Research & reports

Edina Vadovics, Matthew Hayes · · Hungary

A case study of the Open Garden Foundation, a local organic producer-consumer network in Hungary, was conducted. The foundation developed within a Central Eastern European socioeconomic context not supportive of radical solutions for the agricultural sector and rural communities. The study focused on the development of organic agriculture in Hungary, food consumption trends, opportunities for purchasing local organic products, and people's awareness of organic products. The Open Garden's management transitioned from the not-for-profit to the for-profit sector, while the main actors remained consistent.

John Diaz, Sue Webb, Laura A. Warner, Paul Monoghan · HortTechnology · Global

This study demonstrated the use of a Delphi approach with a diverse panel of community garden stakeholders to reach consensus about program outcomes for community garden programs. The panel successfully reached consensus on a variety of short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes. The study aimed to provide a framework for program development and evaluation that stakeholders can adopt to show program outcomes, addressing the difficulty of learning lessons from geographically specific community garden studies.

Jeong Nara, Myeongil Jeong, Seung-Won Han, Jaesoon Kim · Journal of people, plants, and environment · Global

This study was conducted to provide basic data for the construction of a community garden in a village. The research showed that residents have a high intention to use community gardens for rest, strolls, exercise, and appreciation, with older respondents showing higher frequency of use. Garden efficiency is enhanced when located within a 20-minute walk (1km), and it is desirable to design the space to reflect community characteristics and introduce needed facilities.

Izquierdo Acosta, Daniel Francisco · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This study examined five urban agriculture experiences in Bogotá, Colombia, focusing on productivity (species richness and market prices), resource use and management (water, energy, land, waste), and human organizational forms. The research aims to make these contexts known to farmers and academia, providing insights for better implementation of urban agriculture.

Steve Badanes · · Global

This abstract describes a design/build studio process where authors collaborate with clients on grant writing and program development for students. The studio aims to help clients define their needs and constraints, with clients funding materials and authors providing design and construction services. The Supershed location is selected with the Center for Urban Horticulture before the studio begins.

Cecília Delgado · Moravian Geographical Reports · Portugal

This article analyzes 29 urban agriculture (UA) initiatives in Portugal, finding that UA primarily involves allotment gardens, urban farms, and short food chains, focusing on vegetables and fruit. It predominantly occurs on public and institutional land, championed by municipalities and civil society. UA is a recent metropolitan phenomenon that expanded rapidly after the 2008 economic crisis, organizing activities around food production, processing/distribution, and capacity building.

Dorothy Kass · · Australia

This chapter examines sources related to teaching nature study in schools. A few years before the 1904 syllabus introduction in New South Wales, most teachers were unfamiliar with nature study, and inspectors were skeptical about elementary science in state schools. Richmond Public School offers an example of nature study in practice, though its situation was unique.

Immaculate Mugisa, Bernard Fungo, S. O. Adur, O. Ssemalulu, A. Molly, Jackie Atim, W. Nakyagaba, T. Kizza, Ruth Kabanyoro, Godfrey Sseruwu, B. Akello · African Journal of Plant Science · Uganda

A household survey of 297 farming households in Kampala, Wakiso, and Masaka districts, Central Uganda, investigated urban and peri-urban crop farming characteristics and trends. Cropping activities contributed an average of 40% to household income, with major crops including vegetables, maize, and bananas. Sixty percent of households practiced irrigation and fertilizer application, and 64% recycled waste, with 75% of those converting kitchen waste into manure.

Seyedardalan Ashrafzadeh, Niklas J. Lehto, Gareth Oddy, Ron G. McLaren, Ling‐Fen Kang, Nicholas Dickinson, Johannes Welsch, Brett Robinson · Applied Geochemistry · New Zealand (Christchurch)

A study in Christchurch, New Zealand, measured heavy metal (HM) concentrations in suburban garden soils and soils at risk of HM contamination due to former land uses or nearby activities. HM concentrations in suburban garden soils were higher than normal background levels, with 46% of urban garden samples exceeding the residential land use national standard for lead (210 mg kg−1), and the most contaminated soil reaching 2615 mg kg−1. Arsenic and zinc also exceeded national standards in 20% of soils. These findings suggest that soil HM concentrations should be key criteria when determining future land use for former residential areas demolished due to the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, and that redeveloping these areas as parklands or forests would result in less human HM exposure than agriculture or community gardens where food is produced and bare soil is exposed.

Stephanie Ritchie · Metropolitan Universities · Global

This selected bibliography compiles recently published books relevant to higher education institutions concerning food, agriculture, and sustainability efforts. It addresses the increasing interest in food production, distribution, consumption, and disposal, and how universities are integrating these concerns into curricula and sustainability initiatives.

Sanzidur Rahman · PEARL (University of Plymouth) · Bangladesh

This study examined socio-economic factors influencing monthly household income in poor urban slum settlements across four secondary cities in Bangladesh, based on a census survey of 33,049 households. Using a Tobit model, it found that education, public sector employment, business, self-employment, homestead land ownership, family size, female occupation, and urban agriculture significantly increased income. Conversely, households with female heads, unemployed heads, and children under 5 earned significantly less income.

Ana María Botella Nicolás, Amparo Hurtado Soler, José Cantó Doménech · Vivat Academia · Global

The school garden is an educational resource that allows students to approach the natural environment by designing interdisciplinary experiences that contribute to the development of basic skills. At the university level, it facilitates collaborative learning and the acquisition of socio-environmental skills. The L'Hort 2.0 project aims to create a virtual environment based on the school garden for ICT content management, linking outside-the-classroom activities with teaching guide content. This project was conducted using an active and collaborative methodology in three phases: preparation and design of the web environment in six areas, development of educational materials, and evaluation of their usefulness in the classroom and effectiveness in the student learning process. The results show high student involvement in the learning process and improved assessment results that better reflect the skills attained.

Javier Fernández Andrés · · Global

The abstract is too short to provide a meaningful summary. It only states that cities grew unprecedentedly in the last century, leading to an urbanized world population, and that agriculture adopted industrial methods.

Suzanne Smith, K. Anne Wright, Lauren Hrncirik, Mary Katherine Deen · Journal of Extension · Burundi

University faculty and Extension educators implemented the "Cultivating Learning with School Gardens" curriculum in Burundi, Africa, to address food insecurity, youth development, and experiential learning. Washington State University personnel trained Burundian NGO staff via videoconferencing, who then trained teachers in pilot programs at four Burundian schools. First harvests occurred in May 2016, with support from an agricultural consultant.

Roy L. Montgomery, Andreas Wesener, Fran Davies · Lincoln University Research Archive (Lincoln University) · New Zealand

This study examined a temporary community-initiated open space (CIOS) established in central Christchurch, New Zealand, after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. CIOS are bottom-up initiatives relying on financial sponsorship, temporary land-use agreements with landowners, and volunteers. The paper discusses bottom-up governance approaches in a single post-earthquake community garden project, using concepts of community resilience and social capital, and analyzes the facilitating organization's actions, its impact, and key actors' motivations, values, perceived benefits, and challenges.

Andile Mji · Commonwealth Youth and Development · Global

This study reports on a program where 118 learners (56.8% female), aged 16-18, participated in starting and tending school gardens. The aim was to determine how an empowering environment built learners' competencies and what lessons they learned, and if their utterances reflected positive youth development attributes. Qualitative data from open-ended interviews revealed that learners changed, learned to share, understood the meaning of working with others, and their utterances were consistent with positive youth development competencies.

Maria de Fátima dos Santos Pimenta Garcia · Service social · Global

This study discusses how urban agriculture facilitates social participation, stimulates solidarity, and fosters social belonging, thereby strengthening neighborhood networks and bringing generations together. It suggests that urban gardens encourage active aging and contribute to the biopsychosocial balance of the elderly by transforming daily life and integrating people through leisure activities and the use of common spaces.

Gabin Korbéogo · Environment and Urbanization · Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou)

This article explores how land tenure, water flows, and water quality are legally, politically, and socially framed in urban agriculture in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Urban agriculture serves as a revenue source and a socio-political arena involving state representatives, experts, and farmers. Public authorities monitor legal standards for water use and hygiene, while farmers strive for efficient resource use, sometimes challenging official norms. These competing interests lead to conflicts over resource use or rule legitimacy, which are negotiated through institutional or informal bargaining.

Georgia Pollard, Philip Roetman, James Ward · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Australia (South Australia)

While urban agriculture is seen as a sustainable approach to improving food security, there is a significant knowledge gap regarding the financial accessibility of urban food production for all households. If urban agriculture remains primarily a middle-class discretionary activity, its role in city-wide food security improvement will be limited. This paper demonstrates that citizen science offers an effective approach to investigate the inputs (labor, costs, water use) and outputs (produce yields, value) of urban food gardens, using the Edible Gardens project in South Australia as an example.

Jason Byrne · · Global

Research on urban greenspace, including parks, gardens, and green infrastructure, consistently demonstrates that marginalized and vulnerable communities have less access to these areas. This chapter overviews environmental injustice research on urban greenspace, examining debates and challenges for researchers and policymakers, and highlighting issues like climate injustice and food insecurity related to environmental inequality.

Hyun‐Kyung Kang, Seung Jun Back · Journal of people, plants, and environment · Global

This study investigated the effect of an urban agriculture experience program on the mental health of seniors over 65, comparing a group participating for over six months with a control group. Using t-tests on stress and depression indices, and physiological disparity, the experiment group showed statistically significantly lower stress scores related to loneliness and health, and much lower depression levels than the control group. Autonomic nervous system analysis also indicated lower stress and normal pulse diversity for the experiment group, suggesting urban agriculture stabilizes sympathetic nerves and activates parasympathetic nerves, increasing stress resistance.

Elżbieta Ura, J Guerra Pedroza, M Torrealba Febres-Cordero, G Buenaño Alviarez · Revista Educación Superior y Sociedad (ESS) · Venezuela (Region de los Valles del Tuy)

This research in Venezuela's Valles del Tuy region addresses socio-spatial conflicts arising from unplanned territorial occupation, despite the region's historical agricultural use. It proposes urban agriculture as an alternative to developmentalism. An action plan was designed using urban agriculture as the primary alternative to developmentalism in the Valles del Tuy region, aiming to establish foundations for socio-ecological system balance guided by the philosophy of 'buen vivir'.

Rawaa Fawzi Naom, Fatima fouad Yaseen · Iraqi Journal of Architecture and Planning · Global

This research explores the concept of urban agriculture within sustainable urban trends, driven by limited green areas, population growth, and neglect of urban landscapes. Through a literature review and analytical study of urban agriculture projects, the study identified contextual linking as a main characteristic and social and cultural uses as the most important functions of urban agriculture spaces. The findings led to the development of a theoretical model for urban agriculture in city landscapes.

Dra. C. Andreína Inés González Ordóñez, MSc. David Zaldumbide, MSc. Javier Solano · · Ecuador (Machala)

This research analyzes the potential of urban agriculture for small entrepreneurs in Canton Machala, El Oro Province, Ecuador, using a documentary review of related literature. Urban agriculture is identified as having economic, social, and environmental benefits, including improved food and nutrition, reduced ecological footprint, and strengthened social fabric. Its implementation can enhance living conditions by providing healthy food, additional income, and improved environmental quality.

Maria Finn · · Sweden (Malmö)

Malmö’s Lot 30:40, a former allotment garden area, has been in a state of decay since the 1990s, largely unmanaged by its owner, Jernhusen AB. This site is used by city residents for recreation, though temporary encampments by homeless people are not permitted. The area is described as an undefined urban space, existing in a fluid state that defies conventional descriptions and offers a disordered yet resilient environment.