Research & reports

Hasan Belevi, Bettina Baumgartner · International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management · Global

This paper provides a systematic overview of urban agriculture in low and middle-income countries, identifying research needs. It highlights the importance of cross-cutting issues between urban agriculture and environmental sanitation, including excreta, wastewater, and solid waste management. Further research is needed to quantify the benefits, risks, opportunities, and constraints of urban agriculture, as well as its impact on food quality and the environment when reusing waste.

Steffen Adler, Stephanie Fung, G. Huber, Lee Hoon Young · Organic Eprints (International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems, and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) · Sweden

Case studies were conducted on three alternative producer-consumer links in Sweden: Stockholm Farmers Market, Ramsjö Community Supported Agriculture, and Järna Initiative for Local Production. An adapted SWOT analysis identified key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and constraints from multiple perspectives including producers, consumers, the organization, environment, and society. The research assessed how these links might affect surrounding ecosystems and social aspects of the agri-food system, and identified six components contributing to agri-food system development.

Kizza Ssentongo, Kalisa Muhangizwe, Namukasa Kinya · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Uganda (Kampala)

This study investigates market penetration strategies and economic outcomes of sustainable urban agriculture in Kampala's informal settlements, Uganda. Using ethnographic methods, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions, it found that producers face challenges like limited market access and high input costs. Despite this, some have successfully integrated products into urban supermarkets and cooperatives, highlighting the importance of tailored market strategies for economic resilience.

María Caridad Cruz, Roberto Sánchez Medina · · Cuba (Havana)

This book details a three-year research project by a multidisciplinary team of 15 professionals on the history and current state of urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba. The project assessed the long-term potential of integrating urban agriculture into Havana's social economies and city-wide environmental management programs. The findings are relevant for authorities considering how to transition emergency food production into sustained support for urban agriculture, aiming for food self-reliance and environmental improvement.

Colin Crawford · · Cuba

This 2003 law-review article examines the land-use planning implications of Cuban urban organic agriculture, placing the Cuban experience in international context, evaluating the advantages of urban agriculture for urban living, describing Cuba's efforts to formalize what began as an informal practice, and examining the formal and informal work of Cuban lawyers and planners in securing a place for urban agriculture within long-term land-use planning before and after the U.S. embargo.

Naser I. Faruqui, Odeh Al-Jayyousi · Water International · Jordan

This paper describes a pilot project in Tufileh, Jordan, that allowed poor residents to reuse untreated household greywater in home gardens. Women in the community used small revolving loans to implement simple greywater recovery systems and set up gardens. The project enabled the community to offset food purchases and generate income by selling surplus production, saving or earning an average of 10% of its income. An environmental impact assessment demonstrated that the quality of the untreated greywater was adequate, and the negative impacts on soil and crops were negligible.

Maurizio Tiepolo · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Niger

This paper investigates whether urbanization in Niamey, Niger, generates or aggravates urban food insecurity by examining agro-pastoral production, food demand, and buying power. It found that Niamey's high rate of urban growth has increased food insecurity for its inhabitants. This insecurity is attributed to low productivity of peri-urban agriculture, insufficient food influxes, rising prices, extreme poverty, and a nutrient-poor diet, with current measures failing to address root causes like land tenure uncertainty.

Steven A. Esray · Water Science & Technology · Global

This paper argues that ecological sanitation should be understood as a closed-loop approach to human excreta management, rather than merely an alternative toilet. With urban populations in Africa and Asia expected to double in the next 25 years, ecological sanitation can facilitate urban agriculture and avoid adverse environmental impacts of conventional treatment. This approach can significantly contribute to food security and public health in a sustainable future.

Jennifer Andia, Emilie Davis, Rebecca Klein, Elisabeth Wirsing · Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) · Costa Rica

A multi-method study assessed food security and perceptions of nutrition in the Monteverde Zone, Costa Rica, using anthropometric assessment, semi-structured interviews with mothers, 67 Radimer/Cornell Scales, and a focus group. Food insecurity, particularly Adult Food Insecurity, was prevalent across all communities. Despite high nutritional knowledge, a lack of quality nutrition was observed due to economic limitations. The focus group positively received the idea of a community garden as a solution for better quality and more affordable produce.

Robyn Lynn · ResearchOnline at James Cook University (James Cook University) · Global

This paper highlights the significance of urban food production, which has been historically neglected despite its potential to address issues of globalization, urbanization, and environmental degradation. It explores the relationship between cities, food production, and activism, noting a growing local food movement that resists global food discourses. The paper aims to identify issues within urban food production activism and its organizational aspects.

Dindo Campilan, R. Boncodin, Constancio De Guzman · · Philippines

In Metro Manila, Philippines, the CIP-convened Strategic Initiative for Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (SIUPA) contributed to improved coordination and enhanced capacity for urban agriculture, which ranges locally from backyard and container gardens for subsistence to commercial vegetable farms for household income. A partnership between SIUPA and the Philippines' Inter-Regional Integrated Research, Development and Extension Program on Urban Agriculture (IIRDEP) addressed food safety, production systems, and environmental protection, and the number of agricultural activities in the metropolis increased markedly over the two years prior to publication as households pursued urban agriculture in response to a worsening economic and environmental situation.

Cynthia A. Cone, Andrea Myhre · Human Organization · Global

A five-year study of eight Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms examined farm members' perceptions and behavior, including motivations for membership and women's roles. The study raises questions about the long-term sustainability of CSA, citing tension between farmers' lifestyles and needs, and shareholders' constraints and competing values.

Tjeerd Deelstra, Herbert Girardet, N. Bakker, Marielle Dubbeling, S. Gündel, U. Sabel-Koschella, H. de Zeeuw · · Global

This text describes humanity's transformation into an urban species by the end of the 20th century, with large cities becoming the primary habitat. It notes that global urban populations expanded from 15% to 50% of the total population within one century, while the total population grew from 1.5 billion to nearly 6 billion. The text highlights the unprecedented size of modern cities, citing that by 1990, the 100 largest cities housed 540 million people.

Thomas Nelson · PubMed · Global

This paper discusses the global pattern of nutrient transfer from rural to urban areas, which diminishes cropland vitality and creates a dilemma for feeding urban populations. Urban farming is presented as an approach to support food needs and contribute to municipal waste management. Governments in countries like the US, Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada are recognizing local food production as a component of food security.

James Leo Garrett, Garrett, James L. · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Global

This work presents a table of contents for a publication addressing urban food and nutrition security in the developing world. It covers topics such as urbanization, rural-urban interdependence, urban livelihoods, food supply and distribution, the significance of urban agriculture, nutrition transition, urban women's work-life balance, urban health threats, and programming for urban food and nutrition security.

Marta Novo, Catherine Murphy, N. Bakker, Marielle Dubbeling, S. Gündel, U. Sabel-Koschella, H. de Zeeuw · · Cuba (Havana)

This abstract provides demographic and administrative details of Havana, Cuba, noting its area of 721 km² and a population of 2.2 million, representing 20% of Cuba's total population. It highlights a population density of 3,014 persons/km² and mentions the city's division into 15 municipalities and 104 people's councils. The abstract does not contain information about urban agriculture itself, only contextual data about Havana.

Margaret Armar‐Klemesu, Daniel Maxwell, N. Bakker, Marielle Dubbeling, S. Gündel, U. Sabel-Koschella, H. de Zeeuw · · Ghana (Accra)

This abstract describes the geographical and climatic characteristics of Accra, Ghana. Accra is located on the east coast, near the Greenwich meridian and 5 degrees north of the Equator. The climate is hot and humid, with mean temperatures ranging from 24°C in August to 27°C in March, and an average annual rainfall of 730 mm, mostly in June, July, and October.

Safiètou T. Fall, Abdou Salam Fall, Ibrahima Cissé, Badiane Aminata, Cheikh Alassane Fall, Maty Ba Diao · Bulletin de l’APAD · Senegal (Dakar)

This paper discusses the integration of horticulture and livestock in urban agricultural systems in the Niayes zone of Senegal. The underperformance of rural agriculture and food deficits have encouraged the development of urban and peri-urban agricultural activities for several decades. The contribution of this urban agriculture to city supply in Senegal is not well known.

Helen L. La Trobe, Tim Acott · International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology · Global

An article arguing that while organic farming can address many environmental problems associated with agricultural intensification, it cannot on its own fully resolve the social and economic problems caused by the globalization of the food system, against a backdrop of increasingly industrialized, mechanized and chemical-input-dependent agriculture. It argues organic farming needs to be combined with local and regional direct marketing — such as farmers' markets, food box delivery schemes and Community Supported Agriculture — to move toward a more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable agrofood system.

Angela Moskow · Environment and Urbanization · Cuba

The promotion of urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba, as a response to the acute food scarcity that developed after Soviet aid and trade were sharply curtailed in 1989, is examined through research including interviews with households engaged in urban agriculture. The paper describes the contribution of Havana's 26,000 self-provision gardens to household nutrition and income and to community environmental quality, and discusses lessons that can be drawn from this experience.

Eduardo H. Rapoport, Ana H. Ladio · Bosque (Valdivia) · Argentina

This study gathered information on the potential contribution of non-timber forest products to the food system of developing countries. Natural plant communities normally contain about 10% native vascular species that can be edible, and this proportion can rise to 20-30% in disturbed habitats, or 30-90% when only weeds are considered. Point-sample frequencies of edible individuals recorded along transects in suburban Austrocedrus chilensis forests near Bariloche, Argentina, ranged from 15% to 66%. The probability of finding at least one edible plant in a random 0.25 m² sample (calculated from n=317 samples) was 0.675, rising to near 1.0 when calculated per hectare. In western Patagonia, the number of exotic edible weed species exceeds 90. The mean available edible biomass in vacant lots in Bariloche was 1,253 ± 392.8 kg/ha, based on 193 samples of 1/4 m² each. The study includes a table of quantitative frequencies for edible weeds and a list of 60 native food plants from Patagonian forests.

Godfrey D. Mudimu, Shepherd Siziba, Benjamin Hanyani‐Mlambo · OpenDocs (Institute of Development Studies) · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study in Harare, Zimbabwe, examined the socio-economics of urban crop production on municipal lands, cultivators' views, and land use conflicts. Urban agriculture, a widespread practice for subsistence maize and food security, is not supported by planners and conflicts with urban land use provisions. Findings revealed a serious lack of environmental concern among cultivators, with most ignoring stream bank regulations and lacking knowledge of environmental effects.

Koji ITONAGA · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Global

This paper describes alternative urban designs, including permaculture, eco-village movements, cohousing, community gardens, and city farms. Based on data gathered from international conferences and research in Australia, America, and Europe, the author proposes "Permaculture-City" as a restructured city model. This model integrates habitation with food production areas and eco-villages.

Godfrey D. Mudimu · Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study examines the role of women in urban agriculture and perceptions of urban space use for agriculture in Harare, Zimbabwe. Despite its utility in meeting household food needs, urban agriculture is not planned for or supported by urban planners and managers as a legitimate urban land use. The activities of women, who are the main participants in urban agriculture, directly conflict with planning provisions for urban space. The study offers empirical insight on perceptions of space use for agriculture in an urban tropical environment, where conflicts can arise from different perceptions and alternative uses.

H. B. Tukey · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Global

This paper defines urban horticulture as the functional use of plants to improve urban environments. It states that urban horticulture contributes to screening views, food production, reducing noise and air pollution, ameliorating urban climates, and improving human well-being. The abstract notes that information on city plants often comes from observations and anecdotes, and that strategies from commercial agriculture do not always apply well to urban horticulture.