Promoting Urban Agriculture and Its Opportunities and Challenges—A Global Review

Chethika Gunasiri Wadumestrige Dona,Kensuke Fukushi,Geetha Mohan

doi:10.3390/su13179609

Abstract

Multifunctionality of urban agriculture can support the resolve of many urban challenges. Therefore, it is vital to understand the contribution of academic studies on urban agriculture practices as scientific information. The present study followed a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA method. Finally, 54 identified articles were analyzed. The review study mainly examined the contribution of academic literature on urban agriculture under four dimensions: the socio-economic context of the country, type of agriculture model, opportunities, and challenges. The results revealed the focus of academic literature on urban agriculture to show favoritism toward developed countries’ community gardens. Moreover, the leading academic focus on this discipline identifies multifunctionality. People’s motivations in developed countries tend to favor social, health-related, and educational benefits of urban agriculture; however, in developing countries, urban agriculture is more related to economic and ecological needs. Challenges for urban agriculture are also different among developed and developing countries. Nevertheless, existing academic studies have given comparatively less attention to identifying challenges, benefit groups of urban agriculture, and government support. Since urban agriculture is highly reliant on local factors, studying more about opportunities and challenges for urban agriculture under different socio-economic contexts and different agriculture models could be more beneficial to connect farming practices in cities with urban planning. Therefore, to make an adequate academic contribution to urban sustainability, future urban agriculture studies need to be more holistic.

Highlights

Urban Agriculture (UA) is “a permanent and dynamic part of the urban socioeconomic and ecological system, using typical urban resources, competing for land and water with other urban functions, influenced by urban policies and plans, and contributing to urban social and economic development” [1]
One article included urban agriculture tioned agriculture practices related to a single country
The present review depicts that the academic contribution to urban agriculture could be evaluated based on the focus on urban agriculture types, socio-economic context of the country, identification of opportunities, and challenges

Summary

Introduction

Urban Agriculture (UA) is “a permanent and dynamic part of the urban socioeconomic and ecological system, using typical urban resources, competing for land and water with other urban functions, influenced by urban policies and plans, and contributing to urban social and economic development” [1]. Agriculture has four main functions in cities: subsistence, economics, recreation, and community building [2]. More than growing food in the city, urban agriculture is linked with economic, social, ecological, and physical infrastructure components of the urban environment [3]. The multifunctionality of agriculture is the additional function of agriculture other than food and fiber production [6], which has been widely used by sustainable agricultural research and policymaking [7]. There is a growing body of academic literature on urban agriculture and urban sustainability [8]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion