Research & reports

Johannesburg urban agriculture research collective · AIMS Press Urban Ecology & Sustainability Series · South Africa

Empirical study of household and shared community gardens in Johannesburg's underserved urban neighborhoods; demonstrates food security, nutrition, income, and climate resilience benefits of citizen-led urban farming.

Oshaba Patience Chizoba, Chinedu Augustine Igwenagu · Path of Science · Nigeria

A survey of 222 households and interviews in Enugu State, Nigeria, showed that urban agriculture (UA) is a critical coping strategy for food availability. However, UA perpetuates gendered inequalities as a "patriarchal bargain," where women's expanded reproductive labor does not necessarily lead to improved economic empowerment. Furthermore, UA strongly promotes bonding social capital but does not foster bridging social capital with formal institutions, thereby undermining its transformative potential.

Nthabeleng Tamako, Joyce Chitja · Agriculture & Food Security · South Africa

This study examined the impact of climate change on urban food gardens in Sobantu and Mpophomeni townships in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Face-to-face interviews with 103 randomly selected participants revealed that climate change disproportionately affects resource-limited urban farmers, leading to erratic rainfall, pests, and natural disasters. Elevated temperatures, shifting weather patterns, and new pests and diseases significantly impact food gardens, affecting seed and crop selection and contributing to food insecurity.

Louis Lategan, Charné Erasmus · REAL CORP Repository (University of Southampton) · South Africa (Cape Town)

This qualitative study, using semi-systematic literature reviews, explored strategies targeting homelessness with urban agriculture (UA) in Cape Town, South Africa. The research found that very few published case studies link UA and homelessness in developing contexts, and information on such strategies in Cape Town remains limited despite its substantial homeless population. In the global South, UA approaches largely prioritize food security, poverty alleviation, and entrepreneurship.

Never Assan, Justice Sibanda, Betty Mukuwapasi, Reason Rumbidzai Charachimwe, Edmore Masama · Journal of Frontiers in Multidisciplinary Research · Sub-Saharan Africa

Urban animal agriculture (UAA) in Sub-Saharan Africa is presented as a solution for food security but faces challenges including gender inequality, climate change, inadequate legislation, and environmental degradation. While UAA aims to enhance household food security and alleviate poverty, it also encounters environmental issues such as resource competition, water resource strain, improper manure management, greenhouse gas emissions, noise, and nuisance. Sustainable UAA requires semi-intensive silvopastoral and mixed crop and livestock systems to reduce environmental impact and enhance local food production.

Azeb Gebreegziabher Zeru, Aregawi Beyene Bsrat, Zenebe Abraha Kahsay, Tsahaynesh Hagos, Yahansu Girmay, Guesh Endrias, Gebremedhin Mamoy Hadush, Abrhaley Redae, Abrhaley Gebrehiwot, Wolie Gebremicheal · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Ethiopia (Mekelle)

In Mekelle City, Ethiopia, 264 households adopted urban vegetable production as a survival strategy during the Tigray War (2020–2022). Household survey data analyzed using propensity score matching showed that participation in urban vegetable production was strongly associated with poverty reduction. Vegetable producers exhibited relatively low poverty incidence, depth, and severity, suggesting that urban vegetables served as a critical resilience mechanism for households.

R.M. MATHOBELA, O.C. Chikwanha, C.L.F. Katiyatiya, A.H. Molotsi, M.C. Marufu, P.E. Strydom, C. Mapiye · Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir landbouvoorligting/South African journal of agricultural extension · South Africa

A survey of 160 pig farmers in five suburbs of the Cape Metropole District, South Africa, analyzed the impact of socio-economic factors on marketing practices and challenges. Key challenges included slow pig growth rates (54% of respondents), scarcity of production inputs (25%), and difficulty finding marketing information (20%). The study found that women, older farmers, and those with less experience or education were more likely to face challenges and fail to adopt sustainable marketing practices.

Human Sciences Research Council · Human Science Research Council SA · South Africa

This article explores how urban women participate in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA), the constraints they face, and the policy support they need, using evidence from a sample of farming projects around the Cape Metropolitan Area. Urban women farmers primarily access land through social networking and work collectively. Almost all projects engage in in-kind donations to schools and HIV/AIDS patients, with women-only projects distributing 25% of their output as social responsibility.

Meron Worku, Michelle Holdsworth, Marie T. Ruel, Ana Irache, Kaleab Baye, M Catherine Spires, Nicolas Bricas, Rebecca Pradeilles · Maternal and Child Nutrition · Africa

A Photovoice study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, had women of reproductive age photograph challenges to healthy diets for themselves and their children under five, then discussed the images in five focus groups (n=31 women) split by lower and higher socioeconomic status, analyzed with hybrid deductive-inductive thematic coding. Financial and physical barriers to accessing healthy food, time constraints and perceived poor food safety were major shared contributors to poor diets; lower-SES women also cited limited nutrition knowledge, inadequate family support and poor home food environments, while higher-SES women cited unhealthy food preferences combined with easy access to and aggressive promotion of unhealthy foods. Proposed solutions included government-level measures (job creation, nutrition education, affordable healthy food, household infrastructure investment, expanded childcare, restrictions on unhealthy-food promotion) and societal-level measures (gender equality, community-based loan schemes, and support for urban agriculture).

Alene F.D., Aga M.A. · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 9:1444320 · Ethiopia

This case study in Addis Ababa's Kirkos sub-city examines urban agriculture's role in household food security, finding 48.2% of respondents food secure and about a third reporting urban agriculture helped meet their daily food needs.

African Urban Gardening Research Network · National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI/PMC) · Sub-Saharan Africa

Systematic review of 47 peer-reviewed studies across sub-Saharan Africa (2000–2025) showing urban gardens support ecological functions including pollination, soil fertility, and microclimate regulation.

Kassa Moges Tareke · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)

This study examined the impact of conditional cash transfers (CTs) from a safety net program on financial inclusion, urban agriculture participation, and food security among 278 women beneficiaries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, since 2017. After receiving CTs, 94% of respondents owned bank accounts and participated in urban agriculture as an additional income source, improving access to savings, credit, mobile banking, financial advice, and farm incomes. However, 61.5% (171) of women households were food insecure, indicating that while the program moderately improved financial inclusion and slightly increased food-secured women, its overall contribution to food security remains inadequate.

Katie Schofield, Jacqueline Fanta, William Kolong Pioth, Alissa Cook, Samuel Owuor, Cherie Enns · Youth · Kenya

This youth-led study, involving 40 South Sudanese urban refugees (aged 19-32) in Kenya, mapped food supply chains and identified barriers to procuring, growing, and selling food. Findings indicate that improving the quality of life and food security for refugee youth is complex. Without education and improved livelihoods, including urban agricultural opportunities, their health and wellbeing will continue to be negatively affected.

Abdulrazaq Kamal Daudu, S. A. Aderinoye-Abdulwahab, Oyedola Waheed Kareem, Alhassan Abdul‐Wakeel Karakara, Latifat Kehinde Olatinwo, Halimah Olayinka Egbewole · Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship · Nigeria (Southwest Nigeria)

This study surveyed 420 urban farming households in Southwest Nigeria to explore how gender influences access to e-logistics platforms and their impact on farm sales. Findings revealed significant gender gaps, with male-headed households more likely to use and benefit from e-logistics than female-headed households. Women faced additional constraints like limited credit and mobility, and while e-logistics improved overall farm sales and benefited poorer farmers relatively more, gains for women remained smaller than for men.

M. Elusaiwe, K. Atusa, Kanya Hilary · Asian Journal of Agricultural and Horticultural Research · Nigeria

This study investigated the efficiency of agricultural extension agents in promoting urban gardening among 250 respondents in 10 urban areas across two local government areas in Delta State, Nigeria. Findings revealed that most urban farmers, predominantly female civil servants, married women, or widows, were not visited by extension agents, nor were they encouraged to use growth media or form agricultural societies.

Abiola Adebunmi Olarinre · International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science · Nigeria

This research surveyed 240 households in Osogbo, Ile-Ife, and Ilesa cities in Osun State, Nigeria, to analyze urban household food security and coping mechanisms. Findings showed that only 17.9% of households achieved food security, with 39.6% experiencing moderate and 16.3% severe food insecurity. Household income, education, household size, credit access, and food expenditure share significantly influenced food security.

Katuka, Stephen Agire, Magaji, Sule, Ismail, Yahaya · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Nigeria (Abuja)

This study analyzed the impact of rising food prices on the food security of different socio-economic groups in Abuja, Nigeria, using a cross-sectional survey of 400 households. Findings revealed that only 18% of households were food secure, while 56% experienced moderate to severe food insecurity. Food price inflation had a significant negative effect on food security, particularly among low-income households. Rising food prices were shown to increase the likelihood of mild, moderate, and severe food insecurity by 53%, 88%, and 132%, respectively.

Kurt Ackermann, Tamsin Faragher · CABI climate change series. · South Africa (Cape Town)

A three-year case study of the Langa Agrihub in Cape Town, South Africa, supports a network of over 250 urban farmers comprising more than 30 food gardens. The Agrihub provides inputs, infrastructure, knowledge exchange, and market connections, serving as a platform for civic participation, social cohesion, and local agency. This chapter states that the primary value of community food gardens lies in enabling communities to mitigate and adapt to intersecting stresses, including economic marginalisation, environmental degradation, and infrastructure shortcomings like water scarcity.

Kejela Gnamura, Michael Akwasi Antwi, A Belete · Land · Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)

This mixed-methods study investigated the effects of urbanization-induced displacement on economic capital security by comparing 223 evicted and 223 non-evicted peri-urban farming households in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Logistic regression and thematic content analysis revealed that evicted households are approximately 72.7% less likely to achieve economic security compared to non-evicted households. The study concluded significant differences in household economic capital security between the two groups.

Human 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.

Tinashe P. Kanosvamhira · Geo Geography and Environment · South Africa

This study examines how community gardens in Cape Town's marginalised Cape Flats area enact spatial justice through everyday practices, drawing on Henri Lefebvre's social production of space and its spatial triad -- perceived, conceived and lived space. Based on semi-structured interviews with representatives of 34 community gardens and state actors, supplemented by documentary analysis of planning and policy frameworks, it finds that gardeners physically transform neglected land into perceived spaces of cultivation despite insecure tenure and limited infrastructure (water access, soil quality), negotiate and subvert top-down planning by repurposing school grounds and municipal reserves as conceived space, and sustain memory and identity as lived space through crops, seed exchanges and collective action -- while persistent challenges of tenure precarity, resource scarcity and competing land-use pressures threaten each garden's longevity.

Byamungu Lincoln Zabuloni, Maxwell Mudhara, Joyce Chitja · Food and Energy Security · South Africa

A study assessing the impact of home- and community-garden programs on household food security status in uMzumbe Local Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, using random and purposive sampling to survey 223 respondents with a structured questionnaire and a Tobit regression model to examine determinants. Total income (p<0.001), extension services (p<0.01), credit access (p<0.05), age, farm size (p<0.01) and education level (p<0.05) positively affected food security status, while household size (p<0.001), home gardens (p<0.01) and community gardens (p<0.01) negatively affected it. The study concludes that implementing home and community garden programs alone was not enough to improve households' food security status in uMzumbe Municipality.

Tatenda Sukulao, Ansley Nonsikelelo Tshugulu, Noel Garikai Muridzo, Mziwandile Sobantu · Discover Food · Africa

A study analyzing food-insecurity coping strategies among community members in Ward 10, Mudzi District, a rural area of north-eastern Zimbabwe. Using an African Centred Research Methodology, data were collected from a purposive sample of 10 participants and analyzed through advanced manual analysis. The study found that planting drought-resistant crops, community gardens, seeking piece jobs, selling valuable assets, and borrowing money and food were the coping strategies employed by community members.

Mayowa R. Opeagbe, MPH, B.Tech, B.Tech Feranmi R. Olawoore, B.Tech Stephen O Ayankoso · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Nigeria

A mixed-methods study combining an extensive literature review with a structured survey of 120 respondents across major Nigerian urban areas, assessing demographic factors, farming practices, the effects of urban agriculture (UA) on food security and the environment, and the challenges limiting its practice. 58.3% of respondents practiced urban farming, primarily through container and backyard gardening. About 62.5% reported increased access to fresh produce. The most cited environmental advantages were reduced waste (54.2%) and improved air quality. Limiting factors included limited space (50.0%), expensive inputs (45.8%), inadequate access to water (37.5%), and low levels of institutional support. 83.3% of respondents were willing to see UA incorporated into urban planning, and 75.0% favored UA in school programs. The paper describes UA in Nigeria as partially unexploited due to weak policy attention and a lack of infrastructural base, and recommends that policymakers integrate UA into urbanization, land and resource access, and institutional and educational support.

Karen Botes, Christina Breed · Land · South Africa

In the Melusi informal settlement of Tshwane, South Africa, researchers used a mixed-methods approach -- semi-structured questionnaires, focus group interviews, and photo-elicitation, analyzed with SPSS and Atlas.ti -- to examine socio-cultural perceptions of modular living wall systems planted with African vegetables as a way to enhance household food security. Key barriers to urban agriculture identified included high maintenance costs, pest control problems, spatial constraints, exposure to extreme weather, and limited access to water and fertilizer, while the community supported living walls with African vegetable crops for their space-saving and biophilic value, with success depending on low-tech, cost-effective, modular systems built from recycled materials using nutrient-dense, compact crops.