From social innovation to institutional governance: Unveiling urban rooftop farming in Dhaka city using YouTube video analysis

• Urban Rooftop Farming (URF) is a growing grassroots movement in Dhaka, but its institutional oversight is fragmented and uncoordinated. • TThis study on URF analysed 187 YouTube videos to understand farmers' perspectives and diverse goals on improving governance. • Despite various challenges, many rely on informal networks and digital resources (e.g., YouTube) to acquire gardening knowledge. • Farmers from mixed land-use neighbourhoods show stronger motivations due to space constraints and environmental concerns. • Ultimately, two approaches, “policy frameworks and information dissemination”, were devised and examined to ensure URF sustainability. Urban sustainability relies on maintaining a delicate balance between humans and nature. Urban rooftop farming (URF) has emerged as a potentially transformative practice in this regard. However, ensuring effective implementation of URF requires appropriate parameters that align with citizens’ ambitions. This study delves into residents’ experiences practicing URF in Dhaka city, advocating for a separate policy to sustain this sector and enhance the megacity’s overall environmental health. The research explores URF implementation in Dhaka and scrutinizes urban residents’ engagement with this practice through YouTube video analysis. The study uses binary logistic regression to examine the associations between residents’ socio-demographic characteristics and their motivations for URF participation. Additionally, K-means clustering techniques identify distinct groups of urban gardeners based on their recommendations for government organizations. The findings reveal that a predominantly male cohort with minimal URF training engages in the practice across diverse social strata, resulting in varied motivations. Gardeners in mixed land-use neighborhoods exhibit robust motivation, notably seeking URF policy guidelines and information hubs from government institutions. The study underscores the importance of inclusive stakeholder perspectives in effective policy formulation. It calls for integrating insights from government bodies, developers, and specialists to address URF within Dhaka city’s intricate urban fabric.