Research & reports

Peter Loxley · · Global

This chapter discusses "adaptation" as a scientific concept that helps children understand the diversity of wildlife they encounter in school gardens, local parks, and other outdoor learning areas. It also helps children understand why the destruction of green spaces can have devastating consequences for wildlife. The chapter includes three topics designed to guide teachers in helping children grasp the concept of adaptation.

Ana Galvis Martinez, Brooke A. Porter, Paul Rogé, Leah Atwood, Natalia Pinzón Jiménez · · United States (California)

The Bay Area Farmer Training (BAFT) program trained aspiring urban farming practitioners in agroecology, utilizing a pedagogy rooted in humanistic values, social justice, and decolonial and feminist frameworks. An analysis of BAFT from the perspectives of participants and founding educators led to recommendations for educators and program developers. These recommendations include training in restorative justice, cultivating cross-cultural dialogue, building trust, humanizing classrooms, preparing guest speakers, and designing values-centered curricula.

Aditya Dyah Utami, Mukti Ahmad Nur Cahya, Olivia Elfatma, Koko Setiawan · PRIMA Journal of Community Empowering and Services · Indonesia (Yogyakarta)

Urban elementary schools often have minimal green open spaces, making it difficult to implement green school programs, as seen at SD Islamiyah Warungboto Yogyakarta. Introducing verticulture technology to students is a solution, implemented through preparation, execution, and final stages. Students learn about verticulture generally, then receive training in designing verticulture systems, gaining knowledge of its benefits and supporting green school programs.

Hussein Mukasa Kafeero, David Kavuma, Scovia Mbabazi · Advanced Journal of Graduate Research · Uganda

This cross-sectional study in Uganda investigated the relationship between school gardens and students' self-efficacy towards weekly fruit and vegetable intake, comparing two secondary schools (one with a garden, one without). Neither group met the WHO/FAO/USDA recommendation of ≥35 servings per week. However, students exposed to gardening activities consumed more weekly servings of fruits and vegetables (P>0.05) and showed higher self-efficacy towards their dietary intake (P=0.007).

Sara E. Benjamin‐Neelon, Tiange Liu, Eve S. Puffer, Liz Turner, Daniel A. Zaltz, Andrew Thorne‐Lyman, Sherryl Broverman · Current Developments in Nutrition · Kenya

This natural experiment in rural Kenya evaluated whether school gardens improved dietary diversity in children. Gardens were installed in two primary schools, with two comparison schools, and dietary intake was measured for 855 children in 2013 and 688 in 2014. All children's dietary diversity scores worsened post-intervention, likely due to a severe drought in 2014. Although some differences were observed in specific food groups, these could not be attributed to the school gardens.

Colleen Saxen · CORE Scholar (Wright State University) · United States

This participatory action research (PAR) explored a school garden program in a historically marginalized community during the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests. School staff and community partners co-created the garden, expressing meanings, values, and visions through photovoice, mapping, and gardening activities. Participants described experiences of love, empowerment, and justice, demonstrating the value of PAR for cultivating school gardens as sites for social justice and the role of an ethic of love in community building.

Dhruba Raj Bhattarai, Pepijn Schreinemachers · · Nepal

A paper synthesising impact evaluations using cluster randomized controlled trials of school garden programmes in Nepal, described as the largest evaluation of school garden programmes to date. School garden interventions significantly improved children's knowledge of food and agriculture and their awareness of and stated preference for fruits and vegetables, but in none of the countries studied did these improvements translate into increased frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption or into eating a greater variety of fruits and vegetables. This null result on consumption matches findings from two major reviews of school garden programmes in developed countries; the paper suggests that a more holistic intervention design addressing household-level food supply and parents' food choices may be needed for such programmes to improve children's healthy eating.

Emilita Monville‐Oro, Imelda Angeles‐Agdeppa, Irish P. Baguilat, Julian Gonsalves, Mario V. Capanzana · · Philippines

A chapter examining how the evidence-based Integrated School Nutrition Model (ISNM) - combining bio-intensive gardens, supplementary feeding with iron-fortified rice and indigenous vegetables from school gardens, and nutrition education - was scaled up from one province (Cavite) to an entire region of five provinces in the Philippines. Fifty-eight "lighthouse schools" serving as hubs for research, learning, and scaling now influence 2,732 public elementary schools with a total student population of 1,839,445. Through capacity building and multi-stakeholder partnerships, the Department of Education pursued a programme to establish 221 lighthouse schools nationwide, with additional investment and adoption from the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the National Nutrition Council.

Tucker Jensen · Digital Commons - Hamline (Hamline University) · United States

This capstone project reviews the effects of community gardens on low-income urban populations in the United States. After reviewing prior work on the history of racism in America, disparities in food insecurity, the correlation between poverty and health, and environmental impacts specific to urban communities, the project developed a five-day unit of study set at an established community garden. The unit teaches middle school students about community gardens through STEM lesson activities, has students design their own garden, and aims for them to be able to explain why a community garden matters to their neighborhood's success.

Benjamin Hennchen, Michael Pregernig · Sustainability · Europe

This study systematically analyzed how joint practices of gardening, cooking, and eating together are organized in five urban food initiatives — such as community-supported agriculture, urban gardening, food sharing, and community kitchens — in two smaller cities in southern Germany. Data were gathered through qualitative methods including interviewing, participatory observation, and document analysis, covering five dimensions: institutional integration, recruiting mechanisms, goal-setting, time management, and types of knowledge. Based on these dimensions, the results portray two distinctive organizational profiles among the urban food initiatives, and the article concludes with a reflection on how local governments could support food initiatives and contribute to sustainable urban food systems.

Kristan Majors · Educational Media Reviews Online · Canada

This is a review of the 2017 documentary film "From Seed to Seed" (87 minutes, directed by Katharina Stieffenhofer, distributed by Bullfrog Films), which follows four farms of different sizes in Canada over a full year, covering topics including plant breeding, crop diversity, organic farming, green manure and seed exchange; the review recommends the film for classroom and community use and notes it won awards including 2019 Best of the Fest at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival and 2019 Best Documentary at the Big Water Film Festival.

Anisur Rosyad, Triana Yuni Astuti, Etik Wukir Tini · Jurnal Dinamika Pengabdian (JDP) · Indonesia

A 2020 report on a community service activity providing leafy-vegetable verticulture training to the PKK RT4 RW5 group at Purwosari Indah Housing in Baturraden District, Banyumas Regency, Indonesia. Using polybags arranged in tiers on racks built from bamboo and gutters, the program trained participants through counseling and hands-on demonstration plots to grow caisim, kale, pakcoy, mustard greens, leeks, and celery; partners were able to grow leafy vegetables successfully, but the harvest remained limited to self-consumption or sharing with neighbors rather than being sold.

Abby M. Lohr, Nick Henry, Denise J. Roe, Claudio Andrés Garrido Rodríguez, Rosalva Romero, Maia Ingram · Journal of School Health · United States

This study evaluated the effect of garden-based learning on outlook and behaviors toward vegetables among primarily Latinx third- and fourth-grade students at four elementary schools with different garden programs in southern Arizona. Students completed a bingo-format survey and participated in class discussions measuring their attitudes and behaviors. Students at schools with more garden exposure were more likely to give responses reflecting positive attitudes and behaviors toward vegetables, and most often named vegetables grown in the school garden as their favorites in class discussions. For third- and fourth-graders, longer exposure to a school garden was associated with more positive perceptions of and desire to consume vegetables.

Caio Tibério Dornelles da Rocha, Luciana Calabró, Diogo O. Souza · · Brazil

A proposal outlines the implementation of technical-pedagogical school gardens in the states of Maranhao and Piaui, Brazil, reviewing Brazil's legal framework on the Right to Adequate Food and Food and Nutrition Security and discussing the main characteristics of a reference school garden. The proposed implementation is a strategy for institutionalizing gardening models in public education institutions serving children and adolescents aged 6 to 14, positioned as the initial step toward establishing a School Vegetable Program for Improving Eating Habits as part of pedagogy aimed at building healthy, sustainable eating habits.

Jackline Gomes Silva, Maria Cleoneide Brito, Jerrana Cantarelli, Sebastião Santos, Paula Vanessa Queiroz, Lourinalda Luiza Dantas da Silva Selva de Oliveira · Revista de Agroecologia no Semiárido · Brazil

A report on SERTA (Alternative Technology Service), a Brazilian institution offering an agroecology technical course for rural and urban youth and traditional communities, describing a 30-hour internship experience of students from the Glória do Goitá unit at the Ibimirim unit in Pernambuco's semi-arid Sertão do Moxotó, in the caatinga biome, on a 5-hectare site with a range of native and exotic trees, shrubs, herbs and medicinal plants and a large variety of cacti. Activities included observing social technologies such as cactus-grafting techniques, animal and plant husbandry, use of high-protein, high-value medicinal and food plants such as moringa (Moringa oleifera) and pitaya (Hylocereus undatus), and participation in the "Caatinga Emoldurada" project making handcrafted lamps from dead plant material, as well as hands-on exposure to solar and wind energy use and to aquaponics combining fish, chickens, medicinal plants, fruit trees, vegetables and unconventional food plants (PANC).

Fernanda Trientini, Paul R. Fisher · HortScience · Global

To simplify nutrient management in small-scale hydroponics, three experiments tested whether controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) could support basil (Ocimum basilicum) with a single application per crop cycle. All seven commercial CRF products tested (including Osmocote Bloom and others) showed an initial rapid nutrient release followed by a plateau, but release rates over 11 weeks varied from 60% (ammonium phosphate) to 100% (magnesium sulfate). Two commercial N-P-K CRF products supplied less calcium and magnesium than a typical water-soluble fertilizer (WSF) solution. In a growth-chamber experiment, plants grown for four weeks under CRF treatments yielded less than half the shoot fresh weight of WSF-grown plants and showed calcium-deficiency and micronutrient-toxicity symptoms confirmed by tissue analysis, with the CRF solution's electrical conductivity rising to a maximum of 5.4 dS/m. A custom "Blend" combining CRF macronutrients with WSF micronutrients was then tested: at double concentration, it produced shoot fresh weight (241 g per four plants) comparable to WSF (244 g) with healthy tissue nutrient levels, whereas commercial CRF products designed for soil or container production proved unsuitable for hydroponic use.

Suzanne Mallick, Philip Marsh, Dave Kendal · Figshare · Australia

This report presents the first phase of a research project examining how a community garden project at the Melville St student accommodation could benefit the health and wellbeing of students and the broader community, as part of the University of Tasmania's shift in focus from Sandy Bay to the Hobart CBD. Before the garden was installed, the team collected qualitative, quantitative and observational data through interviews, focus groups, observational studies of public space use and an online survey, intended to inform future management of the site; a second phase collecting post-installation data was planned for late 2020, subject to COVID-19 restrictions.

Abdullah Abdullah, Indri Nuraeni · Prosiding Hapemas · Indonesia

A family food security empowerment program run by the Desa Berdaya Foundation in Indonesia, funded through Rumah Zakat's ZIS (zakat, infaq and sedekah) funds, operated from April to September 2020 across 60 desa-berdaya sites on the island of Java, prioritizing residents affected by COVID-19. Programs offered included bucket-based fish farming, urban farming, farmer assistance (seeds and fertilizer aid), egg-laying chicken raising, and fisher assistance (seed and feed aid), with aid provided in the form of seeds, tools and materials, alongside regular mentoring and monitoring. A survey of beneficiaries found bucket-based fish farming was the most frequently chosen program at 40%, followed by egg-laying chicken raising at 20%, urban farming at 16%, fisher assistance at 14% and farmer assistance at 10%. Of the 60 respondents surveyed, 100% reported that the family food security program was beneficial.

Sydney Park Brown, Danielle Treadwell, James M. Stephens, Sue Webb, Francisco Rivera · EDIS · United States (Florida)

Home garden planning and development is described as a year-round activity in Florida, United States, offering benefits for physical and emotional health (2020). This guide provides recommendations for home and community gardening, including planting dates, variety selection for crop planning, water and nutrient management, pest management, and harvesting. It is a Spanish-language translation, by Francisco Rivera, of the Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide (SP103/VH021) by Sydney Park Brown, Danielle Treadwell, J. M. Stephens and Susan Webb, published by the UF/IFAS Horticultural Sciences Department.

Leyna Karina Tovar-Seijas · Prohominum · Venezuela

A proposed action plan for using a school garden as a didactic strategy in agriculture education at Escuela Básica Bolivariana GC 8 "Piloncito" in Venezuela. A quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive field study surveyed a population of 14 teachers, with a sample of 5, using direct observation and a questionnaire. Only 60% of teachers reported sometimes using didactic strategies that encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning, while 40% did not use such strategies.

Bianca Jacqueline Silva, André de Carvalho Bandeira Mendes · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil

A report on a project to implement a community garden on the Itabira campus of the Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI) in Brazil. The proposal originated in dialogue with campus workers, and aims through extension actions to engage both the university community and the local population across social, cultural, and environmental dimensions in the garden's management, implementation, and maintenance. Planning stages include awareness-raising and mobilization, a survey of human and material resources, and exchange of experience among participants, with particular attention to including elderly residents in cultivation activities to transmit cultural knowledge and strengthen group bonds. A management team was formed to prepare the physical space and coordinate maintenance, with the garden planned as a space for observation, cultivation, and leisure.

Aurillia Manjella, Alessandra Grasso, Victor W. Wasike · · Africa

A report on the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition project in Busia county, western Kenya, describes school gardens that supply or complement school feeding programmes as a practice for mobilizing biodiversity and improving dietary diversity among schoolchildren. Kenya is said to have more than 200 African leafy vegetables (ALVs), and the project gives children opportunities to acquire agricultural skills focused on cultivating nutrient-rich ALVs; the report notes that school gardening has long been part of education in Kenya, especially in rural areas dating to colonial times.

Carla Rocha, Alanne Rainer Rosa Nascimento, Maristela Marques da Silva · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil

Educational activities on agroecology and environmental issues were reported in rural multi-grade schools (from first grade through high school) in the municipality of Brasil Novo, in the Altamira microregion of Pará, Brazil. Action planning was underway at two schools, one focused on soil as a theme and the other on recycling and the creation of vegetable and school gardens, with farmers holding ecological plant knowledge interviewed as part of the process.

Noferdiman Noferdiman, Lisna Lisna, Yusma Damayanti · · Indonesia

A community-service program at SMAN 4 Jambi City, Indonesia, delivered counseling, training and participatory environmental activities over five stages to support the school's push for independent Adiwiyata (environmentally sound school) status. Knowledge assessments afterward scored 74 (moderate) for school sanitation management, 70 (moderate) for waste management, and 68 (sufficient) for environmental management, with participants reporting knowledge of managing school gardens, greenhouses, toilet cleanliness and gutters. The program was implemented and received positively by school members.

Illana C. Livstrom, Gillian Roehrig, Amy Rex Smith · International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement · Global

A single-case study examined Grounding Roots, an urban agricultural internship program that brings together youth interns, undergraduates and community elder mentors in intergenerational garden groups, asking how community-based education through internships can support youth marginalized in traditional educational settings. The program was found to support youth in multidimensional learning and identity development within community-based spaces that connect learning to their communities and lives, particularly for youth with marginalized identities, through elements including recognizing and leveraging youths' existing assets, building confidence, leadership identities and diverse relationships, and connecting participants with the broader community, underscoring the value of intergenerational mentoring, diverse learning communities and work-based learning.