation. However, massive urban expansion is a primary cause of PUA loss, and sociocultural biases have led to institutional constraints on peri-urban management within existing political and regulatory frameworks.

Andrés G. Rolhauser, J. Scott MacIvor, Adriano N. Roberto, Selena Ahmed, Marney E. Isaac · Ecological Solutions and Evidence · Global

This paper addresses the limited understanding of conditions under which stress-tolerant "nurse" plants can facilitate stress-intolerant "protégé" species on extensive green roofs for urban agriculture. It proposes a framework and linear model, integrating trait–environment theory and facilitation ecology, to make testable predictions on protégé species performance along stress gradients. The framework aims to help researchers assess the feasibility of nurse–protégé interactions under various environmental conditions.

Annie Drottberger, Yizhi Zhang, Jean Wan Hong Yong, Marie-Claude Dubois · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · Global

This systematic literature review, based on 45 articles, examined the benefits and challenges of rooftop greenhouse technology. While benefits include optimized land use, increased profitability, good yields, and resource efficiency, the review identified significant challenges. These challenges include additional investment and operational costs, limited availability of flat roofs, and various regulations, which hinder the widespread adoption of rooftop greenhouses.

Maurice Kesonga Nsele, Thomas Dogot, Kevin Maréchal · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Democratic Republic of Congo (Lubumbashi)

Survey data from 88 randomly chosen farmers in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, was analyzed to understand the role of informal mutual aid networks in maintaining urban farms. Results showed that 79.5% of surveyed farmers utilized mutual aid to ensure their vegetable production cycle, involving resource sharing (15.1 interactions per farmer) and agricultural know-how sharing (11.6 interactions per farmer). Gender, age, experience, religious affiliation, farmer status in the household, neighborhood relations, kinship, and religious affiliation were significant factors for mutual aid.

Bénédique Paul · Food systems · Haiti

This exploratory research in Haiti investigated whether urban agriculture served as an appropriate and innovative food system resilience strategy for the urban population during the COVID-19 crisis. The study, using a sample of urban dwellers engaged and not engaged in urban agriculture, confirmed that the Haitian urban population utilized urban agriculture as an effective strategy. They produced rapidly yielding varieties, successfully coped with the crisis, and offer lessons for other regions.

Phạm Thanh Vũ, Võ Quang Minh · Plant Science Today · Viet Nam

A study in Cai Rang District, Can Tho City, Viet Nam, assessed aspects and designed adaptive models for urban agriculture using data collection, farmer surveys, statistical analysis, and FAO land suitability assessment. It found that growing green vegetables, fruits, decorative plants, orchids, and raising cattle is the most effective model. This model creates jobs, boosts income, supplies clean food, provides greenery, recycles waste, and reduces pollution, supporting sustainable agricultural options for the area.

Restilou Q. Artiaga · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Global

This experimental-comparative study investigated the productivity of "Gulayan sa Paaralan" (school garden) using drip irrigation technology. Researchers planted "pinakbet" vegetables in 16m x 16m plots, with and without drip irrigation, and compared yields over two consecutive croppings. Results showed that plots with drip irrigation consistently produced higher yields, demonstrating the technology's effectiveness in improving harvest with minimal staff and student involvement.

Dong In Lee, Ji Hwan Lee, Seung Ho Jang, Se Jong Oh, Ill Chul Doo · Applied Sciences · Global

This study proposes a deep learning-based crop disease diagnosis solution for novice urban farmers, integrating Image Captioning and Object Detection models. The Image Captioning model, using InceptionV3 and Transformer, achieved an average BLEU score of 64.96%, demonstrating high performance in generating detailed diagnostic sentences. The Object Detection model, employing YOLOv5, achieved an mAP50 of 0.382, indicating a need for further improvement in detecting infected areas.

Jérémie Forney, Julien Vuilleumier, Marion Fresia · · Switzerland

This study on the local contract farming (LCF) movement in Switzerland is based on an ethnography of three LCF networks. The research focuses on the contract that formalizes the "promise of difference" and the redefinition of food quality and value. It acknowledges both the potential for transformation of LCF ventures and their clear limitations, aiming to foster discussions beyond simple statements of success or failure.

Alicia Papanek, Catherine Campbell, Hannah Wooten · EDIS · Global

This April 2023 publication by Alicia Papanek, Catherine G. Campbell, and Hannah Wooten, from the UF/IFAS Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, discusses the definition of urban agriculture. It covers common characteristics, types of food produced, frequently used production methods, and the purposes of various urban agriculture operations.

Gregory Lorenzutti, Julie Ann Minaai, Brenton Surgenor · Choreographic Practices · Australia (Melbourne)

"Dancing through the vege patch" is an artist essay by choreographer Gregory Lorenzutti, reflecting on "Theatrum Botanicum," an interdisciplinary project combining dance and holistic urban farming commissioned by the Victoria College of the Arts, University of Melbourne in 2022. Lorenzutti offers insights into the relationship between knowledge production, place-based dance pedagogy, and interdisciplinary practice in tertiary education. The essay reveals how creative methodologies can invigorate practice and deepen the connection between body, space, and place.

Claudia Rochael Oliveira, Eneida Maria Souza Mendonça · Geografia (Rio Claro) · Global

This article aimed to map authors discussing environmental aesthetics in urban agriculture research, inspired by Porteous's work. Using a bibliographic survey and visual representations, the study found no publications intersecting urban agriculture and environmental aesthetics. Research on urban agriculture and landscape was notably greater than on urban agriculture and aesthetics, and studies applying aesthetic theory to urban agriculture were very limited, especially in high-tech contexts like vertical farms.

Clive R. Hollin · · Global

This research shifts focus from individual gardening to collective gardening activities shared by groups of people, examining communal gardens that benefit groups such as hospital residents, school pupils, or prison inmates. These "gardens for the people" take various forms, including allotments primarily for food production, school gardens for academic and social purposes, prison gardens for prisoner well-being and rehabilitation, gardens tended by immigrant populations, and guerrilla gardening.

Hua Zheng, Min Guo, Qian Wang, Qinghai Zhang, Noriko Akita · Land · Global

This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 487 papers on community gardens from the Web of Science database to understand their knowledge structure and research development. Research papers in this area significantly increased from 2012, with the United States contributing the most and high-income countries accounting for 93.22% of studies. "Health" was the most frequent keyword, and "ecosystem services" gained popularity, with three major research themes identified: "ecosystem services and disservices," "multidimensional association," and "sustainable garden systems."

Stefan Geissberger, Mollie Chapman · People and Nature · Switzerland

This paper explored how active labor participation in Swiss solidarity agriculture cooperatives influences members' values and behavior. Qualitative interviews with 21 members of three cooperatives revealed that participation and work practices fostered new relational connections to food, farmers, and nature, transforming intrinsic and instrumental values into relational values. The study concludes that values, particularly relational values, can form and change through lived experiences.

James Kwame Mensah · Development Southern Africa · Ghana

This research examined the role of urban agriculture in the urban local economy in Ghana, addressing a lack of empirical evidence from a Local Economic Development (LED) perspective. Data was gathered through focus group discussions and key informant interviews with urban agriculturalists and local authorities in two assemblies in the Greater Accra region. The findings suggest that with proper support, urban agriculture can improve the local economy by providing employment, income, and enhanced livelihood and food security.

M. S. Aduah, Saviour Mantey · South African Journal of Geomatics · Ghana

This study used geospatial techniques, multi-temporal land use maps, and population data to estimate urban land use efficiency (LUE), changes in built-up area per capita, and urban sprawl speed (SS) in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan area of Ghana. While LUE generally improved from 2002 to 2016, it deteriorated slightly between 2016 and 2021. Critically, agricultural land or grassland in the city has been converted to built-up land, posing a challenge for urban agriculture.

Herbert Mandigo, Teddious Mhizha, Terence Darlington Mushore · Applied Sciences · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study investigated the implications of urban growth on maize yield in Harare metropolitan city, Zimbabwe, from 1984 to 2018 using Landsat data. Cropland area was reduced from 11,120 ha in 1984 to 2631 ha in 2018. Consequently, the estimated average maize yield decreased significantly from 52,264 tons in 1984 to 12,366 tons in 2018, demonstrating that urban growth has the potential to compromise food security.