Agronomic and organizational aspects of Barcelona's community gardens
Macall, Diego Maximiliano (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Gabarrell Durany, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Biològica i Ambiental)
Villamayor Tomás, Sergio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)

Date:	2025
Abstract:	As food security becomes a growing concern in urban areas worldwide, municipal authorities are actively seeking ways to enhance and complement the food systems of their respective cities. Integrating a food system's productive components within city limits has emerged as a promising strategy to achieve these goals. However, it is impractical to undertake urban agriculture to the extent of rural agriculture, such as livestock rearing and large-scale field crop production, due to insufficient and inadequate space within cities. Producing high-value crops, however, is feasible and already practiced in many urban areas around the world within community gardens. This study investigates the agronomic practices and organizational aspects of community gardens within Barcelona's municipal boundaries. It does so through surveys of community garden members and visual inspections of the gardens. The results show that 10 of the 22 most consumed vegetables in Barcelona are harvested within the city's community gardens, highlighting their agrobiodiversity. Based on observed crop yields, if monoculture for each crop produced in the community gardens were practiced across all available urban areas in Barcelona, the city could achieve significant self-sufficiency in those crops. However, to realize this potential, urban horticulture would need to be professionalized, and the city's municipal authorities would have to play a coordinating role.
Grants:	"la Caixa" Foundation 11860055 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MDM-2021-0552 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2020/PANDE-00021 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2021-126845OB-C21 Agencia Estatal de Investigación RyC-2017-22782 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2021/SGR-1683
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Agrobiodiversity ; City ; Food system ; Production ; Yield
Published in:	Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Vol. 9 (March 2025) , art. 1459265, ISSN 2571-581X

DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1459265

9 p, 1.5 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) > Sustainability and Environmental Protection (Sostenipra)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles