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Report 3 (of 6): Crash and
Grow - Argentina
Introduction
The number of poor in Argentina escalated
dramatically with the onslaught of hyperinflation
in 2001. Twenty million people - more than half the
population - currently live in poverty, unemployment
is high, the economy is in ruins and many people struggle
to find enough food to eat. Out of this hardship a
city of market gardens has emerged, providing a living
for over 10,000 people: not only the poor but the
'new poor' - the middle classes who lost everything
in the crisis.
A port city in the central region,
approximately 300 km north of Buenos Aires, Rosario
experienced these problems first hand. It was an important
city in the national economy but over the last decade,
a lot of small to medium businesses have gone under.
Migration from the rural to urban areas continues,
leaving an estimated 800,000 or 62 per cent of the
city population in poverty.
In parallel to the economic crisis,
urban agriculture has increased as a means to relieve
poverty. This covers diverse activities that are residential,
recreational, educational, and commercial in nature.
Between 50 and 70 per cent of income is spent by the
poor on food, so producing their own good quality
fresh food represents savings as well as offering
opportunities for trade and income.
Various programmes have been established
where urban agriculture has been used as a means to
create employment, stimulate the local economy and
improve the environment. An urban agriculture programme
established by the municipality of Rosario aims to:
- Generate the means for participatory
and communal production of food using ecological
techniques
- Promote social based enterprises
- Improve the habitat in the neighbourhood.
At the end of 1997 a project on local
development was put into practice in the Empalme Graneros
neighbourhood with the participation of the community,
different local government areas, the National University
of Rosario, Brock University (Canada) and local and
international NGOs. The centre for studies in agro-ecological
production (CEPAR) has been also been heavily involved
in various projects.
Activities focus on three levels:
self-help food production at household level, communal
gardens, and commercial gardens. They include organic
vegetable production, aromatic and medicinal plants,
processing of waste through vermiculture, and medicinal
product manufacturing. Products include organic vegetables,
bread, preserves, artisan tools, natural cosmetics
and natural medicines. A project to recycle waste
is also under way. Activities are primarily managed
by groups living in poverty and build on their knowledge.
(Source: Urban Agriculture as a Tool
for Food Self-Production)
Squatters' Rights
Within Rosario squatters have been
establishing gardens on private land, turning unused
waste land into fertile productive gardens. Archento
became unemployed five years ago, and he and his wife
Ida decided to take over the patch of waste land beside
their house, but they had no security of tenancy.
The council, sympathetic to their plight and that
of others, set about helping them to secure tenancy
and transform unused land into productive gardens.
Help was provided by the UN Development Programme.
Within the city boundary as much as
35 per cent of the land is undeveloped, providing
scope for more gardens. The priority was to earmark
public land alongside rivers, highways and railway
lines that is unsuitable for housing, and make it
available for use by family groups and the vulnerable
to produce food. A detailed analysis of the land was
conducted, evaluating its suitability, accessibility,
how it would be managed and let, to ensure the economic,
environmental and social viability of transferring
plots for urban agriculture use. Reliable and up-to-date
information was needed to inform decision making.
Analysis included defining suitability of the land
by looking at:
- Environmental quality (chemical
and biochemical condition of the soil)
- Area (based on growing conditions)
- Uses (current and previous
- the latter only if used as dumps, or for other
polluting activities, such as treatment plants,
or other hazardous activities)
- Current regulations for land
use
- Programmed urban and city planning
projects
- Water supply
- Relative position (with
respect to population groups interested in urban
agriculture)
- Ownership (logic of occupation
according to type of ownership).
Studies were prepared, investigating:
- Soil quality of land areas used
for urban agriculture
- Characteristics of each type of
soil
- Proposals to improve soils with
agronomic restrictions
- Practices to recover soil fertility
- Description of traditional farming
practices
- Recommendation of crops appropriate
for each soil type.
On the basis of the study, a manual
of techniques was developed for the management and
recovery of several soil types with specific restrictions
- lowland areas, former dump sites, flood prone areas,
soils that had had the topsoil removed, etc. (Source:
RUAF report)
The accessibility of the land was
assessed by evaluating the legal status of the land,
current regulations of access and tenure of land for
urban agriculture, ownership, value of land, public
policies and debt associated with land.A map of the
land available was produced along with an action plan
outliningvacant spaces for productive use and then
integrated into the council plans and policies. See
RUAF report for full details.
The ordinance proposed the establishment
of community gardens on public and privately owned
land. User permits may be obtained from the relevant
authorities and owners are invited to facilitate the
use of vacant lots in the framework of the community
garden programme, to assign free of charge the temporary
use to the Municipality of Rosario, for the duration
of two years. During this period the private owner
is exempted from paying property taxes on the land.
In addition, the local authority helped
gardeners to commercialise their goods by helping
to set up weekly markets, centres where gardeners
can process goods, transport infrastructure to and
from the markets, and promotion of markets. Markets
in five areas of the city were established to sell
the fruits of small-scale gardeners.
Vermiculture
Another project tested vermiculture
- a method of composting fruit and vegetable waste
using earthworms - by comparing its quality and effectiveness
in the Enpalme Graneros neighbourhood with the production
of a control plot which received no treatment. Vermiculture
creates a 'closed system,' an endless cycle of waste
recycling. Organic wastes such as discarded fruit
and vegetable trimming are fed to worms - particularly
red worms - living in large, soil-filled containers.
The worms eat the organic matter, turning it into
compost that can be used to fertilise crops. Unused
plant material from the vegetable plots and other
organic wastes continue to be fed to the worms. Excess
worms are sold for fishing.
A course in the theory and practice
of vermiculture was delivered to local participants
over a two-month period. Next, twelve productive modules
were implemented to test different produce in order
to determine the vermicompost production possibilities.
Finally vermicompost was tested as a fertiliser on a
variety of produce, including, lettuce, radish, tomato,
rosemary and oregano.
A system of simple trials was designed for local
participants to carry out with follow-up by the technicians
on the project. The production of the treated gardens
was compared to that of the untreated gardens. The
results proved that vermiculture has a beneficial
impact on crop yields, creates high-quality organic
fertiliser, costs virtually nothing to set up, and
is easy to teach.
Connecting the Community
The programme has become the basis
of a larger political dynamic, co-operative working
public sector, state, bringing together many different
sectors that have worked collaboratively on the urban
agriculture programme. Urban agriculture has been
promoted at a national level through outreach programmes,
delivering seeds, training materials, and technical
capacity building to communities. Training in organic
production has been delivered, an urban agriculture
training centre set up, financial services to enable
people to set up infrastructure/irrigation systems
and pioneering groups were all established.
Since the crash, the number of community-run
market gardens has increased by 3500 per cent. Projects
have facilitated the active involvement of the poor
and marginalised, communication, sharing of results
and skill improvement between community members and
organisations. Urban agriculture appears pivotal in
providing better food, independence, improved environment
and green spaces. It is a suitable mechanism that
be used by underprivileged groups and maximises the
potential of not just vacant land but the people.
Further Information
Articles
Resource centre on urban agriculture
and forestry, Optimization of Use of Vacant Land for
Urban Agriculture in the Municipality of Rosario,
Argentina
www.ruaf.org
UN article
www.unhabitat.org
IDRC reports - Vermiculture Improves
Urban Farming in Argentina
http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-12008-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
Eduardo Spiaggi, National University of Rosario,
Berutti 2298 (2000) Rosario, Argentina; Phone: 54
341 4822901; Email: espiaggi@coopvgg.com.ar
Urban Agriculture as a Tool for Food Self-Production,
Local Community Development and Overcoming of Poverty
in Rosario, Argentina by Spiaggi, E.P. and Biasatti,
N.R.
www.ias.unu.edu
General
Urban Agriculture Supportive Policies
in Latin America published by City Farmer
http://www.cityfarmer.org/LatAmerPromotes.html
Link to list of Urban Agriculture Public Promotion
policies in Latin America
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