Research & reports

CJ Lim, Ed Liu · · Global

This publication, "Smartcities + Eco-warriors," presents a collection of essays and case studies related to urban utopias, smart cities, urban agriculture, eco-sustainability, and cultivating communities. It includes examples of urban agriculture projects in various locations such as Guangming Smartcity China, Daejeon Urban Renaissance Masterplan Korea, and Nordhavnen Smartcity Denmark. The work also features contributions on the urban future and the role of cities in climate change.

Marina Moraes Diniz de Oliveira Queiroz · · Sweden

This work studies urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) and alternative food production strategies, aiming to connect current food systems, urban structures, and climate change. It discusses urban planning, transport, waste management, and localized food production, proposing solutions for a Swedish context. The work argues for utilizing arable land in and near cities and integrating local food production with sustainable transport to prepare for reduced fossil energy and global warming.

Alec Thornton, Etienne Nel, Godfrey Hampwaye · Development Southern Africa · Zambia

A review of urban agriculture in Zambia's four largest cities revealed that despite attempts by the Kaunda government in the 1960s–1970s to create supportive policies, there is currently a near absence of institutional support, constraining farmers' activities. A survey of 400 farmers confirmed the value of urban agriculture as a survival strategy but also highlighted the lack of necessary support measures.

Radojica Sarić, Vladana Hamović, Svetlana Roljević Nikolić, Radojica Sarić, Vladana Hamović, Svetlana Roljevic · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Serbia

This paper analyzes urban agriculture in Serbia, focusing on its role in configuring urban open spaces and its effects on sustainable development and environmental protection. The study aims to understand the economic, social, and ecological impacts of urban agricultural production on improving city life quality, especially given Serbia's dynamic urbanization and agricultural land transformation post-World War II.

Nerea Morán Alonso · · Global

This article reviews the historical background of urban agriculture, highlighting it as an example of action in crisis situations and the social potential of food production in urban contexts. In Southern countries, urban agriculture has gained importance as a development strategy, including programs led by international organizations. Urban gardens, by integrating nature into the city, contribute to urban metabolic efficiency and enhance biological diversity.

Lisen Hendeberg · · Sweden

This study compared Ebenezer Howard's garden city ideals with contemporary urban farming movements in Sweden through a literature review and analysis of three active movements. It found that when garden city ideas were implemented in Sweden between 1905 and 1930, much of the original ideological basis for self-sufficient small towns and collectively owned land was lost. While similarities exist in ideological starting points, their approaches to change differ.

Diana Lee-Smith, L. J. A. Mougeot, Michael Levenston, Peter Mann, Katherine Brown, Jerry Kaufman · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global

This reflection on the urban agriculture movement notes that 19th and early 20th-century urban reforms, including urban gardens, aimed to improve living conditions in industrial cities. However, these initiatives also shifted the burden of sustenance from industrialists and fair-wage policies onto urbanizing families, particularly women. Despite this, garden spaces provided nourishment and retreats in densely populated areas.

Kwasi Appeaning Addo · Remote Sensing · Ghana (Accra)

This paper discusses the need for sustainable management of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Accra, Ghana. A lack of reliable data on the extent of urban/peri-urban areas used for farming has hindered the development of sustainable policies to manage urban farming in Accra. Ground-based survey methods are problematic and prohibitively expensive, making accurate assessment of urban farming's future role difficult.

C.J.M. van der Lans · Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling · Global

This study analyzes the sustainability of international horticulture initiatives, including those by Dutch businesses and Wageningen UR, particularly questioning their continuity if foreign support withdraws and their viability given limited foreign currency in developing countries. Using the Multi-Level Perspective framework, two cases were examined: an Integrated Pest Management project in Ethiopia's floriculture sector and the transition to large-scale urban agriculture in Detroit, USA. The report raises concerns about the long-term economic viability and self-sufficiency of these initiatives.

Ephraim Kigozi Nabakwa, Patrick Kizza Kagyi, David Sserunkuuma Masereka, Grace Nakimbugwe Otim · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Uganda (Kampala)

This qualitative research, conducted through interviews and focus groups with residents and leaders in Kampala's slums, examines urban agriculture as a resilience strategy. Urban agriculture projects demonstrated an average 30% increase in household food security and a 50% reduction in reliance on informal income sources. The study's development framework enhances the resilience capacity of these initiatives, offering policy recommendations for integration into formal programs and infrastructure support.

John Merson, Roger Attwater, Peter Ampt, Howard G. Wildman, Rosalie Chapple · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · Australia

This paper presents an overview of a four-year project examining the western edge of the Sydney basin in Australia — historically a major source of fruit and vegetables for Sydney markets — where rapid urban development expansion has caused a significant reduction in the number of small farms and market gardens. Urban and peri-urban agriculture in the region also serves as an important buffer between urban development and the neighboring Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, with urban expansion and economies of scale identified as contributing to the decline of urban agriculture. The project explored options for supporting these vulnerable farming communities in terms of regulatory factors and economic and environmental sustainability, and investigated the role of agri-industries as landscape buffers to the neighboring World Heritage Area in relation to resilience, communities of practice, and ecosystem services. Working with targeted representative landholders, the study developed tools including an integrated bio-system approach using organic waste conversion and landscape function analysis to help address erosion, nutrient loss, and inefficient water management.

Adam Shiloh Moates · · Uruguay

This 2010 dissertation is a comparative ethnographic study of agricultural and livestock production strategies in peri-urban Montevideo, Uruguay. It examined the factors shaping urban and peri-urban agricultural and livestock enterprises, the conditions under which growers organize collective action, and how municipal politics and institutional linkages affect production practices. The study focused on three populations: displaced urban working-class residents known as neo-pobres, waste-collector communities called clasificadores, and family-run organic grower organizations. The analysis found that all three groups strategically form organizations and collective-action strategies to raise their institutional visibility, secure and improve access to urban resources, and contest or resist municipal land-use policies and the push to "regularize" informal settlements. The research also points to the effects of large-scale political and economic forces on the urban margin and the difficulty of implementing policy there.

Suhrit K. Dey, Chanchal Pramanik, Charlie Dey · Intellectual Economics · Global

A mathematical model built from three interacting ordinary differential equations links population growth, urbanization and food production, with population assumed to grow independently while urbanization and food production both depend on it. Solving the system shows that without an added food-supply term — representing sources such as food substitutes, urban gardening or imports — uncontrolled population growth and urbanization lead to a catastrophic food shortage; the authors note that food affordability, not just availability, remains a separate, unresolved issue.

Zhifeng Chen, Guohua Lin, Liu Rongzhang, Lin Shu-wen · Nongye xiandaihua yanjiu · Global

This paper analyzes the significance of low-carbon patterns in urban agriculture development from economic, aesthetic, ecological, and philosophical perspectives, examining low-carbon patterns characterized by high-value industry structures, high resource efficiency, ecological safety, and mechanism innovation. Based on a city's natural resources, agricultural resources, and low-carbon technology, it summarizes low-carbon patterns of urban agriculture spanning multiple regions, scenic areas, and types, and proposes that local governments should actively create conditions to support and develop low-carbon industrial patterns of urban agriculture.

Cantor, Kelly-M · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Colombia (Bogotá)

This study analyzed urban agriculture practiced by forcibly displaced residents and by vulnerable populations living in poverty in southern Bogotá and the Soacha locality, Colombia, using a livelihoods approach and drawing on 20 local actors and public/private institutions that had run urban agriculture programs as its information source. It found that urban agriculture carries symbolic value as a livelihood and occupational alternative, framed around collective wellbeing beyond monetary value, and reflects a struggle by peasant identity to survive within city life—but concluded that it is not an integrally sustainable activity.

Alexandra Evans, Liqa Raschid-Sally, Olufunke Cofie · · Global

This chapter presents three case studies in which multi-stakeholder processes were used to improve wastewater management for urban agriculture. Although differences were observed, there were several cross-cutting lessons. A critical factor is the starting point, including an agreed definition of the problem to be addressed, negotiated goals, and a management structure acceptable to all stakeholders. When multi-stakeholder processes are externally initiated, it is essential that project priorities are commensurate with local priorities.

Alec Thornton · Development in Practice · Fiji

This article examines the impact of Fiji's squatter-resettlement scheme on the livelihoods of 'farming squatters' engaged in urban agriculture. Interviews with key informants and squatter residents revealed contrasting attitudes and approaches, indicating that the scheme threatens these livelihoods. The article suggests a more participatory process to address the needs of 'farming squatters'.

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.

Graciela Ottmann, Eduardo Sevilla Guzmán, Antonio Lattucca · REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE AGROECOLOGIA · Argentina (Rosario)

This paper examines the environmental dimension of agroecological productive experiences, focusing on a specific case in Rosario, Argentina. It demonstrates that by articulating various agroecological experiences into productive networks, these networks gain political content, influencing transformation processes with participatory and popular education. Examples include the Network of "Huerteros/as," the Green Life consumer network, "Huerta" Parks, and Social Agroindustries, which are agroecological actions integrated with Rosario's municipal Urban Agriculture program.

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.

Adriana Premat · City & Society · Cuba

This paper, based on ethnographic research in Havana, Cuba, from 1997 to 2007, examines the creation of officially-sanctioned sustainable urban agriculture sites. It highlights the significant role of various non-state actors and interests, often overlooked in scholarly accounts, alongside the state's function. The study offers a refined understanding of the Cuban state's influence and limitations in agricultural development.

Antonio Ortega Santos · Historia Contemporánea · Cuba (La Habana)

This article reviews contributions from urban environmental history and examines the potential of productive strategies to transform cities into more sustainable systems. The latter part of the article presents the results of Urban Agriculture in Havana, Cuba. Havana's urban agriculture secured urban food supply levels and the sovereignty of urban agricultural producers, transforming the city into a more socio-environmentally sustainable model as an urgent measure against supply problems for the Cuban economy.

Qicheng Lu · Ecological Economy · Global

This paper studies the functions of urban agriculture on the evolution of eco-city as a self-organizational system, based on reviews of conceptions and meaning. It analyzes the synergy effects between developing urban agriculture and constructing eco-city from sharing effective, implementing effective, and synchronizing effective perspectives. The study concludes that a typical synergy relationship exists between developing urban agriculture and constructing eco-city.

Katie Shaw · Providence College Digital Commons (Providence College) · Global

This study analyzes how urban agriculture, specifically community gardens, addresses rising global pressures on urban areas by rebuilding local networks. It presents community gardening as a solution to the global food crisis and compares community garden projects in five cities: Accra, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Havana, and Philadelphia. The research also examines the demographics of community gardeners, particularly their impacts on marginalized members of society, and highlights community gardens' role in city planning and green design.