Fwd: [Food-news] ARGENTINA: Urban Gardens Provide More than Just Food

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> [Food-news] ARGENTINA: Urban Gardens

> Provide More than Just Food

>

> *www.foodnews.ca**

>

> *

>

> *Editor's Note: *The currency crisis that devastated

> the Argentine

> economy beginning in 1997 caused one city, Rosario,

> to strongly embrace

> urban agriculture as a solution to widespread

> poverty and unemployment.

> The United Nations HABITAT program has recognized

> Rosario for its many

> diverse urban agriculture initiatives aimed at

> creating employment,

> increasing nutritional intake and fostering

> cooperativeness among the

> people. Especially interesting is the city's

> strategy for giving

> gardeners access to private land. This recent

> article provides an

> overview of Rosario's response, with an emphasis on

> community gardens

> and market development. Can the programs

> established in Rosario be

> replicated in other large cities facing similar

> economic and nutritional

> challenges? JK*

>

> http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=32099

>

> *ARGENTINA:

> Urban Gardens Provide More than Just Food /

>

> /**Marcela Valente*

>

> *BUENOS AIRES, Feb 9 (IPS) - *Some 7,000 people who

> were out of work

> before entering the programme have joined forces to

> clear the land,

> plant and harvest vegetables, and sell their produce

> in street market

> stalls.

>

> Many of them are also now involved in agricultural

> development projects

> aimed at supplying the market with organic produce,

> grown without

> chemical fertilisers or pesticides.

>

> They are participants in the Urban Agriculture

> Programme set up by the

> city government of Rosario, located on the banks of

> the Paraná River in

> the eastern Argentine province of Santa Fe.

>

> The programme encompasses over 600 community gardens

> created on formerly

> vacant lots, on both public and privately owned

> land, as well as a

> distribution and sales network and projects designed

> to develop related

> industries.

>

> With a population of 1.3 million, Rosario is

> Argentina's third most

> populous city. As a river port, it has historically

> been an area of

> significant industrial development. But beginning in

> the late 1980s, as

> a result of the implementation of neoliberal

> free-market economic

> policies in Argentina, many of the city's factories

> began closing their

> doors, plunging more and more of its residents into

> poverty. By 2001, a

> full 61 percent of the population of Rosario was

> living below the

> poverty line.

>

> Rosario is the only municipality in the country

> governed by the

> Socialist Party, which was first elected to the city

> government in 1989.

> " When the crisis hit, I had seven daughters and my

> husband was

> unemployed. I couldn't just sit back and do

> nothing, " Mirta Palese told

> IPS. The crisis she was referring to was the

> economic, financial and

> social meltdown that forced then president Fernando

> de la Rúa out of

> office halfway through his four-year term in 2001.

>

> It was then that Palese set her sights on a vacant

> lot that was slowly

> turning into a garbage dump across the street from

> her house in the west

> end of Rosario.

>

> The owner of the lot agreed that it was preferable

> for it to be used as

> a garden, and allowed Palese to take it over

> temporarily.

>

> Once she had permission to use the lot, Palese went

> to the city

> government for seeds and gardening tools. Now she

> and a neighbour raise

> tomatoes, lettuce, arugula, Swiss chard, spinach,

> green beans, radishes

> and peppers on a 10 by 30 metre plot of land.

>

> The two women also sell the vegetables they grow in

> the community

> markets that have been held six times a week in five

> different

> neighbourhoods of the city since mid-2002. The

> municipal government

> covers the costs of transporting the produce, the

> stalls and awnings set

> up for the market, the baskets used to hold the

> merchandise and the

> uniforms and gloves worn by the vendors to comply

> with hygiene standards.

>

> But the women find time for even more. With two

> other neighbours, they

> spend the morning washing and cutting vegetables to

> prepare

> plastic-wrapped, individual serving-sized trays of

> ready-made salads.

> " All you have to do is add the seasoning, " noted

> Palese, who explained

> that they sell the salads in office buildings at

> lunch time.

>

> This initiative also forms part of the programme

> implemented by the city

> government, which contributes the facilities and

> materials needed for

> packaging the vegetables, including refrigerators.

> The participants are

> also offered training through the city government's

> Food Institute to

> ensure the safety and quality of the final product.

>

> Thanks to the gardens, an estimated 40,000 people

> living below the

> poverty line are provided with food for their own

> consumption. In

> addition, participants can earn a monthly income

> that in many cases is

> triple the subsidy paid to unemployed heads of

> households by the federal

> government.

>

> The garden tended by Palese and her neighbour forms

> part of the Urban

> Agriculture Programme coordinated by Raúl Terrile,

> an agricultural

> engineer working as a consultant to the Rosario city

> government for this

> project and a member of the non-governmental Centre

> for Agro-Ecological

> Production Studies (CEPAR).

>

> Terrile told IPS that at the height of the crisis

> there were over 800

> community gardens, but as the economy began to

> recover, " the project

> went from being an emergency measure to becoming a

> development

> strategy, " in which the majority of participants û

> approximately 65

> percent û are women.

>

> " The programme is not designed for subsistence

> agriculture, but rather

> is aimed at developing a source of family income, "

> stressed Terrile.

> Consequently, the support offered in the form of

> inputs and training

> should be ongoing, he added.

>

> In recent months, the Rosario city government has

> also contributed

> fences and irrigation systems to the project.

>

> However, one of the key contributions has been the

> measures implemented

> by the city government to legalise the use of

> privately owned land for

> community gardens. The owners are exempted from

> paying municipal taxes

> on the land for two years, the standard time period

> for which the lots

> are ceded to the programme. If the owners have

> accumulated back taxes

> over the course of many years, they generally find

> it preferable to

> renew the contract for a longer period.

>

> In the case of public land, which accounts for the

> largest gardens, they

> have been pledged to the programme for a period of

> ten years. Up to 70

> people work on each of these government-owned plots

> of land, which can

> be as large as five hectares.

>

> In the majority of these large gardens, food is

> produced exclusively for

> sale, explained Terrile.

>

> The participants receive monthly training sessions,

> while technical

> assistance is provided in the field on a weekly

> basis. " The continuity

> of the programme and the ongoing participation of

> its beneficiaries

> demonstrate that the project works, " he remarked.

>

> In addition, the initiative has earned the

> recognition of the United

> Nations. In 2004, the U.N. Human Settlements

> Programme (UN-HABITAT)

> selected the Rosario Urban Agriculture Programme as

> one of the " best

> practices " worldwide for improving people's living

> environment,

> especially among the poorest sectors of the

> population, while promoting

> sustainable development.

>

> This incentive motivated the Rosario city government

> to further increase

> its support for the project, and the local planning

> department is now

> involved in the task of identifying available areas

> in the city and

> designing new spaces that can be adapted for urban

> agricultural use.

>

> This has led to the emergence of a new kind of

> public area, known as

> " garden parks " . " These are gardens with a landscaped

> design that are

> created along the sides of major avenues and other

> highly visible areas

> of the city. These gardens, in addition to being

> productive, are

> pleasing to the eye, " explained Terrile.

>

> The Rosario programme is part of a network of cities

> working to develop

> urban agriculture. With the support of the Institute

> for the Promotion

> of Sustainable Development in Peru and the Resource

> Centre for Urban

> Agriculture and Forestry in the Netherlands, its

> organisers are seeking

> to promote the initiative as a development strategy

> that can be

> implemented in other cities. (FIN/2006)

>

> * James Kuhns is a Contributing Editor to Foodnews.

>

>

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