On-farm research for sustainable urban and peri-urban agriculture: outcomes achieved and lessons learned

It is increasingly important to pair agronomic research on stations with on-farm experimental and observational research to account for a wide range of management strategies for sustainable agriculture. These strategies are not only rapidly expanding in rural agriculture, but are also shaping urban agriculture, where there exists few, if any, formalized researcher–practitioner networks in Canada and internationally. In this paper, we describe the unique features and state of on-farm research of urban and peri-urban agriculture systems. We describe the Toward sustainable urban and peri-urban agriculture for net-zero food systems “TOsustain” research platform, which focuses on the Greater Toronto Area as a model for better understanding of urban and peri-urban farming. Through partnerships with multiple governmental organizations, farmer associations, conservation authorities, and the private sector, TOsustain formalized a large network of urban and peri-urban farms, as the basis of agroecological observational studies, and a network of replicated on-farm experimental trials where crop diversity, soil amendments, and other agronomic interventions are manipulated. TOsustain supports some of the first ever comprehensive datasets on soil greenhouse gas emissions, health, contaminants, and microbiomes as well as crop diversity and ecophysiology, and pollinator diversity. Our paper proposes recommendations for (i) integrating stakeholders early to connect land ownership, jurisdictions, and conflicting land needs, (ii) modifying soil sampling protocols due to high management complexity, and (iii) referring to soil legacies to infer the scope of soil quality assessments. Taken together, this work shapes a way forward for effective on-farm research design and sampling in urban and peri-urban agriculture.