Utilization of the food provisioning service of urban community gardens: Current status, contributors and their social acceptance in Singapore

Abstract

Community gardens (CGs) are a common form of urban green infrastructure with potential to improve urban food security. The characteristics of CGs vary, which may affect the utilization of their food provisioning service. Using the city-state of Singapore as a case study, we examined how CGs’ biophysical characteristics, gardeners’ profiles, and gardening practices may affect the utilization of the CGs’ food provisioning service through in-depth interviews with CG leaders (n = 36). Surveys of non-gardener residents (n = 337) were also conducted to assess if the biophysical characteristics of CGs would affect their social acceptance. The results showed that gardeners’ profiles showed the strongest correlation to the three indicators of the utilization of food provisioning service in CGs—proportion of food crops, gardeners’ tendency to share produce with non-gardeners, and their perceived self-sufficiency level. Although 75% of the species found in the CGs were edible, 60% of the gardeners were not confident that their CGs could be a food source owing to space and manpower constraints. Additionally, non-gardener residents in neighborhoods with older CGs had more positive perceptions of the respective CG's produce. Our results would be useful for urban planners to increase food self-sufficiency by encouraging food production in CGs using sustainable practices.