Urban agriculture matters for sustainable development

Prajal Pradhan; Daya Raj Subedi; Kshitij Dahal; Yuanchao Hu; Prakriti Gurung; Sijal Pokharel; Sagar Kafle; Biplav Khatri; Sudeeksha Basyal; Monika Gurung; Aruna Joshi

doi:10.1016/j.crsus.2024.100217

Urban agriculture matters for sustainable development

Cell Rep Sustain. 2024 Sep 27;1(9):100217. doi: 10.1016/j.crsus.2024.100217.

Authors

Prajal Pradhan^{1

2}, Daya Raj Subedi^{3

4}, Kshitij Dahal⁵, Yuanchao Hu^{2

6}, Prakriti Gurung⁷, Sijal Pokharel⁷, Sagar Kafle^{8

9}, Biplav Khatri¹⁰, Sudeeksha Basyal¹¹, Monika Gurung¹¹, Aruna Joshi¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Integrated Research on Energy, Environment & Society (IREES), Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen (ESRIG), University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
² Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, P.O. Box 60 12 03, 14412 Potsdam, Germany.
³ MU Institute of Cooperation and Development (MICD), Mid-West University (MU), Nayabato, Lalitpur, Nepal.
⁴ School of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, No. 35 Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China.
⁵ School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
⁶ School of Resources & Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China.
⁷ United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Kathmandu, Nepal.
⁸ Department of Biosystems Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
⁹ Department of Agricultural Engineering, Purwanchal Campus, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Gangalal Marg, Dharan 56700, Koshi Province, Nepal.
¹⁰ Ministry of Urban Development, Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal.
¹¹ Natural Hazards Section, Himalayan Risk Research Institute, Bhaktapur, Nepal.

Abstract

Urban agriculture can contribute to sustainable development. However, a holistic investigation is lacking to comprehend its positive and negative impacts on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our systematic analysis of around 1,450 relevant publications on urban agriculture, screened from 76,000 records, fills this gap. We map and analyze the text in the literature for each SDG target and its associated positive or negative sentiments. Here, we report our results highlighting that urban agriculture is linked to all SDGs, with 142 and 136 targets having positive and negative sentiments. The mapped positive sentiments are around double the negative ones. We identify six leveraging opportunities urban agriculture provides for sustainable transformation with four hurdles to be resolved. Urban agriculture does not inherently contribute to sustainability. Its impacts rely on the adoption of specific practices. Realizing urban agriculture's social, economic, and environmental functions to accelerate SDG progress requires tackling the hurdles.

Keywords: SDG interactions; SDGs; Sustainable Development Goals; city farming; hurdles; leveraging opportunities; qualitative analysis; synergies and trade-offs; urban agriculture; urban gardens.