China: Do integrated services enhance willingness in urban balcony agriculture?

Microdata evidence from China

By Weiyi Chen, Yulong YinYulong, Xiang
Zhaoyang
Frontiers In Sustainable Food Systems
Feb 15, 2026

Introduction excerpt:

Balcony agriculture refers to agricultural production activities utilizing urban balcony spaces, aimed at meeting the demands of modern urban living and promoting low-carbon development (Aggarwal et al., 2024). As an emerging industry integrating the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, balcony agriculture not only enhances residents’ quality of life and alleviates stress, but also improves living environments and satisfies urban residents’ multifunctional needs for high-quality agricultural products and leisure agriculture (Zhao et al., 2024). This development model aligns with the emphasis on “facilitating the flow of urban and rural resources” and “promoting urban–rural integration” in the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (Song et al., 2022), and its path of unleashing ecological value and rational promotion scale are the core to adapting to urban low-carbon development. Specifically, balcony agriculture can collaboratively optimize urban ecological characteristics and unleash diverse ecological values across multiple dimensions. From a spatial perspective, green plants in residential units conduct photosynthesis and transpiration. They not only purify air and absorb harmful particulates, but also regulate the micro-temperature and humidity of balconies and indoor spaces.

This creates a comfortable and livable micro-environment for residents, while contributing to mitigating the urban heat island effect. From a systemic perspective, balcony agriculture is anchored in the overall structure of urban ecology. The distributed “sky green space” formed by a large number of balconies can effectively supplement urban green coverage, optimize the spatial layout of green space, reduce waterlogging risks and improve the service efficiency of urban ecosystems. From a developmental perspective, balcony agriculture is highly consistent with the core concepts of urban low-carbon development and urban–rural integration. It practices a circular economy through a distributed production model. Combined with soilless culture, three-dimensional planting and organic farming techniques (Taylor, 2020), it achieves efficient resource recycling and reduces agricultural non-point source pollution, thus providing important support for urban sustainable development. To convert ecological value into tangible benefits, it is necessary to rationally plan and promote balcony agriculture based on urban development realities and residents’ demands. Scientific guidance should be adopted to raise the coverage rate of balcony agriculture, thereby forming a large-scale ecological effect. Ultimately, this will realize the coordinated improvement of ecological, livelihood and climate benefits. The potential of such benefits is highly aligned with residents’ current demand for a green lifestyle.

Read the complete article here.