How much food can we grow in urban areas? Food production and crop yields of urban agriculture: a meta-analysis

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dc.contributor.authorPayen, Florian Thomas
dc.contributor.authorEvans, Daniel L.
dc.contributor.authorFalagán, Natalia
dc.contributor.authorHardman, Charlotte A.
dc.contributor.authorKourmpetli, Sofia
dc.contributor.authorLiu, Lingxuan
dc.contributor.authorMarshall, Rachel
dc.contributor.authorMead, Bethan R.
dc.contributor.authorDavies, Jessica A. C.
dc.date.accessioned2022-09-13T15:41:19Z
dc.date.available2022-09-13T15:41:19Z
dc.date.issued2022-08-23
dc.description.abstractUrban agriculture can contribute to food security, food system resilience and sustainability at the city level. Whilst studies have examined urban agricultural productivity, we lack systemic knowledge of how agricultural productivity of urban systems compares to conventional agriculture and how productivity varies for different urban spaces (e.g., allotments vs. rooftops vs. indoor farming) and growing systems (e.g., hydroponics vs. soil-based agriculture). Here, we present a global meta-analysis that seeks to quantify crop yields of urban agriculture for a broad range of crops and explore differences in yields for distinct urban spaces and growing systems. We found 200 studies reporting urban crop yields, from which 2,062 observations were extracted. ‘Lettuces and chicories’ were the most studied urban grown crops. We observed high agronomic suitability of urban areas, with urban agricultural yields on par with or greater than global average conventional agricultural yields. ‘Cucumbers and gherkins’ were the category of crops for which differences in yields between urban and conventional agriculture were the greatest (17 kg m-2 cycle-1 vs. 3.8 kg m-2 cycle-1). Some urban spaces and growing systems also had a significant effect on specific crop yields (e.g., tomato yields in hydroponic systems were significantly greater than tomato yields in soil-based systems). This analysis provides a more robust, globally-relevant evidence base on the productivity of urban agriculture that can be used in future research and practice relating to urban agriculture, especially in scaling-up studies aiming to estimate the self-sufficiency of cities and towns and their potential to meet local food demand.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationPayen FT, Evans DL, Falagán N, et al., (2022) How much food can we grow in urban areas? Food production and crop yields of urban agriculture: a meta-analysis. Earth's Future, Volume 10, Issue 8, August 2022, Article number e2022EF002748en_UK
dc.identifier.issn2328-4277
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1029/2022EF002748
dc.identifier.urihttps://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/18442
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherAmerican Geophysical Union (AGU) - Wileyen_UK
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjecturban food growingen_UK
dc.subjectfood securityen_UK
dc.subjectgrowing systemsen_UK
dc.subjecturban spacesen_UK
dc.subjectagricultural productivityen_UK
dc.subjecturban resilienceen_UK
dc.titleHow much food can we grow in urban areas? Food production and crop yields of urban agriculture: a meta-analysisen_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

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