Potential Economic, Social and Environmental Contribution Study of Urban Agriculture Based on Five Key Features Identified through Past Studies

Arun Kafle (), James Hopeward () and Baden Myers
Additional contact information
Arun Kafle: Sustainable Infrastructure and Resource Management (SIRM), UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia
James Hopeward: Sustainable Infrastructure and Resource Management (SIRM), UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia
Baden Myers: Sustainable Infrastructure and Resource Management (SIRM), UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: Urban agriculture (UA), for recreational (gardening) and or commercial (farming) purposes, is commonly practised around the world, and uptake is increasing globally. There are many claims regarding UA’s social, economic and environmental benefits with scant exploratory research. The overarching objective of this paper is to access the potential economic, social and environmental contribution of UA based on five major features that have previously been shown to be critical to optimising the benefits of UA: area, purpose (gardening or commercial), crop value (mixed, mid to high), mechanisation level (none to partial mechanisation) and market mechanism (retail versus wholesale) based on past studies focusing on Adelaide, Australia and the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Including the reviewed 15 past studies that closely reflect the above five features of UA, most UA research has focused on the social benefits and potential cost savings of growing food in cities, with few studies interrogating its economic viability, employment potential or opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is a clear need to study UA using a systems approach to ensure viability, replicability and sustainability. Real-world case studies focusing on diverse settings will help to characterise key features and corrective actions for improving overall sustainability.

Keywords: urban agriculture; area; purpose; mechanisation; market mechanism; crop (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/10/1920/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/10/1920/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:10:p:1920-:d:1259959

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().