TY - JOUR

T1 - How Much Food Can We Grow in Urban Areas?

T2 - Food Production and Crop Yields of Urban Agriculture: A Meta‐Analysis

AU - Payen, Florian Thomas

AU - Evans, Daniel L.

AU - Falagán, Natalia

AU - Hardman, Charlotte A.

AU - Kourmpetli, Sofia

AU - Liu, Lingxuan

AU - Marshall, Rachel

AU - Mead, Bethan R.

AU - Davies, Jessica A. C.

PY - 2022/8/31

Y1 - 2022/8/31

N2 - Urban agriculture can contribute to food security, food system resilience and sustainability at the city level. While 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” was 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.

AB - Urban agriculture can contribute to food security, food system resilience and sustainability at the city level. While 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” was 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.

KW - ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE

KW - Aerosols and particles

KW - Pollution: urban and regional

KW - BIOGEOSCIENCES

KW - Agricultural systems

KW - Restoration

KW - Urban systems

KW - General or miscellaneous

KW - Pollution: urban, regional and global

KW - GLOBAL CHANGE

KW - OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL

KW - Marine pollution

KW - NATURAL HAZARDS

KW - Megacities and urban environment

KW - OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL

KW - Aerosols

KW - PALEOCEANOGRAPHY

KW - Research Article

KW - urban food growing

KW - urban spaces

KW - growing systems

KW - agricultural productivity

KW - food security

KW - urban resilience

U2 - 10.1029/2022ef002748

DO - 10.1029/2022ef002748

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36246543

VL - 10

SP - e2022EF002748

JO - Earth's Future

JF - Earth's Future

SN - 2328-4277

IS - 8

M1 - e2022EF002748

ER -