Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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Assessment of the Contribution of Potential Green Roofs to Ecological Network Optimization in High-Density Urban Areas
2025Chen Li, Jin ZUO, Tao Lin, Xiao Wang · Landscape Architecture · China
This study, focused on the central urban area of Tianjin, China, presents a method for extracting potential green roofs and assessing ecological network reconstruction. It synthesizes four suitability characteristics — flat roof features, roof color, additional structures, and building height — into a deep learning model with attention mechanisms and multi-scale feature fusion to identify potential green roof areas, then proposes a framework based on a Least-Cost Path model for incorporating potential green roofs into urban ecological network reconstruction. The results identified 21,244 roofs with greening potential in central Tianjin, covering a total of 1,345.22 hectares (average 633 m², largest 24,927 m²), showing a "polycentric and dispersed" spatial distribution. Integrating potential green roofs with existing green space increased the number of source patches from 100 to 131 and total area by 302.35 hectares, with potential green roofs directly contributing 126.28 hectares.
BiodiversityClimate changePolicy“A Roça na Cidade”: Horta Comunitária e engajamento em uma Comunidade Vulnerável
2025Aline Oliveira Zoia do Amaral, Regina Yoshie Matsue, Luciana Yuki Tomita · Ambiente & sociedade · Brazil (São Paulo)
This engaged, reflexive case study analyzed the implementation of a community garden in a condominium in Heliópolis, a high social-vulnerability neighborhood in São Paulo, Brazil, and the participants' motivations, drawing on participant observation, a field diary, and semi-structured interviews. The garden was established through crowdfunding (a "vaquinha virtual"). It contributed to the household budget, expanded the variety of vegetables consumed to include unconventional food plants, and improved diet. It also became a space for recovering affective memories, socializing, an activity for elderly women, and bringing the condominium's children closer to the practice of growing food.
CommunityHealthWelfareFood educationFEAST - Community involvement - OUTCOMES AND INSIGHTS FROM CO-DESIGN WORKSHOPS IN FEAST LIVING LABS
2025Barelds-Cramer, Leonie, Kapteijns, Annemarie, Battjes-Fries, Marieke · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Europe
This report presents the outcomes and insights from a series of co-design workshops conducted at four FEAST Living Labs — Leuven (Belgium), Oxfordshire (UK), Ghent (Belgium), and Tuscany (Italy) — aimed at developing community-driven solutions supporting healthier, more sustainable food choices. The workshops used a participatory design methodology including timeline reflection, cognitive mapping of bottlenecks and qualities, and solution-pathway development. In Leuven, mothers of primary-school children wanted enjoyable, healthy, sustainable food to become a social norm, especially in schools, citing increasing exposure to unhealthy food marketing, affordability, and limited healthy school offerings; bottlenecks were mainly at the meso level, and proposed solutions included nutrition education as a standard school subject, stronger regulation of unhealthy food marketing, and digital tools to build knowledge. In Oxfordshire, parents of young children prioritized access to affordable fresh produce, opportunities for community growing, time to cook from scratch, and reduced waste; bottlenecks were more often at the micro level — limited skills, fussy eating, convenience pressures, and high food prices — with solutions including a free recipe and advice app, community gardens, cooking classes, better promotion of local support services, and initiatives connecting farmers and residents. In Ghent, professional stakeholders from food-related organizations in disadvantaged neighborhoods shared a goal of fair food access and stronger community connection through food, identifying bottlenecks in fragmented service provision, pricing barriers, and limited visibility of available food support.
Food educationCommunityHealthURBAN COMMUNITY GARDENS AS NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR WATER RESILIENCE IN CO-PRODUCTION. THE CASE OF BOLOGNA
2025Sara Rizzo, Giulia Lucertini, Alessandra Bònoli, Maria Elena Bini, Roberta Guzzinati, Luca Settanni, Francesca Cappellaro · Environmental Engineering and Management Journal · Europe
A study of six experimental case studies in the metropolitan city of Bologna, Italy, describing urban community gardens (UCGs) as examples of co-production in Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), focused on the design and development of circular strategies for water reuse. It situates Bologna as a context where urban horticulture has long served as local welfare and is now evolving to host solutions supporting environmental resilience, and reports the implementation of social innovation pathways, community building and citizen engagement enabled through co-design activities using open innovation approaches, particularly Urban Living Labs (ULLs), which facilitated the development and testing of locally adapted, do-it-yourself solutions. The analysis concludes that the implemented solutions had significant social and economic impact, demonstrating UCGs' effectiveness as NBS in strengthening communities, contributing to the 2030 Agenda SDGs, and validating the outcomes of the participatory co-production approach.
CommunityClimate changePolicyPerancangan dan Implementasi Urban Farming dalam Pengembangan Ekonomi Berkelanjutan: Strategi Pemasaran Produk Lokal Kampung Wisata
2025Maria Angela Diva Vilaningrum Wadyatenti, Ika Yuli Listyarini, Fransisca Desiana Pranatasari · Jurnal LeECOM (Leverage Engagement Empowerment of Community) · Indonesia
A community-service report on Kampung Wisata Kali Gajah Wong, a tourist site in a densely populated urban area of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, that has several underutilized abandoned plots of land. The intervention provided education and mentoring in using abandoned land and maximizing limited space for urban farming, with results positioned as a diversification of educational tourism products — priced with an appropriate cost of production (HPP) and attractive packaging — as a form of sustainable tourism marketing. The activity is reported to have improved partners' skills in implementing urban farming and included the handover of a complete set of equipment.
Food educationEconomicsCommunityUrban–rural linkagePengaruh Media Tanam dan Waktu Panen Pada Pertumbuhan Serta Hasil Microgreen Peashoot (Pisum sativum L)
2025Benita Amirotul Ayyi, Siti Muslikah, Sugiarto, Zuhanid Zamarudah · Folium Jurnal Ilmu Pertanian · Indonesia
A growth trial of pea-shoot microgreens (Pisum sativum L.) conducted at "Rumah Microgreen" in the Alamsari housing area of Malang, Indonesia, using a factorial randomized block design with two factors: growing medium (100% cocopeat, 50% cocopeat/50% rice husk charcoal, or non-woven fabric) and harvest timing (6, 7, 8 or 9 days after sowing). The combination of 50% cocopeat/50% rice husk charcoal medium harvested at 9 days after sowing produced the best growth and yield, and this combination is recommended for optimal pea-shoot microgreen production.
DIYFood educationOrganic cycleCharacterization of Urban Market Gardening in the City of Sarh in Chad
2025Ganda Adoum Malato, Nguinambaye Mberdoum Memti, Alhadj Markhous Nazal, TAMTIAL Ngariban, Touroumgaye Goalbaye · Journal of Experimental Agriculture International · Africa
A field survey of 121 randomly selected market gardeners in the city of Sarh, Chad, characterized market gardening practices there, covering grower profiles, farm characteristics, cultivation practices and vegetable products. Most gardeners were married men (70.25% married, 86.78% men) with an average age of 31, only 11.57% illiterate, farming plots averaging 333 m² (range 42-1,492 m²), 56.20% of which were inherited; 66.67% irrigated with river water, 83.5% used organic fertilizer and 82.64% used chemical fertilizer, 53.72% applied pesticides while 46.28% used biopesticides, and leafy vegetables made up 45% of cultivated products.
CommunityEconomicsUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceAnalysing the contribution of urban agriculture towards urban household food security in informal settlement areas
2025Human Sciences Research Council · Figshare · South Africa
A 2025 study from South Africa's Western Cape used propensity score matching on data from 220 households — those participating in Department of Agriculture-funded backyard garden projects plus a control group — to assess urban agriculture's contribution to household food security. Households engaged in urban agriculture benefited from greater dietary diversity and income from selling produce, but the study found no significant positive contribution of urban agriculture to food security.
Limited or null effectFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareCommunityPeri-urban agricultureImpacts of railway transportation on the enrichment of heavy metals in hortisols of allotment gardens in the city of Zawadzkie
2025Izabella Pisarek, Kamila Śmieszkoł, Aleksandra Cichoń, Magdalena Śliwa, Dżoana Latała-Matysiak, Katarzyna Łuczak, Grzegorz Kusza · Journal of Ecological Engineering · Poland
A 2025 study assessed the impact of a railway line on soil quality, particularly heavy metal content, at the "Hutnik" family allotment gardens in Zawadzkie, Poland. Twenty research plots were set out near a forest complex (reference) and near railway infrastructure (a potential emission source), with soil samples collected from a depth of 0-25 cm and analyzed for total zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), and nickel (Ni). Elevated concentrations of copper, zinc, and lead were found in soils close to the railway line, and based on the chemical analysis data, the study concludes that railway transport may pose a greater threat to the environment than previously expected.
Contamination & food safetyCommunityAgricultural, economic, and biodiversity policy analysis exploring nature and equity features in contexts of agricultural expansion. TCforBE Deliverable D4.2
2025Rueda, Ximena · Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling · Africa
A 2025 comparative analysis examines agricultural, economic, and biodiversity policy across Cameroon, Kenya, and Colombia in the context of agricultural expansion, using discourse analysis of policy documents via the Nature Futures Framework and Life Frames Framework, an evaluation of budgets allocated to major agricultural and biodiversity policies, and stakeholder interviews. It finds a shared struggle across all three countries to harmonize agricultural development with biodiversity conservation despite differing institutional capacities, historical pathways, and sociocultural contexts, with agriculture continuing to dominate policy agendas and resource allocation even as recognition of biodiversity's importance grows. Nature is framed primarily in instrumental terms, most strongly so in Colombia's utilitarian "Nature for Society" orientation, with intrinsic and relational values rooted in Indigenous cosmologies weakly reflected in implementation; funding for biodiversity-related ministries remains minimal relative to agriculture in all three countries — Kenya's environmental budget rarely exceeds 0.3% of national expenditure, with Cameroon showing similar disparities and Colombia's allocations continuing to favor agricultural expansion — and institutional fragmentation further undermines this governance.
Governance failurePolicyBiodiversityCommunityIntergroup Contact Fosters Intercultural Competence among Global Service-Learners through Appreciation of Differences and Awareness of Structural Inequalities
2025Samuel Ikendi, Michael S. Retallick, Gail R. Nonnecke, Theressa N. Cooper, Francis Owusu · Journal of Agricultural Education · Global
A 2025 comparative study of alumni from Iowa State University (ISU) and Makerere University (MAK) who participated in a summer school garden service-learning program run through the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods in Uganda between 2006 and 2019. Grounded in intergroup contact theory, a self-administered questionnaire was sent to 274 alumni via Qualtrics with a 94.2% response rate, measuring change in self-perceived appreciation of differences (SAD) and awareness of structural inequalities (ASI). ISU alumni showed greater changes in knowledge, attitudes, and awareness than MAK alumni; race, ethnicity, and gender accounted for differences, with white and female ISU alumni showing greater changes than alumni of color and male alumni respectively, and binational housing arrangements also influenced the differences.
Food educationCommunityWelfareWhat does it mean to nurture ‘good intentions between city and country’? Performances of rural–urban relations in community-supported agriculture
2025Julia Spanier · Geoforum · Germany
A 2025 paper examines how community supported agriculture (CSA) performs and shapes rural-urban relations, based on four CSA initiatives in Germany. It finds that CSA does not automatically nurture "good intentions" between the urban and the rural, but can foster material solidarity and mutual understanding between urban consumers and rural producers. At the same time, it finds that hierarchical rural-urban relations, or rural/urban autonomy, may also be enacted within CSA, and that CSA can in some cases deepen processes of alienation between the rural and the urban, arguing that investigations of rural-urban relations in CSA must go beyond assessing producer-consumer relations alone.
CSA & TeikeiUrban–rural linkageCommunityExploring the Relationship Between Annual Rainfall Variability and Selected Urban Crop Output in Jos Metropolis
2025Kingsley Chibuzor Fredricks, S Goyol · Journal of Resilient Urbanism & Sustainable Design · Nigeria
A 2025 study examines the relationship between annual rainfall variability and the output of maize, tomato, and potato in Jos Metropolis, Nigeria, using crop yield data from 2012-2023 and rainfall data from 1994-2023, analyzed via Pearson correlation and linear regression. Annual rainfall showed significant fluctuation, with the highest level recorded in 2019 and the lowest in 2007, but correlations between rainfall and yield were weak and statistically insignificant for maize (r = 0.012), tomato (r = 0.146), and potato (r = 0.151). Maize and tomato yields increased steadily despite the fluctuations, possibly due to improvements in farming practices, better seeds, and small-scale irrigation, while potato output dipped due to late blight disease between 2013 and 2017 before recovering sharply.
Climate changeEconomicsCultivating Farmers, Connections, and Careers: The Utah Urban and Small Farms Conference Experience
2025Katie Wagner, Kynda R. Curtis, Ruby Ward, Melanie Stock, Sheriden M. Hansen · Applied Economics Teaching Resources · United States
This article describes the Utah Urban and Small Farms Conference (USFC), an annual outreach event for new and existing small and urban agricultural producers in Utah and across the United States facing urbanization and environmental challenges. It reports that themed sessions led by producers, government personnel, and Extension faculty led to information adoption, community partnerships, and effects on participants' professional careers and involvement in urban agriculture governance. The article suggests the USFC model could be adapted by other organizations and communities facing similar challenges.
Food educationPolicyCommunityPollution and ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in anthropogenically-affected soils of Sudan: A systematic review and meta-analysis
2025Magboul M.S. Siddig, Stephen Boahen Asabere, Abdullah S. Al-Farraj, Eric C. Brevik, Daniela Sauer · Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances · Sudan
This systematic review and meta-analysis examined 76 publications on soil heavy metals in Sudan published between 1996 and 2024, assessing concentrations of 10 heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) and potential ecological risk index (PERI) across 9 land-use types including urban agricultural, industrial, roadside, tannery, waste dump, rural agricultural, coastal sediment, gold mining, and river sediment areas. Average heavy metal levels across all land uses exceeded common soil ranges, with Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, and Pb surpassing WHO/FAO limits. In urban agricultural soils, Cd averaged about 158 times and Hg about 340 times typical background ranges, while industrial, gold mining, and waste dump land uses exceeded a serious ecological risk threshold (PERI greater than 900). Cd and Hg together accounted for over 70% of PERI in waste dump and gold mining sites.
Contamination & food safetyBiodiversityDesain Produk Pangan untuk Meningkatkan Nilai pada Produk Olahan Sayur Kampoeng Pintar Surabaya
2025Endang Retno Wedowati, Fungki Sri Rejeki, Emmy Wahyuningtyas, Diana Puspitasari, Adi Candra · ADMA Jurnal Pengabdian dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat · Indonesia (Surabaya)
This community outreach report describes a program to add value to vegetable products from urban farming in the Kampoeng Pintar neighborhood of Surabaya, Indonesia, working with the local farmer group Kelompok Tani Kampoeng Pintar Oase. Using socialization, training, and technology-adoption activities based on a learning-by-doing approach, the program introduced processing techniques for vegetable nuggets, vegetable chips, and vegetable ice cream. It reports that participating residents gained skills in producing these processed vegetable products.
CommunityEconomicsFood educationFrom Taxus to paclitaxel: Opportunities and challenges for urban agriculture to promote human health
2025Xiulan Xie, Yaohua Zhai, Hao Cheng, Wenhua Wei, Maozhi Ren · Plant Physiology and Biochemistry · Global
This review examines sustainable production of paclitaxel, an anti-cancer compound derived from Taxus (yew) trees, in the context of urban agriculture. It notes that traditional extraction methods from Taxus are inefficient and destructive, risking extinction of the genus, and surveys research on biotechnological approaches to efficient, cost-effective paclitaxel biosynthesis. The review discusses strategies for industrial-scale production based on Taxus cell culture methods.
HealthCommunityAssessment of slaughterhouse wastewater quality and its impact on soil microbiology in Peri-Urban farming systems
2025Mwangi Kamau, Wanjiku Otieno · International Journal of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry · Kenya
This study characterized the physicochemical quality of untreated wastewater from three small-scale slaughterhouses on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, and measured its effect on soil microbiology at 0, 50, and 200 meters from the discharge point during both wet and dry seasons. Wastewater biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) ranged from 1,840 to 2,620 mg/L and chemical oxygen demand (COD) from 3,410 to 4,870 mg/L, exceeding Kenyan discharge standards by 6- to 10-fold. Total bacterial counts in soil at the discharge point were 2.7 times higher than at 200 m (p<0.001), and total coliform counts were 4.1 times higher (p<0.001). The Shannon-Wiener diversity index rose significantly with distance from the discharge point (1.42±0.14 at 0 m vs. 2.34±0.18 at 200 m; p<0.001), indicating that wastewater irrigation selects for a less diverse, coliform-dominated soil microbial community. Seasonal variation was significant for BOD5 and coliform loading but not for the diversity index.
Contamination & food safetyBiodiversityPolicySentrale kjennetegn ved samskapte visjoner for urbant landbruk i Oslo
2025Vebjørn Egner Stafseng, Anna Marie Nicolaysen, Geir Lieblein · · United Kingdom
This education-research chapter presents findings from participatory visioning workshops that agroecology students conducted with urban agriculture initiatives in Oslo, Norway, in 2018 and 2019, analyzing the students' resulting reports. Key vision characteristics were categorized into social, nature and governance themes; common challenges included difficulties in collaboration, lack of funds and time, and initiative-specific constraints, while strong political support and rising interest in urban agriculture emerged as supporting forces, with proposed actions grouped into ecology, food, education, organization, social and municipality categories.
CommunityPolicyHorticultural Trends and Urban Agriculture Resilience in Malang: A Five-Year Statistical Analysis
2025Tantri Indriani Indriani · PANGRIPTA · Indonesia
Horticultural production dynamics in Malang Municipality, Indonesia, were analyzed from 2019 to 2023 using primary data from the Malang City Statistics Agency's Horticulture Statistics Report, covering four commodity groups: seasonal fruits and vegetables, annual fruits and vegetables, biopharmaceutical crops, and decorative plants. Significant fluctuations were found in harvested area and production, especially in seasonal crops such as oyster mushrooms and chili peppers sensitive to market prices and climate variability, alongside a downward trend in biopharmaceutical crops such as turmeric and ginger, a lemon production surge of over 1,100% between 2022 and 2023, and relative stability in the decorative plant sector.
EconomicsPeri-urban agricultureGreen Manufacturing Solutions in the Development of Sustainable Agro-edutourism in Semarang City, Indonesia
2025Ni Wayan Mutia Dewi Artawati, Tri Martini, Siwi Gayatri, Forita Dyah Arianti, Retno Widiyawati, Cahyo Prasetyo, N A Sasongko, Dany Juhandi, Nur Faizah, Vina Eka Aristya · Evergreen · Indonesia
In Kampung Sawah Mijen, Mijen District, Semarang City, Indonesia, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was used to identify local resources and challenges, and Multiaspect Sustainability Analysis (MSA) assessed a sustainability index across six dimensions. Farmers produced an average of 4.6 tons of rice per hectare per growing season, with most already using environmentally friendly practices; the sustainability index was 50.14, highest in the social dimension (69.44) and lowest in the technological dimension (41.67). Green manufacturing practices — composting rice straw and manure, reusing aquaculture wastewater for irrigation, and energy-efficient post-harvest techniques — were introduced and evaluated as part of an agro-edutourism model developed with local communities, academics, business and media, pointing to a need for further technological sustainability innovation.
Food educationCommunityClimate changeContrasting Diversity and Network Dynamics of Soil Fungal Functional Groups in the Plant Rhizosphere
2025Na Wei, Madelynn Nakaji-Conley, Jiaqi Tan · Microbial Ecology · Global
In urban farming fields of different ages and multiple genotypes, the relative abundance, richness, and microbial networks of putative plant pathogenic, mycorrhizal, and saprotrophic fungi in the rhizosphere were tracked over two years. Pathogenic fungal abundance was higher in older fields than younger fields, consistent with pathogen accumulation over time, while mycorrhizal fungal abundance decreased in older fields and saprotrophic abundance remained similar between younger and older fields. Mycorrhizal fungal richness declined in older fields and over the two years, with a corresponding decrease in network links, whereas saprotrophic fungi showed increased network links in older fields and pathogenic fungal networks remained similar across fields.
BiodiversityOrganic cycleAvaliação do uso e da percepção de flores comestíveis de Plantas Alimentícias Não Convencionais (PANC) por moradores do estado do Rio de Janeiro
2025Caroline Pacífico de Assis, André Manoel Correia dos Santos, Andrea Bittencourt de Santana Teixeira · OBSERVATÓRIO DE LA ECONOMÍA LATINOAMERICANA · Brazil (São Paulo)
A quali-quantitative online survey of 136 residents of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, assessed demographic profile, information sources, consumption forms, and perceptions of the nutritional value, functionality, and toxicological risk of edible flowers from unconventional food plants (PANC), including nasturtium, marigold, sunflower, and butterfly pea (clitoria). Results showed only partial knowledge and restricted consumption, with barriers related to lack of information, limited access, and cultural unfamiliarity; hibiscus and sunflower were the most recognized species, while nasturtium and clitoria had low visibility despite their bioactive compounds and nutritional value. Most participants expressed willingness to consume and promote the use of these flowers.
HealthFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityBudidaya Ikan dan Sayur untuk Ketahanan Pangan Rumah Tangga Warga Jemaat GBI Swiss Ministry Denpasar
2025Ida Ayu Kartika Maharani, Putu Widiadnyana, Ni Putu Dilia Dewi · WIDYABHAKTI Jurnal Ilmiah Populer · Indonesia
A community service program among members of the GBI Swiss Ministry congregation in Denpasar, Indonesia, addressed limited land availability and a lack of knowledge of urban farming technology through training in Budikdamber, a simple aquaponics-based system for cultivating catfish in buckets. The program proceeded through needs assessment, technical outreach, cultivation training, and distribution of Budikdamber kits equipped with automatic feeders and digital guide posters, and it produced high participant enthusiasm and improved practical understanding of seed and seedling management and integrated food production systems.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceFood educationGrowth in Adversity
2025Nicole Paganini · · Africa
Drawing on critical theorists including Fanon and Mbembe, the chapter examines how crises expose systemic inequalities and power imbalances rooted in colonial legacies, and how gardening becomes a means of agency, resistance, and the restoration of dignity in response to food injustice, through four African city case studies: Cape Town's land crisis, Maputo's post-war hunger crisis, Nairobi's COVID-19 crisis, and Ouagadougou's migration crisis. Noting that women are globally the primary actors in farming and food-related activities, it treats the question of women and land tenure as relevant, examining urban agriculture through a decolonial lens and framing crisis gardening as both a means of sustenance and a catalyst for community resilience and social cohesion in times of turmoil.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicy