Research & reports

Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne · Journal of Southern African Studies · Southern Africa

This article reviews urban food sources in Southern African cities, focusing on supermarket expansion, its impact on informal food suppliers, and the relative insignificance of urban agriculture for poor urban households. Findings from an eleven-city survey by AFSUN are presented, highlighting that urban agriculture has limited significance in addressing urban food insecurity in the region.

Liu Xiang, Na Fu, Liu, Xiang, Fu, Na · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · China

This study analyzed the current situation of rural industrialization in the process of rural-urban integration in Binhai New Area using reference and field research methods. It identified problems such as difficulties in breaking the dual economic structure in urban and rural areas, imbalanced economic development, and inadequate development of the third industry. Countermeasures proposed include optimizing agricultural industrial structure to form an urban agricultural model focusing on facility, park, and high-end agriculture to achieve intensive agricultural growth.

Marina de Fátima Brandão Carneiro, Antônio Maurílio Alencar Feitosa, Dulce Pereira dos Santos, Gabriel Alves Veloso, Igor Martins de Oliveira · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Brazil (Montes Claros)

This study investigated the role and importance of urban agriculture in Montes Claros, MG, Brazil, as a dynamic activity creating a specific rural-urban interaction space. Using bibliographic and documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews with farmers, iconographic production, and geotechnologies for mapping, the research found that urban agriculture is a reality in intra-urban spaces. It occupies vacant lots and backyards with diverse activities, generating work, employment, income, food security, and products for local commerce.

Shuhong Zhang · Logistics Engineering and Management · China (Wuhan)

This study investigated the current state of agricultural product logistics in cities, using the Wuhan Baishazhou agricultural and sideline products market as an example. It identified problems such as fewer services provided, backward technical means, lower employee education levels, and arbitrary market transactions. Based on these issues, suggestions were made for accelerating urban agricultural logistics development, including reinforcing market management, strengthening logistics technology development, recruiting professionals, and improving service capability.

知弘 岡田, 大介 小山 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This paper is part of a special issue on the "Possibility and problem of 'coexistence of agriculture and housing' in suburban agricultural region of big city," presenting an overview of the urbanization process and contemporary challenges of town planning in the Kuga-Hatsukashi area of Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City.

I Kibona, SL Mkoma, IC Mjemah · International Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences · Tanzania (Morogoro)

Groundwater samples were collected from 20 wells in six wards of Morogoro municipality, Tanzania, during March-April 2010, and nitrate concentrations were measured. Nitrate levels ranged from 1.4 mg/L to 32.5 mg/L, with an average of 7.76 mg/L. These concentrations were below the upper limits set by the Tanzania Bureau of Standards and the World Health Organization.

Ralf Otterpohl, Christopher Buzie · Waste · Global

This chapter provides an overview of biowaste management solutions, focusing on reuse. It describes high-tech systems, urine diverting flush systems, and modern dry sanitation systems like terra preta sanitation (TPS), which can produce black soil and reusable water. TPS is presented as a promising approach for managing urban household waste, addressing soil degradation and food insecurity, and potentially improving urban agriculture when combined with greywater reuse; however, questions regarding macronutrients and micronutrients remain.

Nyumbaiza Tambwe, Michael Rudolph, Ran Greenstein · Africa · Democratic Republic of Congo (Lubumbashi)

A study was conducted in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, from November 2004 to March 2005, on 100 farming households that adopted urban agriculture as an alternative livelihood after the collapse of a mining company. Data collected through semi-structured interviews, in-depth questions, and observation revealed that despite practicing urban agriculture, the living conditions of 75% of households declined, and 20% stabilized their living conditions but could not completely alleviate poverty. Only 5% of farmers achieved food security.

Anne-Marie Pailhès · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · Germany

Today, allotment gardens are counted among Germany's "lieux de mémoire," finally recognising the importance of the "allotment holders' movement" (Kleingärtnerbewegung) in the German cultural landscape. From the 1890s to the 1920s, in a continuous process centred mainly on the Berlin area, allotment enthusiasts gradually changed the character of urban peripheries, occupying parcels of land grouped into "sections" (Sparten) of "colonies." Since 1996 there has been a museum dedicated to this social movement.

Chenggu Li · Journal of Northeast Normal University · China

A study of Xixin, Changchun, China, examining the planning, protection and control of non-constructive land (land not designated for building) at the rural-urban fringe. After analyzing problems stemming from the rapid expansion of construction land at the fringe, it proposes land-use planning approaches - integrating land space, developing urban agriculture, building landscape corridors and ecological barriers, and reserving constructive land - along with three control methods: policy guidance, classification-based regulation, and constraints on the expansion of constructive land.

James Krohe · Planning · Global

This planning article argues that cities facing steady population decline, which often leads to blight, can treat the situation as an opportunity to create more desirable urban spaces through deliberate planning. It describes comprehensive land recategorization based on ecological criteria, land banks that buy up vacant or abandoned properties for later redevelopment, urban agriculture and green space, and improvements to walkability and transportation infrastructure as elements of strategic planning for shrinking cities.

Todd H. Kuethe, Jennifer Ifft, Mitch Morehart · Choices Magazine (Agricultural & Applied Economics Association) · United States

Using USDA/NASS survey data from 1999–2010, this article examines how urban proximity affects U.S. cropland values. Cropland in urban-influenced areas commanded an average premium of $1,820 per acre over rural areas, though its annual growth rate (1.5%) lagged rural cropland (4.8%). Values in urban-influenced areas peaked at $4,400 per acre at the end of 2007.

Britta Riley · TED · United States

In this TED talk (posted November 2011), artist-technologist Britta Riley presents Windowfarms, a vertical hydroponic system for growing food in apartment windows, and the crowdsourced "R&D-I-Y" development approach behind it. Windowfarms was named one of Entrepreneur magazine's "100 Brilliant Companies to Watch" in 2010.

Catherine J. LaCroix · Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons (Case Western Reserve University) · United States (Cleveland)

This paper explores legal challenges faced by shrinking cities, using Cleveland, Ohio as an example. It specifically examines issues related to downzoning urban property for urban agriculture and other green uses, focusing on takings law, fairness, and the limitations of current legal structures for Brownfield revitalization when traditional redevelopment is improbable. The study identifies significant legal constraints and challenges in implementing such land use changes.

J. David Clark, Douglas B. Jackson‐Smith, Darla K. Munroe, Jeff S. Sharp, Shoshanah Inwood · Indian Journal of Experimental Biology · United States

This study characterized diverse trajectories of agricultural change in US peri-urban areas, where broader agri-food system changes are compounded by land use pressures. Utilizing farmer and landowner surveys from five distinct peri-urban farming regions across the United States, the research examined different theories of agricultural structural change. The results provide an empirical profile of the types and geography of US peri-urban agriculture and the most common adaptive strategies employed by farmers at the urban-rural interface.

David Mason, Ian Knowd · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · Australia (Sydney)

This paper explores the history of urban agriculture (UA) in the Sydney region, which emerged as a grassroots response to global forces negatively impacting urban and farming communities. These forces include urban sprawl, supermarket dominance, the fast food industry, and globalization. Community-based promotion of local agriculture is leading governments and organizations to recognize UA as a strategic mechanism for urban communities to address food security and other challenges.

Messay Mulugeta Tefera · Journal of sustainable development in Africa · Ethiopia (Adama)

This study assessed the role of urban agriculture in attaining urban food security for smallholders in Adama town, central Ethiopia. Findings confirmed that urban agriculture plays a significant role in urban household food security. Over 40% of the surveyed households obtained well over the nationally set minimum dietary energy requirement solely from their urban farmlands.

Barbara Matthys, Benjamin G. Koudou, Eliézer K. N’Goran, Penelope Vounatsou, Laura Gosoniu, Moussa Koné, G. Gissé, Jürg Utzinger · Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology · Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan)

Two surveys were conducted in market gardens of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, during the rainy and dry seasons to identify mosquito breeding habitats. The study found that urban agriculture areas may lead to higher densities of mosquito breeding sites, with "agricultural trenches" between seedbeds being the most likely sites to be positive for Anopheles larvae and mosquito pupae.

M. Fantuz · · Cuba (Havana)

This study presents a systematic analysis of urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba. It proposes a lightweight infrastructure, shaped by the existing built environment, aiming to break the constrictions of rigid orthogonal city planning by offering a new layer of walkable and productive public space. The system materializes the socio-spatial characteristics of Havana and is potentially applicable to a large share of the city.

規宏 小原, Norihiro Obara · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan (Kasama)

This study analyzed the development factors of Kasama Klein Garten, an extended-stay allotment garden in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture, focusing on "rurality" as represented in rural areas by external actors. The findings revealed that the development of Kasama Klein Garten is driven by diverse agriculture-related events and workshops offered within the facility, which promote the reconstruction of users' rurality, and this reconstructed rurality encourages continued use of the Klein Garten.

LI Heng-ying · Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment · China (Taiyuan)

This article analyzed the comparative advantages of agricultural sub-sectors in Taiyuan City, China, using the location quotient and revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) methods, based on the theory of comparative advantage. The results showed that Jiancaoping, Qingxu, and Xiaodian districts are superior in characterized agriculture; Yingze, Xinghualing, and Loufan counties in forestry; and Jinyuan, Yingze, and Loutan counties in fishery. Consequently, the industrial development of urban agriculture in Taiyuan can be categorized into four cycles: sightseeing and leisure, characterized, sci-tech demonstration, and cooperative agriculture.

Yingqi Yan · Journal of Gansu Normal Colleges · China (Gansu Province)

This article discusses the theory and practice of modern urban agriculture development within the integration process of urban and rural areas in Gansu Province, China. Urban agriculture is recognized as a new research area for sustainable urban development due to its unique social, economic, and ecological functions, making it a research hotspot for urban and rural sustainable development. The article offers suggestions for its development.

Mohammed Murtala Ruma, Abdullahi Usman Sheikh · African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology · Nigeria (Katsina)

This paper investigated the status of wastewater reuse in urban farming in Katsina, Nigeria, by interviewing 120 households out of 250 registered with the Katsina Urban Planning Authority. It was found that wastewater reuse in urban farming is a full-time, sole income earner for many households and is indispensable for this semi-arid city. However, the urban planning process has not officially recognized or given attention to this important activity.

John Ikerd · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

According to the American Farmland Trust, approximately 1.2 million acres of U.S. farmland are converted to residential and other commercial uses annually. This farmland conversion is noted to be putting the long-run sustainability of U.S. food production at risk.

Makoto Yokohari, Marco Amati, Jay Bolthouse, Hideharu KURITA · disP - The Planning Review · Japan (Tokyo)

This paper advocates for re-establishing mixed land-use garden zones in and around cities, conceptualized as spaces for urban residents to develop local food cultures. It outlines post-war planning policies that separated urban and agricultural uses, investigates demographic shifts threatening domestic agricultural production, and examines Edo's urban agricultural heritage for a new planning paradigm. The paper demonstrates the need for multifunctional green spaces with examples from the greater Tokyo area and concludes by discussing the need for hybrid garden zones that encourage mixed urban and agricultural uses.