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

Knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of farmers towards urban agroecology in Malaysia

Adopting agroecological approaches to build resilient urban food systems has recently gained traction around the world, but there is little to no reliable literature on the knowledge, attitudes, and perspectives of urban farmers towards these nature-based solutions in many developing nations, including Malaysia. The present study conducted an online survey to determine the extent to which local urban farmers understand and employ agroecology, as well as to assess their awareness and views on using agroecological practices and sustainable farm management. We found that the majority of respondents are unfamiliar with agroecological principles, with 79 % agreeing or strongly agreeing that implementing sustainable agricultural practices is challenging. However, more than 90 % of respondents are aware of the environmental consequences of excessive input utilisation. Our findings highlight the need for improved initiatives to promote agroecological approaches among farmers by sharing knowledge and best practices. In light of the growing threat posed by urban heat islands and the rapid urbanisation, this study offers novel insights into the knowledge gaps and perceptions about agroecological approaches among urban farmers, challenges that must be addressed to promote sustainable agriculture, and the potential role of farmers in achieving the three fundamental pillars of sustainability-planet, people, and prosperity.

Linking policies and regulations to sustainable finance for the promotion of urban agriculture: Evidence from micro and small businesses

Urban agriculture is closely tied to several of the Sustainable Development Goals. It can play a critical role in helping to achieve these goals by promoting sustainable food production and consumption, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and creating more sustainable cities. It is also considered a pathway for overcoming food security in urban areas. However, this needs to be integrated with policies and regulations supported by sustainable finance. Due to COVID-19, conflict, and lack of infrastructure in Ethiopia, several challenges must be addressed to promote urban agriculture to aid food security. Hence, this study is conducted to examine how government policies and regulations promote urban agriculture through sustainable finance in Ethiopia. The study employed both an explanatory research design and a mixed research approach. Multi-stage sampling techniques that include (Simple random sampling techniques and judgmental sampling were used. The data was collected from selected micro and small enterprises engaged in urban agriculture. The structural and measurement model is estimated with the help of smart-pls software version 4. The study's finding implies that government policies and regulations have an insignificant effect on urban agriculture. At the same time, the study finding implies that sustainable finance has an important mediating role between urban agriculture and government policies. Hence, the impact of government policies and regulations on urban agriculture is found to have an indirect effect. Based on the study's findings, the study recommends that all stakeholders promote innovation and entrepreneurship that promote urban agriculture through sustainable finance.

Challenges to Promote Sustainability in Urban Agriculture Models: A Review

Urban agriculture (UA) can be used as an action to promote sustainability in cities and inform public health policies for urban populations. Despite this growing recognition, its implementation still presents challenges in countries in the Global North and Global South.

BACKGROUND

In this context, this systematic review aims to identify the development of frameworks for the implementation of UA as a sustainable action and its main opportunities and shortcomings in meeting urban socio-environmental demands.

METHODS

In this review, using the PRISMA protocol, we evaluated 26 studies on the interplay between UA and sustainability surveyed on the Web of Science to provide an overview of the state of the art.

CONCLUSIONS

In summary, it was possible to identify many key challenges in UA adoption, which regard air and soil contamination, availability of green areas, layout of urban infrastructure, food distribution, among others. Due to numerous socio-economic and environmental contextual factors in cities, especially when comparing realities of the Global North and Global South, there is a need to develop a model that can be adaptable to these different contexts. Thus, it is recognized that the concept of sustainability does not present a universal understanding and that in its search it could be argued that one of the most important gaps is still to address social issues in relation to environmental ones.

Exploring urban green packages as part of Nature-based Solutions for climate change adaptation measures in rapidly growing cities of the Global South

Given a lot of elusive information on the use and implementation of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in the Global South, this review provides a synthesis of the evidence on the: - (1) distribution of urban green technologies in form of arboriculture and urban agriculture as a part of NbS packages for the sustainability of cities against population growth and impact of climate change; and (2) options of integrating and mainstreaming various NbS packages into city development policies, planning processes, and decision-making agendas. The sustainability of urban green as part of NbS packages and the usefulness for improvement of livelihoods is determined by the spatial (geographical location) and temporal (time of action) scales, and socio-ecological and institutional factors. Various NbS packages have shown the ability for use as climate change adaptation measures throughout the world. These functions include protection from soil erosion, protection from inland flooding, buffering natural resources against drier and more variable climates, protection from coastal hazards and sea-level rise, moderation of urban heatwaves and effects of heat island, and managing storm-water and flooding in urban areas. Furthermore, the benefits of urban agriculture and arboriculture include use as sources of food and generation of income; improve recreation and social interactions, and the sustainability of biodiversity. They also mitigate the impact of environmental pollution and climate change through reduction of gas emissions and act as carbon sinks. While the starting capital and lack of policy on urban agriculture and arboriculture in many countries, the importance of the industry is inevitably a useful agenda especially in the Global South due to vulnerability to the impact of climate change. This review also suggests the inclusion of all institutions, governments, and relevant stakeholders to emphasize gender sensitization at all levels of planning and decision-making in food production and adaptation measures to climate change.