Application of Agroecology in Urban Horticulture

Dear Colleagues,

Strong market pressures have encouraged growers to intensify production. The environmental consequences of cropland expansion and intensification are of utmost concern, because of their negative impacts including pollution and degradation of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and insecticide resistance. In fact, the use of pesticides currently threatens up to a third of farmlands worldwide. On the other hand, increasing awareness and sustainable approaches have emerged to balance production and environmental protection. For example, crop systems such as urban agriculture aim to develop responsible production schemes, minimizing environmental impacts, increasing food security, and generating incomes. Moreover, the resilience of urban farming schemes is crucial for communal small-scale systems where horticulture is devoted to subsistence, especially in the scenario of climate change. In this context, ecology meets agricultural production, and agroecology rises as a scientific discipline, providing the tools, methods, and framework to conduct the transition from urban agriculture to urban agroecology. However, research, policymaking, and public support are still scarce. This Special Issue “Application of agroecology in urban horticulture” is devoted to research on urban horticulture in the context of agroecology, covering a broad spectrum of approaches such as (and not limited to) production, pest management, natural enemies, pollinators, biodiversity conservation, behavioral ecology, landscape modeling, climate change, social and development implications, and policy.

Research articles, reviews, case studies, and short communications are welcome. Submitted manuscripts should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. There is no restriction on the length of the papers. The full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. Electronic files regarding the full details of experimental procedures, if unable to be published in a normal way, can be deposited as supplementary material.

Dr. Jacinto Benhadi-Marín
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability
• city farms
• agricultural management
• climate change
• food security
• biological control