Sánchez-Arnau, E., Ferrer-Sapena, A., Sánchez-Arnau, C. et al. What problems do peri-urban market gardens face? Stakeholder evidence and document-based analysis for environmental integration. Euro-Mediterr J Environ Integr 11, 290 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41207-026-01267-w
Euro-Mediterr J Environ Integr 11, 290 (2026)
Abstract:
Peri-urban market gardens operate within a highly complex context marked by structural constraints, economic pressures, and institutional barriers that put their long-term viability at risk. This paper presents a stakeholder-grounded problem taxonomy for the Huerta de Valencia, a traditional peri-urban orchard area on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, combining Design Thinking elicitation with document-based text analysis. Through facilitated group sessions with farmer organizations, cooperatives, civic platforms, and policy actors, we identified 34 interdependent problems subsequently consolidated into three domains: production, commercialization, and society/governance. With the aim of finding potential solutions to the issues reported, this information was triangulated against a corpus of scientific literature using frequency-oriented exploration (Voyant Tools) and AI-assisted reading. Results reveal that governance and institutional dimensions dominate the scholarly literature (40.8 % of thematic assignments), while stakeholders foreground operational difficulties such as logistics frictions, administrative burdens, and market power asymmetries. The comparison reveals that, while there is a broad thematic overlap, the specific day-to-day constraints faced by farmers are rarely addressed in a literature that tends to focus on general structural drivers and globally applicable frameworks. Our conclusions align with the broad consensus emerging across academic and policy forums on peri-urban agriculture: long-term viability requires integrated, multi-scalar governance frameworks that simultaneously address economic viability, environmental sustainability, and social resilience. Our distinctive contribution, however, lies in grounding these findings in direct stakeholder participation and in systematically comparing first-hand farmer concerns with the prevailing framings of the scientific literature.
Keywords: Peri-urban agriculture, Stakeholder engagement, Problem taxonomy, Governance frameworks, Sustainable cities, Consumption and production.
We would like to acknowledge funding from the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) through the PROMETEO 2024 CIPROM/2023/32 grant.