Research & reports

Amelya Bella, Melinda Putri Sukmana, Aril Rada Candra, Riski Mahatir Tharuddin, Briliana Fara Ardiyanti, Rinjani Intan Maylani · Jurnal Aplikasi Sains dan Teknologi Agrisevika · Indonesia

At SDN Terusan 1 elementary school in Terusan Village, Gedeg District, Mojokerto Regency, Indonesia, a community service program run by the Faculty of Agriculture student executive board of UPN "Veteran" East Java introduced and taught microgreen cultivation—mustard greens (sawi), pakcoy, and water spinach (kangkung)—to build students' understanding of urban farming. Through socialization, discussion, and hands-on cultivation practice covering planting, care, and nutritional benefits, the program reported active student participation in the cultivation practice, improved practical skills, and increased student awareness of the importance of consuming fresh vegetables.

Dian Prihardini Wibawa, Ayu Wulandari, Herry Marta Saputra · Wikrama Parahita Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat · Indonesia

A community outreach program in Jerambah Gantung Village, Pangkalpinang City, Indonesia, trained the 12-member Kenanga Women's Farmers Group in hydroponic urban farming through socialization, training, and mentoring. Average pre-test to post-test scores rose from 70 to 95, and harvest yield increased 37 percent, from 35 kg in the first harvest to 48 kg in the second.

Anderson Luis Ferreira · Revista fisio&terapia. · Brazil

A qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study based on bibliographic and documentary review examines urban agriculture as a socio-environmental alternative to the contradictions of the Green Revolution. Drawing on classic and contemporary national and international literature and reports from multilateral bodies such as the FAO and UN-Habitat, it characterizes the Green Revolution as having raised agricultural productivity while deepening social inequality, homogenizing crops, and causing serious environmental impacts. It positions urban agriculture as valuing production diversity, strengthening community autonomy, and fostering new forms of sociability, concluding that examples across different contexts converge in strengthening food sovereignty, social inclusion, and urban sustainability.

Kelley AT, Boger R · EcoHealth · 米国・ニューヨーク市ブルックリン

A survey of mosquito larval abundance and genera across 22 community gardens in Brooklyn, New York. The authors frame these gardens as social spaces providing food sovereignty to many New Yorkers, while the arrival of Aedes albopictus and the longtime presence of Culex pipiens make socialising in them more dangerous — Ae. albopictus is associated with dengue, Zika and chikungunya, and Cx. pipiens is a longstanding West Nile virus vector. Because both breed in human-made plastic containers, knowing their preferred container types and locations can inform gardeners' best management practices. Non-purposeful container types and lower total volumes of water were significant predictors of higher mosquito densities, though these variables did not predict egg-laying preference.

Otoadese D, Kamara I, Onyango E · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · カナダ・アルバータ州

Community gardens are increasingly popular in Canadian cities and can be transformative spaces where immigrants develop self-reliant strategies for accessing culturally familiar, healthy food — yet many facilitators and barriers limit the engagement of racialized groups such as Black-identifying immigrants. Using a socio-ecological framework and a community-based participatory research approach, this mixed-methods study combined structured surveys (n = 119), in-depth interviews (n = 10) and two Afrocentric sharing circles, with participants recruited through African immigrant-serving community organisations in Alberta. Barriers at several levels of the socio-ecological model interacted to shape interest and engagement, while access to collective gardens was associated with significant benefits: maintaining healthy foodways, knowledge exchange, growing social capital, and community connections supporting overall wellbeing. The authors offer an accessible framework for addressing these barriers and for making urban agriculture initiatives more inclusive and culturally responsive.

· Wikipedia (español) · Spain

According to Spanish Wikipedia, the exact founding date of the Water Tribunal is unknown, though the most widely held theory dates it to around 960 CE, during the reign of a Caliph. It is made up of eight síndicos, one representing each irrigation community, one of whom generally serves a two-year term as president. It meets every Thursday at noon (except from Christmas to 6 January and on public holidays) at the 'Door of the Apostles' of Valencia Cathedral, with administrative meetings afterward at the Casa Vestuario on Plaza de la Virgen. It was inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage on 30 September 2009.

· Viquipèdia (català) · Spain

According to Catalan Wikipedia, the irrigated farmland (horta) of Valencia took shape in the Middle Ages under Islamic rule through the construction of séquies (irrigation channels) and assuts (weirs). The main séquies of the Túria river have been governed since Islamic times by the Tribunal de les Aigües, inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in 2009. Eight séquies in the Vega de València draw water from the Túria and have historically supported orange, vegetable and rice cultivation, but many now run beneath houses and streets, with rice farming described as being in crisis as farmland is converted to housing.

· Wikipedia (Italian) · Italy

Parco Nord Milano is a roughly 640-hectare regional park spanning seven municipalities north of Milan, recognized as a regional park by the Lombardy Region in 1975. It contains over 350 hectares of green space with more than 100 tree species and diverse wildlife, managed by a consortium of the participating municipalities. It serves as an example of large-scale peri-urban green infrastructure.

· Wikipedia (Italian) · Italy

Cascina Linterno originated as a 12th-century monastic rural settlement and is a 13th-century Lombard closed-courtyard farmhouse now owned by the City of Milan and run by the Associazione amici della Cascina Linterno for cultural and historical activities. It is traditionally identified as the poet Petrarch's residence during his time in Milan (1353-1361) and is protected under both monumental and landscape preservation decrees.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

According to MAFF's community garden survey results as of the end of March 2025, Japan has 4,273 community gardens with 188,713 plots covering 1,284 hectares nationwide. By operator type, local governments run 1,977, agricultural cooperatives 414, farmers 1,433, and companies/NPOs 449.

豊島区 · 豊島区 · Japan

The rooftop garden "Toshima Forest" on the 10th floor of Toshima Ward Office recreates the ward's former Musashino plateau, valley, and cliff-line terrain and vegetation, with tanks and biotopes for observing creatures of the Arakawa river system. The Board of Education runs environmental education programs for children linked to the garden, such as returning medaka fish to their habitat.

· Wikipedia · United States

A Wikipedia article on Windowfarm, an open-source vertical hydroponic system originating when founder Britta Riley built the first Windowfarm in her Brooklyn apartment window in 2009. She launched a crowdsourced online community for building the systems from repurposed water bottles and plumbing supplies, which grew to nearly 40,000 registered users. Two Kickstarter campaigns raised over $285,000, but as of December 31, 2016, the company Windowfarms dissolved without sufficient assets to pay outstanding debts to creditors and investors.

Ville de Paris · Ville de Paris · France

Official Ville de Paris page defining shared gardens as green spaces cultivated and run by residents, intended as places of intergenerational and cross-cultural exchange. About 15 educational gardens host children from 28 Paris educational facilities (nurseries, primary schools, after-school centers). Residents wishing to open a new garden must form an association and contact the city's 'Main Verte' team.

Global Generation · Global Generation · United Kingdom

An article by Global Generation reflecting on a decade of the Skip Garden — a mobile garden built from reused waste skips — in King's Cross, London, describing how it grew from six or seven skips into a space with rooftop planters, a polytunnel, and areas for herbs, vegetables, fruit trees, and composting.

Bauer W., Titz A. · Nature-Based Solutions · Malawi (Lilongwe)

Urban Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are promoted globally as multifunctional and cost-effective, and municipal interest is growing in cities of the so-called Global South. Yet research remains clearly biased toward the Global North, with particularly few studies on cities in Sub-Saharan Africa — leaving a high risk that maladapted NbS, modelled on examples from elsewhere that do not meet local requirements, get adopted. This article examines the barriers to adopting urban NbS in Malawi's cities and the opportunities for successful implementation, drawing on qualitative data (workshops, narrative expert interviews, group discussions) gathered over five research stays in Lilongwe between 2022 and 2024, and analysing in detail the strategies used by those implementing the Lilongwe Ecological Corridor Initiative (LECI), a large-scale NbS in the capital.

NCVO · National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) · United Kingdom

Recommendations published on 30 April 2025 by NCVO as part of its Power of Small project on small charities. It asks funders to increase multi-year core funding, simplify application processes in line with IVAR's principles, support capacity-building, ensure equitable distribution of funding, and foster sector-wide collaboration, with transparency through published data. On grant length, it proposes moving from twelve-month terms to at least twenty-four or thirty-six months, and ideally five years or more.

Luis Andrade · Quito Informa (Municipio del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito) · Ecuador

On 29 April 2025, Quito's Metropolitan Council approved the 'Healthy Food Neighborhoods' ordinance, allowing community gardens on idle municipal land and requiring new housing developments to include garden space. The city currently has about 2,000 urban gardens and aims to double that number by 2030. ConQuito, the municipal economic development agency, will provide seeds and training, and produce will be sold through organized bioferias to avoid affecting existing markets.

Municipalidad de Guayaquil · Alcaldía de Guayaquil · Ecuador

An official Guayaquil municipal article on its 'School-Community Gardens Program,' which has set up 57 gardens (50 in schools, 7 community/family gardens) providing free seeds and fertilizer. The program has benefited 67,020 people to date, with participating families reporting household savings of up to USD 80 per month.

Hacemos Memoria · Hacemos Memoria (Universidad de Antioquia) · Colombia

A timeline from Hacemos Memoria tracing the search for people disappeared after military operations (including Operación Orión, 2002) in Medellín's Comuna 13, centered on the site known as La Escombrera. Comuna 13 as a whole records 5,912 disappeared people, with 502 expected around La Escombrera specifically; forensic excavations from December 2024 through 2025 recovered a total of seven sets of remains. The search is led by the national search unit for the disappeared (UBPD) and the transitional justice tribunal (JEP), which ordered precautionary protective measures in 2020.

Heidi Tamayo Ortiz · El Colombiano · Colombia

An article on rooftop terrace gardens in Medellín's Comuna 13, where 37 terraces grow lettuce, basil, chard, kale and European cogollo. The pilot began with five terraces in 2021 and has grown to 25 participating households, mostly women heads of household, including 12 terraces in the San Javier area supported by Fundación Éxito. Produce is sold to restaurants and an Éxito store in Laureles, with workdays capped at 4 hours; the model has been replicated in Bogotá (Ciudad Bolívar) and Cali (Siloé).

Jaime Mulet Martínez, Daniel Melo Contreras, Félix González Gatica, Consuelo Veloso Ávila, Rubén Darío Oyarzo Figueroa, Jorge Saffirio Espinoza · Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados de Chile — Datos Abiertos (WSLegislativo) · Chile

A private member's bill (moción) admitted to Chile's Chamber of Deputies on March 24, 2025, establishing norms for the promotion, development, and registration of urban gardens (huertos urbanos). It was introduced by six deputies led by Jaime Mulet Martínez. The open-data record shows it as admissible, with no voting record yet.

Saputra A., Abdoellah O., Utama G., Wulandari I., Mulyanto D., Suparman Y. · Sustainability · Indonesia

Interviews and a survey examined how residents of Bandung perceive the ecosystem services of homegarden-based urban agriculture. Residents themselves judged the gardens' contribution to overall food security to be only supplementary, even though they supply fresh produce. Their value was widely recognised elsewhere: biodiversity conservation, microclimate regulation, disaster risk reduction, social cohesion and mental well-being. Limited space, lack of knowledge and competing land uses emerged as the barriers, and the authors conclude that education and policy support are the levers for wider uptake.

Amato-Lourenço L.F., Franca G.C., Seckler M.M., Mauad T. · Environmental Challenges, 14:100864 · Brazil

An analysis of a resident-led, decentralized community composting initiative begun in 2018 in São Paulo, using thermophilic decomposition (the UFSC method) in public squares. It presents a civil-society-driven waste-management model with positive environmental and social outcomes.

Panțiru I., Ronaldson A., Sima N., Dregan A., Sima R. · Systematic Reviews (Springer), 13:45 · Global

An umbrella review and meta-analysis comparing prior reviews of diverse gardening interventions, including home, allotment, community, and therapeutic gardening. Synthesizing 40 studies, it finds a significant positive effect of gardening and horticultural therapy on well-being, quality of life, and health status.

Edwards F., Mercer H. · Local Environment (Taylor & Francis), 29(10) · Global

An ethnographic study of ShareWaste, an online community-composting platform in Sydney and Canberra that connects food-waste donors directly with households hosting compost heaps to divert waste from landfill. Drawing on environmental humanities and discard studies, it explores the relationships among people, soil, compost, and food waste and the community-building these practices foster.