Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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11393 results(72 / 456)
Using the rhizofiltration ability of Colocasia esculenta to mitigate impacts of diuron without affecting its food consumption
2025Pierre‐Alexandre Deyris, Franck Pélissier, Claire M. Grison, Claude Grison · Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances · Global
Herbicide use worldwide has doubled over the past 30 years, and diuron contamination of tropical aquatic ecosystems — affecting food crops such as pineapple — has been reported across Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. This perspective article examines taro (Colocasia esculenta), a widely cultivated crop whose tubers are consumed locally, as a nature-based means of mitigating diuron impact on tropical aquatic ecosystems through rhizofiltration, i.e., phytoaccumulation of the herbicide by the roots. Analysis of treated tubers found that diuron levels in the tuber core were below recommended European standards, indicating the tubers could remain edible for the local population and confirming compatibility with existing food uses.
Contamination & food safetyHealthOrganic cycleEnvironmental Aspects of Participatory Budgeting in Selected Cities in Europe
2025Małgorzata SIEMIONEK-RUSKAŃ, Małgorzata Siemionek · Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism · Europe
This study examines the integration of environmental priorities into participatory budgeting (PB) processes in selected European cities in Poland, Spain, and Portugal, using a qualitative case-study approach supported by literature review and document analysis. Case studies from Warsaw and Gdańsk (Poland), Barcelona and Valencia (Spain), and Lisbon and Porto (Portugal) were analyzed, drawing on academic sources, municipal budget reports, and environmental planning documents to examine how PB in each city has funded projects addressing green infrastructure, waste management, energy efficiency, sustainable transport, and climate adaptation. The study finds that participatory budgeting in these cities has funded projects including community gardens, green roofs, riverbank restoration, and bicycle infrastructure.
PolicyCommunityA Study on the Cultural Community Typology and Sustainability
2025Hyeyung Yoon, N. Lee · · Global
Community activities in which citizens create needed activities in their own region span fields such as welfare, care, urban agriculture, autonomy, and environment, alongside activities organized by groups such as women and youth. This study focuses on the culture, arts, and media field within these community activities, investigating and analyzing cases to build "cultural communities" that activate citizens' cultural engagement and enhance sustainability, categorizing the cases and organizing the characteristics of each type, and proposing specific strategies. It categorizes cultural communities into three types — network-centered, subject-centered, and regional-asset-centered — and proposes measures for revitalization and sustainability: activating networks through weak ties, expanding participants and strengthening solidarity through multi-membership, and diversifying the use of and participation in regional cultural and artistic assets.
CommunityPolicyUrban agriculture as a nature-based solution to foster circularity in cities: the case study of Trikala, Greece
2025Christos Ioannides, Alexandra Tsatsou, Daniel Mamais, Simos Malamis, Georgios Tsimiklis, Dimitra Tsiakou, Z. Tsiropoulos, Mariarina Michailidou, Apostolos Tzourtziotis, Christina Karaberi, Orestis Raptis, Constantinos Noutsopoulos · Urban Water Journal · Europe
This study presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a city-wide pilot of circular urban agriculture across 31 locations in Trikala, Greece. The pilots included rainwater harvesting, precision irrigation, composting, and an online monitoring platform. Assessed through a mixed-methods approach using 20 environmental, economic, and social indicators, the system showed stable technical performance and effectiveness in reducing resource consumption.
Organic cycleClimate changeCommunityPolicyDigital agricultureHonoring Cultural Strength: Navigating Formal & Informal Mutual Aid Among Grandparent Caregivers
2025Gaynell M. Simpson, Wendy Lustbader · Innovation in Aging · Global
This symposium overview highlights cultural assets long relied upon by African American and Latina communities, focused on the formal and informal mutual aid of grandparent caregivers, which it describes as often overlooked or underutilized despite being a vital source of support. It states that historically, underserved grandparents have drawn on mutual aid practices such as neighbors relying on one another, sharing produce from community gardens, exchanging skills and abilities, and standing together with extended families when other societal resources were inaccessible. Four presenters address these themes: Carole Cox presents a virtual empowerment program on skill building, social connection, and empowerment; Nancy Mendoza offers recommendations on how the cultural assets of Latino grandparent caregivers can support their caregiving; Tina Peterson examines mutual aid among African American grandmothers raising grandchildren and how support networks compensate for gaps in formal and informal services; and Gaynell Simpson addresses the need for intergenerational programs and macro-level advocacy to address structural inequalities affecting grandparent caregivers and their families.
CommunityWelfareFood educationHealth“There is No Territory to Sow”: Urban Coloniality of Nature and Muysca Dwelling
2025Paola Andrea Sánchez Castañeda · City & Society · Colombia (Bogotá)
Focusing on the Indigenous Muysca community of Suba in Bogotá, Colombia, this ethnographic study, framed within Participatory Action Research methodology, examines the unique and enduring forms of colonialism that Indigenous communities experience in urban environments. Having had their traditional territories abruptly urbanized, the Muysca experience urban coloniality through mechanisms such as displacement, environmental degradation and epistemicide, while engaging in embodied practices of contestation including language revitalization, urban gardening, and occupation of sacred sites that have become urbanized. The study explores dwelling as an embodied, place-rooted everyday experience to show how the Muysca produce alternative socioecological lifeworlds within the city, and argues that these embodied practices unsettle the logic of urban coloniality of nature that continues to drive Indigenous dispossession.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceOptimizing productive green roofs for urban food self-sufficiency in Amsterdam
2025Pengxuan Xie, José M. Mogollón, Jan Willem Erisman, Valerio Barbarossa · Sustainable Cities and Society · Europe
This study models spatial and temporal crop rotations on Amsterdam's rooftops using planting-structure optimization for crop rotation planning, to assess how much of the city's dietary demand for specific crop groups could be met by productive green roofs. Using average productive green roof crop yields and climatic variability from 2003-2021, it estimates Amsterdam's potential productive green roofs could achieve urban food self-sufficiency of 52% for selected crops (41-54% accounting for climatic and spatial variability), rising to 71% (50-71%) when the planting structure is optimized. Lettuce-broccoli occupies the largest productive green roof area, at roughly 100 hectares, and six vegetable types were found to match well with Amsterdam's dietary requirements.
PolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceComparative Study: Internal Marketing Value of Shallot Hydroponic Performance Using NFT vs. DFT Across Two Growth Periods
2025Ristina Siti Sundari, Depy Muhamad Pauzy, Hary Firmansyah, Arif Arif, Jhon Hardy Purba · Agro Bali Agricultural Journal · Indonesia
Against the backdrop of urban farming as a strategic response to land scarcity and food security challenges in metropolitan areas, this study examined the financial performance and internal marketing value of shallot (Allium cepa var. aggregatum) agribusiness grown hydroponically using Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) and Deep Flow Technique (DFT) systems across two planting cycles. As a case study at P4S Galih Jaya, Indonesia, the quantitative descriptive research combined direct observation, financial documentation review and structured stakeholder interviews, calculating standard agribusiness financial metrics — production output, net income, Benefit-Cost (B/C) ratio and Break-Even Point (BEP) — while internal marketing indicators (employee understanding, decision alignment and motivation) were assessed via pre- and post-cycle surveys. The DFT system in cycle 2 yielded the highest net income (IDR 2,036,725) and B/C ratio (3.6), while the NFT system in cycle 1 incurred a financial loss of IDR 10,155 with a B/C ratio of only 0.9, indicating it was unprofitable. Internal marketing indicators showed clear improvement between periods, and the study concludes that the choice of hydroponic system affects not only profitability but also internal stakeholder engagement.
Economic viabilityDigital agricultureEconomicsLettuce grow in the city
2025Natalia Gerodetti · Visual Studies · South Korea (Seoul)
Focusing on the Muak-dong neighborhood at the foot of Ingwansan mountain in downtown Seoul, South Korea, this piece examines human-plant relationships in a dense urban environment where edible plants inhabit various growing spaces alongside residents. Building on the recognition that growing food locally can be part of socio-environmental justice pathways through walkable urban environments, urban agriculture and food waste recycling, it argues that these spatial practices also constitute social infrastructure, providing places and means for interaction, exchange and sharing. While many cities have fragmented growing activities and scattered edible plants, the Muak-dong network and its diverse modes of food cultivation are described as extraordinary, forming a literal pathway — exemplified by a map for an urban vegetable walk — that binds together urban green space, edible plants, a fertiliser station and people. The contribution focuses on the visual presence of plants in this cityscape, specifically lettuce, to demonstrate the possibilities food cultivation affords in one of the most dense and contested environments.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceThe imaginaries of urban agriculture and a livable city shaping Bangkok’s urban governance and design
2025Chanatporn Limprapoowiwattana, Carl Middleton, Orapan Pratomlek, Marvin Joseph F. Montefrio · Journal of Urban Affairs · Asia
This paper examines the multiple urban imaginaries produced through five types of urban agriculture (UA) in Bangkok, Thailand, drawing on a co-production-of-urban-imaginaries lens to analyze how the material and immaterial dimensions of UA — through practices, knowledge production, networking and values — contribute to reimagining the future of a livable city. It identifies compatibilities and tensions among UA network imaginaries for a livable city and how these shape urban design and planning, arguing that addressing these tensions to advance equality and justice requires more ambitious, multilayered UA policy achieved through deepened participatory and critical anticipatory governance.
CommunityPolicyEnvironmental and Nutritional Benefits of Rooftop Gardening in Dhaka City for Promoting Sustainable Development Goals 2, 3, 11, 12, and 13
2025Jannatul Nayma Bona, Md. Zaki Faisal, Durjoy Hur, Saniya Afrin Swarna, Md. Muntaseer Al Mamun · Agriculture Archives. · Asia
In the Dhanmondi and Mohammadpur areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh, a mixed-methods study of 100 randomly selected rooftop gardeners drawn from a target population of 250 used structured interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews between March and May 2024 to examine the environmental and nutritional benefits of rooftop gardening (RTG). 49% of respondents perceived moderate environmental benefits and 25% perceived high benefits, with increased rooftop vegetation (mean perception index 245), reduced indoor temperatures and improved biodiversity as ecological outcomes. On nutrition, 65% reported significant benefits, 63% reported healthier dietary habits and 75% reported meeting a substantial share of their vegetable needs through rooftop cultivation; both environmental and nutritional benefits correlated positively with respondents' education level (r=0.628 and r=0.544) and gardening experience (r=0.946 and r=0.532) at the 1% significance level. Over half of participants, however, cited limited technical knowledge (perception index 231), seasonal water scarcity, high input costs and pest management difficulties as challenges.
BiodiversityHealthClimate changeagriCHEMture: An Innovative Approach in Enhancing Students’ General Chemistry Achievement Through Remote Urban Gardening-Themed Laboratory Work
2025Jeremias Pineda, Armando M. Guidote · International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education · Global
A quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest study tested whether agriCHEMture, a home-based, urban-gardening-themed e-learning laboratory material, improved General Chemistry achievement among remote-learning high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifty-one senior high school General Chemistry students received the agriCHEMture intervention between a pretest and posttest, and paired-samples t-tests (p < 0.001) showed post-test scores significantly higher than pretest scores, indicating a significant increase in chemistry achievement.
Food educationCommunityThe Relationship between Post-harvest Operation and Marketing Channels for Field Vegetable Management in Urban Agriculture: A Case Study of Welsh Onion Cultivation in Chiba Prefecture
2025Takashi Shimofuji, Motoi Kusadokoro, Atsushi Chitose · Journal of Rural Problems · Japan
A case study of Welsh onion cultivation in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, used interview surveys of farm management and marketing channels in urban and remote areas to clarify how a farmer's choice of shipping destination in urban agriculture relates to cultivation size and post-harvest working hours. Urban farmers chose different marketing channels depending on cultivation size, and this flexibility produced differences in post-harvest work systems and in work efficiency measured as shipping quantity per work hour, whereas in remote areas cooperative shipping dominated, leaving fewer shipping options and smaller efficiency disparities among farmers. Urban agriculture's access to diverse shipping destinations let farmers select options based on production scale, which raised work efficiency for large-scale farmers in particular.
EconomicsCommunityUrban–rural linkageSPATIAL RECONFIGURATION THROUGH EDIBLE URBAN FARMING: DESIGNING SOCIAL INTERACTION SPACES IN VERTICAL URBAN KAMPONG
2025Mona ANGGIANI, Rr Diana AYUDYA, Nadia R. CHRISTANTIA, Endah MUSTIKOWATI, Annizar BACHRI, Andhi Seto PRASETYO, Gentina P. PUTRA, Asri A. SUNOTO, Ikhyandini G. ATRISYANTI · ICCD · Indonesia
In Kampung Kunir, a vertical urban kampong in Indonesia, an initiative introduced edible gardens through vegetable planting into underused, functionless common spaces to revive them as sites for residents' daily social interaction. The community engagement effort, driven by interdisciplinary collaboration between architecture and economic management, is reported as aiming to improve spatial use and strengthen social ties among residents.
CommunityMicrogreens: Alternatif Konsumsi Sayur Bergizi dan Praktik Budidaya Ramah Lingkungan di Lingkungan Rumah Tangga: Review
2025Ratna Suminar, Nyang Vania Ayuningtyas Harini, Gian Sapta Andrialin · Journal of Agriculture and Animal Science · Indonesia
Against a backdrop of low vegetable consumption in Indonesia and rising demand for environmentally friendly urban farming solutions, a systematic literature review of sources published between 2016 and 2024 — accredited journals, reference books and research reports — examined the nutrient and bioactive-compound content of microgreens, their health benefits, and their potential for cultivation at scales including the household. It found that microgreens are high in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, have a short harvest period and low land requirements, that technologies such as LED lighting, growing media and seed quality strongly affect cultivation success, and that challenges remain in distribution and product shelf life.
Food educationHealthCommunityOrganic cycleMainstreaming Low-Cost Hydroponics Using Fermented Plant Juice for Sustainable Lettuce Production in Urban Farming
2025Zandra Anciano Quirante, Eric Randy R. Politud · International Journal of Multidisciplinary Applied Business and Education Research · Philippines
A mixed-methods study assessed the viability of a low-cost hydroponic system using locally sourced Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) as an organic input for lettuce production aimed at food security in the Zamboanga Peninsula, Philippines, examining acceptability, growth performance and economic feasibility. Estrosa and Olmetie lettuce varieties showed the best growth performance; nitrate was undetectable in Estrosa and Green Wave, while Olmetie and Invicta absorbed more nitrate with FPJ use, though all levels stayed within international safety limits and cadmium was not detected, while limited technical knowledge, material access and capital were identified as barriers to adoption.
Food sovereignty & justiceEconomicsCommunityThinking through the Ground
2025Cassandra Tytler · · Global
A book chapter examines the intersection of place-based art practices, ecological attunement and relational wellbeing through Think Like a Worm, a project using multisensory, embodied approaches that transformed a community garden into a sensory art space. Drawing on feminist and anti-colonial scholarship, it argues for a "politics of location" that acknowledges inequities in environmental impacts and knowledge production.
CommunityBiodiversitySociotechnical., Demographic, Material and Environmental Mapping of the Vegetable Production System in the City of Sahr, Chad: Challenges and Opportunities
2025TAMTIAL Ngariban, Nguinambaye Mberdoum Memti, Alhadj Markhous Nazal, Mansour Hassane, Touroumgaye Goalbaye · Journal of Experimental Agriculture International · Africa
In Sarh, Chad, a questionnaire-based survey using semi-structured interviews of 147 urban market gardeners was conducted from February to April 2025, the favorable period for market gardening, to document the practice of urban agriculture and its role in the city's sustainable development. Of the gardeners surveyed, 84.35% were men and 15.65% women with an average age of 33; the roughly 122,640 m² devoted to market gardening across three sites was worked mostly in small plots, with 63.6% of gardeners farming less than 500 m², and land was accessed mainly through inheritance (51.02%) or occupation of public land (22.45%), with 15 vegetable species across 13 genera and 8 families grown, dominated by leafy vegetables, particularly lettuce at 47% of total production. Market gardening in Sarh continues to face constraints including land insecurity, gardeners' low level of technical expertise, and difficulty obtaining agricultural inputs.
CommunityEconomics“We’re Really Bad About Our Vegetables in This House”: Understanding Barriers of and Facilitators to Improving Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Patrons of a Hybrid Food and Resource Center and Community Garden
2025Sarah Corcoran, Rachael Condley, Rachel A Liebe, Tuba Khan, Jillian Joyce, Deana Hildebrand, Ashlea Braun · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · United States (California)
At a hybrid food and resource center with an attached community garden in California, USA, a longitudinal, sequential explanatory mixed-methods study of 30 patrons (mean age 45.9, 73.3% women) combined quantitative measures (survey and skin carotenoids) with qualitative semi-structured interviews to examine barriers to and facilitators of fruit and vegetable intake. Skin carotenoid levels, a biomarker of fruit and vegetable intake, were largely unchanged before and after (P = .51); among the 26 participants interviewed, facilitators cited included perceptions of quality and alignment with health goals, while barriers included mental health and competing priorities, leading to the conclusion that programs aiming to improve fruit and vegetable intake should prioritize non-diet determinants.
Limited or null effectHealthFood educationCommunityWelfareThe Political Ecology of Collective Urban Gardening
2025Ioana Florea · · Global
This chapter finds that while collective urban gardening projects represent forms of resistance against market-based food systems, the precarization of urban natures, and real-estate dominance, their everyday practices often fail to deliver on these ideals and intentions, generating incomplete, contradictory, or temporary results. It proposes a heuristic frame linking space, time, and class to review prior urban-gardening research from a political-ecology perspective, tracing how space's materiality, time embedded in plant growth, and class differences conditioning gardeners' access to space and time produce these contradictions.
Limited or null effectCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceA agricultura urbana e a natureza no/do planejamento urbano
2025Yago Evangelista Tavares de Souza, Heloísa Soares de Moura Costa · Coleção Estudos Cariocas · Brazil
This article examines the evolution of urban-planning policy regarding nature and urban agriculture, from federal legislative texts to Rio de Janeiro's municipal master plans, analyzing documents including the 1976 draft Urban Development Law and the 1979 Federal Land Subdivision Law No. 6766. It traces decades of changes and revisions to show how legislation and public policy shaped the urban environment in relation to nature and agriculture, and it discusses the challenges small farmers face amid urbanization along with environmental approaches within the master plans.
PolicyCommunityClimate changeHydroponics - A Solution for Sustainable Urban Agriculture: A Comparative Study on Plant Growth and Resource Consumption
2025Luciana Daniela Portella Carreño, Carla-Maria Strejanțu, Florica Morariu, Dumitru Popescu, Eugen Cătălin Zoican · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Global
This study compared the growth performance of basil (Ocimum basilicum) grown in a hydroponic system versus a conventional soil-based environment over a six-week period under controlled conditions in a small plastic greenhouse. Measuring plant height, leaf number, and total water consumption, it found that hydroponically grown basil showed faster growth, required significantly less water, and had healthier leaf structures with fewer visible defects than the soil-grown basil.
Food sovereignty & justiceEconomicsClimate changeUrban gardening activities and nutrition education through board games improved knowledge related to vegetables and fruits among girls and overweight children in Malaysian primary school: a pilot study
2025Zahara Abdul Manaf, Louise Tee, Nurul Mirza Mohamad Shah, Siti Hajar Mohammad, Abdul Arieffarid Abdul Wahid · Journal of Health Population and Nutrition · Malaysia
This quasi-experimental study involved 72 ten-year-old children at a primary school in the Klang Valley, Malaysia, recruited by convenience sampling. The intervention group received a two-month program combining a talk on fruits and vegetables, educational gardening, cooking activities, and an educational board game, while the control group received only a dietitian's talk on fruits and vegetables. Height and weight were measured to calculate BMI, and changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices around fruit and vegetable consumption were measured with a self-administered structured questionnaire. Knowledge and awareness improved significantly among girls in the intervention group (p = 0.010) but not among boys (p = 0.272), and knowledge improved significantly among overweight and obese participants (p = 0.033) but not among those with normal or underweight BMI (p = 0.215). Attitude (p = 0.980) and practice (p = 0.233) toward fruit and vegetable consumption showed no statistically significant improvement after the intervention.
Food educationHealthCommunityURBAN AGRICULTURE: A PATHWAY TO SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT
2025Nurulanis Ahmad, Zarita Ahmad Baharum, Yasmin Mohd Adnan, Nor Nazihah Chuweni · PLANNING MALAYSIA · Malaysia
This study qualitatively explored stakeholders' perspectives on urban agriculture (UA) toward sustainable urban development in Malaysia, using semi-structured interviews grounded in stakeholder theory. It drew on 15 stakeholders selected from different authority levels -- the Department of Agriculture Malaysia and PLANMalaysia at the federal level, the Department of Agriculture Perak at the state level, Subang Jaya City Council at the local level, private property managers, and academicians -- who were top management, practitioners, and officers with relevant background in urban agriculture, urban planning, and real estate. The findings produced a framework of action plans centred on social, economic, environmental, policy, and technological-innovation dimensions, intended to guide policymakers and urban planners in developing action plans for advancing UA toward sustainable urban development.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsHealth risk assessment and bioaccumulation of heavy metals in leafy vegetables irrigated with wastewater in Zawaciki, Kano State, Nigeria
2025Abubakar Mohd Habu, Ali Sanusi Hassan, Adeniyi Olarewaju Adeleye, Michael Edet Nkereuwem, Ijanu Emmanuel Madu, Garba Barde Bate, Olukemi Adeleye, Usman Mohammed Isah · Biological Environment and Pollution · Nigeria
This study assessed heavy-metal accumulation and non-carcinogenic health risks in commonly consumed leafy vegetables -- lettuce, spinach, and cabbage -- cultivated with wastewater in Zawaciki, Kano State, Nigeria. Vegetable and rhizospheric soil samples were analyzed for cadmium, lead, chromium, nickel, zinc, and copper using atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were calculated as the ratio of metal levels in plant tissue to soil. Metal concentrations varied significantly across the vegetables (p < 0.05), with lead in lettuce leaves exceeding the FAO/WHO permissible limit by more than 120 times; chromium in cabbage reached 32.22 mg/kg, while lettuce showed elevated zinc (19.83 mg/kg) and copper (9.26 mg/kg). Hazard-quotient risk assessments found HQs for chromium and lead both exceeding 1, and the cumulative hazard index exceeded 1 for all vegetables, reaching its highest value of 18.861 in lettuce.
Contamination & food safetyHealth