Research & reports

Ni Nyoman Serma Adi, Aditya Wirayudha, Dini Layali Apriliani, Elisa Kurnia Putri, Fitri Khaerunnisa, Ni Luh Putu Susi Ardiningsih, Nige Auliya Marga Utami, Putri Ayu, Ade Irma Cahyani, Dyah Rahayu · Suluh Pendidikan · Indonesia

An applied study using a SMART-based participatory training design examined urban farming as a way to improve food security in Desa Dauh Peken, Indonesia, a densely populated village with limited farmland vulnerable to food price fluctuations and supply disruption. Hands-on participatory training—covering cultivation on limited land, environmentally friendly farming methods, and implementation support—was delivered to 21 members of the village's Women Farmers Group (KWT). In evaluation, 61.9% of respondents reported satisfaction with the educational outcomes, and 71.4% reported the training achieved its food-security goal and had a strong environmental/sustainability impact.

Ibukun Balogun, James S. Pryke, Temitope Kehinde, Michael J. Samways · Landscape and Urban Planning · Africa

A 2025 study investigated how insect pollinator diversity differs between gardens, agricultural areas and natural areas within a southern African urban mosaic composed of an urban core, farms and natural areas, and examined how urban green spaces influence pollinator taxonomic diversity. Direct observation and pan traps were used to assess pollinator diversity alongside measured environmental, floral and landscape variables. Results showed similar pollinator diversity between agricultural and natural areas for some taxa, and between agricultural areas and urban gardens for other taxa. Floral variables were the most important predictors of pollinators, with greater floral diversity ameliorating the effects of urbanization and agricultural intensification, while landscape context was significant but less important. Although results varied considerably among taxa, the findings suggest agroecological farming may buffer natural areas from urbanization effects and reduce urbanization's impact on pollinators in urban gardens by providing needed resources. The study identifies floral variables as important for urban green planning, achievable through establishing more flowering plants in human-modified areas such as semi-urban agricultural areas and urban gardens.

Jacek Antonkiewicz, Iwona Paśmionka, Grzegorz Szychowski · Soil Science Annual · Poland

Following a flood that inundated allotment gardens in Nysa, southern Poland, for up to 14 days after the water rose on 14 September 2024, researchers analyzed 12 soil samples collected in early spring 2025 from two allotment garden sites. Most soils were found limed and disinfected, with high organic matter but low total potassium, sodium and sulfur. Zinc and copper concentrations exceeded the average for Polish arable soils, pointing to use of materials enriched with these elements.

Camila Urbina Lavajos, Oscar Vargas Chozo · Devenir - Revista de estudios sobre patrimonio edificado · Peru

A qualitative, descriptive study of the Tumino ravine in Moyobamba, Peru, examined the degradation of its evolving cultural landscape caused by inappropriate land use and informal settlement. Results showed 41% of the ravine area under conservation while another 41% faced unsustainable uses such as dumping and drainage discharge, with landscape fragmentation found to be affecting ecological connectivity and biodiversity. In response, the study proposes a system of ecological patches including urban gardens, green corridors, paths, boardwalks, viewpoints, wetlands and urban lagoons.

Sumit Vij, Vishal Narain · Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Water · Global

This review addresses a knowledge gap on how peri-urban residents in Asia and Africa adapt to the impacts of urbanization and climate change on water security. As rural-urban boundaries rapidly blur in the global South, peri-urban spaces are characterized by weakening access to water resources, depleting common property institutions and poor civic engagement, and the review presents the persistent marginalization of peri-urban residents from a water security perspective, while also showing that they do develop adaptation measures. Existing literature is found to focus primarily on (1) increased vulnerability of peri-urban agriculture and allied sectors, (2) barriers and enablers to water-security-related adaptation planning, and (3) justice in peri-urban areas, and the review calls for further study of emerging cooperation and collective action that could reduce conflicts between peri-urban and urban inhabitants and improve water security.

Julio César Alcántara Cornejo · Communities in DSpace (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru) · Brazil

Lima, on Peru's coast, faces both seismic hazard and a shortage of drinking water, and many residents live on hillsides in informal housing built on terraces supported by dry-joint stone walls (pircas), which creates vulnerability to heavy loading, particularly seismic loading, and drives up the cost of or lack of basic services. Building on earlier proposals to use these vernacular terraces for environmental improvement and urban agriculture on Lima's hillsides, this study set out to experimentally evaluate the performance of pirca-supported terraces intended for urban agriculture. The procedure involved establishing a baseline, characterizing a base terrace prototype, designing and constructing a test specimen, and then load-testing it. The stated aim of the resulting test data is to build a technical basis for the structural viability of such terraces so that local governments and other interested organizations can support their large-scale implementation.

Namitha Krishna, N A, Parvathy Sasikumar, Shiv Ganesh · Environment and Ecology · India

India's population is projected to exceed 1.5 billion by 2050, and growing urbanization and industrialization are expected to substantially increase water demand and wastewater generation. Domestic and industrial use currently account for 15% of India's water reserves, a share projected to rise to 30% by 2050. Treated wastewater is described as an increasingly important resource for peri-urban agriculture, while untreated wastewater is described as posing serious environmental and health risks from toxic metals, micro-contaminants, and pathogens. This review surveys recent developments in wastewater treatment for agricultural reuse, covering both conventional sequential treatment stages that remove solids, organic matter, and other pollutants, and advanced technologies that target specific contaminants such as xenobiotics and persistent organic pollutants.

Abdul-Salam Ibrahim, Marney E. Isaac, Thembela Kepe · Land Use Policy · Ghana

Focusing on Ghana, where floods driven by urbanization and climate change are destabilizing urban systems in which land tenure is integral, this study drew on political ecology and land-tenure-security frameworks to examine how floods affect the land tenure security of flood victims. Based on semi-structured interviews with flood victims and planning officials, it found that flood-induced rezoning and new planning schemes, tenant insecurity, relocation, loss of land documents, and threats to urban agriculture all affect flood victims' land tenure security; possessing land documents was found to be important for tenure security but not an absolute condition for victims' perceived security. Post-flood land-use planning for flood risk management was found to have dual potential — it can enhance tenure security and bolster community resilience, but when carried out in an exclusionary way that overlooks the urban poor, it can instead perpetuate inequality and tenure insecurity. The study recommends tenure-responsive land-use planning that embeds contextual, procedural, and distributive equity principles into planning responses to urban floods.

Dinesh Kumar, Abhishek Ranjan, Mahendra Sharma, Sanoj Kumar, Vishnu Ji Awasthi, Anshu Kumari, Ramesh Kumar Sahni, Ananya Rai, Krishna Murari, Shilpi Kumari, S. Paswan, Kushwaha Abhijeet · Journal of Scientific Research and Reports · India

A trial at the College of Agricultural Engineering, Ara, Bihar, India (November 2024-March 2025) used a randomized block design with six replications to test drip irrigation on Indra capsicum (Capsicum annuum L.) grown on a rooftop. Drip irrigation produced greater plant height, more leaves and flowers, an average of 21.3 fruits per plant, fruit length of 67.2 mm, fruit weight of 79.81 g and yield of 3.52 kg/plant, while saving about 75-80% of water compared with conventional irrigation at a water-use efficiency of 9.2 kg/m³, and yield increased 10-15% over yields typically observed with traditional irrigation methods.

Shanza Neda Hussain, Aritra Ghosh · Energy and Buildings · United Kingdom

This study examined a sustainable residential building design in Birmingham, UK, combining rooftop agrivoltaics, vacuum gasochromic smart glazing and onsite green hydrogen production. Comparing vertical, optimal 30-degree tilt and dome monofacial/bifacial agrivoltaic setups growing tomatoes, tomato production held steady at 0.31 kg/m2 despite varying shading; maximum electricity generation was 7,919 kWh from bifacial 30-degree panels, the lowest levelized cost of electricity was 0.061 British pounds/kWh from monofacial 30-degree panels, the vacuum gasochromic glazing had the lowest U-value (1.32 W/m2K) but the greatest thickness (24.6 mm), and the hydrogen needed annually for the glazing was estimated at 52.56 g, with the bifacial 30-degree system theoretically covering up to about 64.23 km per day for a hydrogen vehicle.

Anthony Steven, Iriani Atrika, Doris Febriyanti, Siti Zubaidah · Government & Resilience · Indonesia (Palembang)

This case study examines collaborative governance between local authorities and community stakeholders in Palembang, Indonesia, a low-lying delta city on the Musi River facing recurrent flooding, food insecurity and disrupted supply chains driven by urban expansion, poor drainage infrastructure and climate-related rainfall variability. It analyzes local policy responses, community-led initiatives such as floating vegetable gardens, and urban farming on flood-resilient land, finding that while municipal disaster agencies provide early warning and evacuation support, food access and distribution during floods are primarily sustained by grassroots networks and community-organized food banks.

Judy Thomas, Nedumaran Swamikannu, R. Vijaya Kumari, Jyosthnaa Padmanabhan · CABI Agriculture and Bioscience · India

A survey of 330 peri-urban farm households in Hyderabad, India, using multi-stage sampling and a Double Hurdle Model to analyze the decision to diversify farm activities and the intensity of that diversification. Results show the initial decision to diversify is strongly shaped by socio-environmental factors — proximity to urban areas, sole reliance on farming for income, household size and risk attitudes — while diversification intensity is largely determined by farm-specific resource conditions such as soil fertility and farmers' subjective assessment of production and market uncertainty. The study concludes that peri-urban farms in India are moving toward diversification, but at low intensity, particularly among small and semi-medium landholdings.

Nazmul Haque, Ranjan Roy, Abdullah All Imtiaz, Rafio Rahmatullah, Ronzon Chandra Das, S.M. Abdul Gani, Md. Shamsuzzoha, Kamrun Nahar Sheuly, Khalid Syfullah, Akther Banu · International Journal of Agricultural Extension · Bangladesh

A study of 105 climate-smart agriculture (CSA)-practicing farmers in Chuadanga district, southwestern Bangladesh, using structured face-to-face interviews. Multiple regression analysis in SPSS (version 20) across eleven variables found that education level, organizational participation, ICT access and positive attitudes toward CSA significantly influenced adoption, while farm size and access to finance had comparatively less impact. The model explained 47.7% of the variance in CSA adoption.

Elmira Dhiva Avivah, Teguh Soedarto, Wahyu Santoso · JPEK (Jurnal Pendidikan Ekonomi dan Kewirausahaan) · Indonesia (Surabaya)

This study assessed the economic feasibility of Yurga Farm, a farmer group participating in Surabaya City's urban farming program in East Java, Indonesia, which cultivates horticultural vegetables — including pakcoy, romaine, siomak, lettuce, kale, samhong and caisim — on narrow but productive urban land. Primary data on production costs, revenue and income were collected through in-depth interviews. All commodities showed an R/C ratio above 1, with break-even-point (BEP) production levels below actual production and BEP prices below selling prices, indicating the farming business is profitable and has potential for sustainable development.

Finn Williams, Ruby Johnston, Aiden Campbell · International Journal of Horticulture and Food Science · Germany

At the Christchurch College of Food Technology in New Zealand, researchers compared five growing systems -- rooftop container, raised bed, peri-urban orchard, rural orchard (reference), and heated greenhouse -- for avocado (Persea americana) cv. 'Hass' under simulated Bavarian Plateau conditions, using a randomized complete block design with four replications over three years (2020-2022). The rural orchard yielded highest at 22.3 kg per tree, peri-urban raised beds achieved 18.7 kg per tree using 56% less land, and rooftop containers (200 L pots) produced only 6.8 kg per tree, confirming that container culture is viable but yield-limited; rooftop systems had the lowest weed pressure, peri-urban orchards supported the richest arthropod biodiversity, and ISSR molecular markers confirmed genetic uniformity among grafted plants across systems, ruling out somaclonal variation as a source of the yield differences.

Eduardo Cesar Silva, Daniel Leite Mesquita, Paulo Henrique Montagnana Vicente Leme · Revista Brasileira Multidisciplinar · Brazil

Using a competitive-intelligence approach drawing on both academic and journalistic sources, this study conducted an exploratory analysis of global urban agriculture trends to identify the main technologies and models in use. It found that urban agriculture is expanding worldwide and is practiced through diverse models, notably community gardens, rooftop gardens, controlled-environment food cultivation, and cellular agriculture.

Wen‐Pei Sung, Ming-Cheng Liao, Hsian-Ling Peng, Chung-Tien Huang, Yun-Jung Chuang, J Wang · Sustainability · Global

Against a backdrop of intensifying urban heat island effects and residents' mental health problems amid urbanization, this study examined the impact of an Urban Food Forest Program on urban environmental comfort, heat island mitigation, and the mental health of middle-aged and elderly residents. Using on-site field measurements and questionnaire surveys, it analyzed the environmental comfort of green spaces in urban heat island hotspots and assessed participants' mental health. The Urban Food Forest Program significantly reduced surrounding environmental temperature, with an average cooling effect of 2.4°C particularly in soil areas, and reduced heat island intensity in the surrounding area by 15%. In the mental health survey, male participants scored significantly higher than female participants (p = 0.017), and middle-aged and elderly participants who took part more than five times per week scored 17% higher, significantly better, than low-frequency participants. The study notes that its relatively small sample size and limited observation period may affect the generalizability of its findings, and that it focused on one specific urban area that may not represent the broader urban context.

Xintao Lin, Jianping Qian, Jian Chen, Qiangyi Yu, Liangzhi You, Qian Chen, Jiali Li, Pengnan Xiao, Jingyi Jiang · Resources Environment and Sustainability · China

A study of Beijing and Shanghai, China (2025) modeled decarbonization from adjusting the local-sourcing share of seven perishable food categories — vegetables, poultry, aquatic products, beef, and lamb among them — incorporating both production and cold-chain logistics emissions across multiple localization scenarios. Each 1% increase in localization of vegetables, poultry, and aquatic products cut 2020 emissions by 0.4-1.9 tCO2e, while the same 1% increase for beef and lamb raised emissions by 0.2-2.9 tCO2e; localization reduced the cold-chain emission share for every food category. A constrained "balancing strategy" cut 2020 emissions by about 0.76 MtCO2e (5%) in Beijing and 0.44 MtCO2e (2%) in Shanghai, and an unconstrained scenario maximizing urban agriculture use achieved 3-4 times more reduction. Under a business-as-usual projection, the strategy was estimated to offset over 90% of Beijing's added emissions by 2035, with a further 0.44 MtCO2e reduction possible in Shanghai. The findings indicate that importing more carbon-intensive ruminant meat while reallocating urban resources toward vegetables, poultry, and aquatic products could produce more sustainable food supplies in megacities.

Md. Rafiqul Islam, Syed Anisur Rahman, Tanvir Ahmed · International Journal of Agriculture and Food Science · Asia

Six heavy metals (lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, copper, zinc) were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in spinach, amaranth and fenugreek collected from four peri-urban sites around Dhaka, Bangladesh, during January-March 2024, where more than 2,000 hectares of vegetable land are irrigated with untreated industrial and domestic wastewater via canal networks. Lead in amaranth from the industrial-effluent site reached 0.94 mg/kg fresh weight, more than three times the WHO/FAO permissible limit of 0.30 mg/kg, while cadmium, chromium and nickel stayed within permissible limits at all sites and zinc, though highest in absolute terms (8.6-14.7 mg/kg), also remained within safe limits; contamination was highest at the industrial-effluent site and lowest at the borewell-irrigated control site, indicating a localized food-safety risk for consumers of peri-urban leafy greens grown with wastewater irrigation.

Verheyden, Johan G.L. · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Africa

This literature review examines the intersection of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in the Great Lakes region of Africa — Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo — a region undergoing rapid urbanization amid growing climate change vulnerability. It examines how CSA practices such as agroforestry, composting, water-efficient irrigation, and resilient crop varieties are being adopted and adapted within diverse UPA systems, synthesizes evidence on their impacts on food security, nutrition, environmental sustainability and socio-economic wellbeing, and analyzes the governance, policy and institutional factors enabling or constraining uptake. The review identifies critical research gaps, including the need for long-term impact assessments, locally adapted CSA strategies, effective governance models, and a better understanding of land tenure and nutritional outcomes, and outlines future research directions and policy recommendations with particular attention to Kenya's evolving urban landscape and devolution framework.

Usha Baniya, Sachin Khaniya, Rojan Karki · Nepalese Journal of Agricultural Sciences · Asia

This review paper positions hydroponics—a soilless cultivation technique—as a method of urban agriculture addressing confined land availability, food security, and environmental concerns from urbanization, focused on Kathmandu, Nepal. It synthesizes existing insights on setup costs, operational challenges, and profitability against global trends and local constraints, and, framing setup costs and operational challenges as barriers to adoption, recommends subsidies, training, and integration into urban planning as pathways to foster the uptake of hydroponic farming.

Jennifer Newell, Siobhan Cox, Rory Doherty · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Global

A systematic review synthesized literature on the oral bioaccessible fraction (BAF) of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and lead in vegetables grown on contaminated soils, drawing values from multiple online databases across potentially toxic elements (PTEs), in vitro test methods, and vegetable types. The review starts from the premise that many urban and peri-urban brownfield sites carry a legacy of soil metal and metalloid contamination, so crops grown there may pose human health risks. Median PTE BAFs ranked Cd > Ni > Cr > As > Pb; among in vitro methods, the unified BARGE method (UBM) produced the highest median BAFs (63.0% gastric, 59.6% gastrointestinal); and by crop type, BAFs ranked non-vegetables (e.g., rice, fungi) > legumes > root vegetables > bulb vegetables > leafy vegetables.

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, HM Treasury, Department for Business and Trade · GOV.UK · United Kingdom

On 23 December 2025 the UK government announced it would raise the 100% Agricultural and Business Property Reliefs threshold from £1m to £2.5m, effective 6 April 2026. Married couples or civil partners will be able to pass on assets worth up to £5m tax free, and up to £5.65m when combined with existing nil-rate bands. The government projects that the number of estates claiming agricultural property relief affected by the 2026-27 reforms will roughly halve, from 375 to 185.

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) · USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service · United States

USDA NASS's 2025 survey found the average value of U.S. cropland was $5,830 per acre, up 4.7% from 2024 and up 96% since 2011. Pastureland averaged $1,920 per acre, up $90 from 2024 and 79% since 2011. Overall farm real estate value averaged $4,350 per acre, up $180 from 2024. The average cropland cash rent was $161 per acre nationally (up $1), with irrigated cropland at $244 and non-irrigated at $147; pastureland rent was unchanged at $15.50 per acre.

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) · Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) · United Kingdom

According to MHCLG's statistical release (published 9 October 2025), the extent of land designated as Green Belt in England as at 31 March 2025 was estimated at 1,633,220 hectares, around 12.5% of England's land area. This represents a decrease of 660 hectares (0.04%) from 31 March 2024, driven mainly by local authority boundary policy changes (650 hectares across six authorities) and digital boundary updates (10 hectares). By region, London has the highest proportion of its area designated Green Belt, at 22.1%.