From Rome to Barranquilla…sharing knowledge on urban agriculture

Representatives of Rome’s Urban Gardens Office, key stakeholders and ULG (Urbact Local Group) members of Rome and A Coruña met online on the 8^th May 2020 with the staff of the Colombian City Administration of Barranquilla (Agencia Distrital de Infraestructura) and local environmental and agricultural authorities (Barranquilla Siembra, www.barranquillasiembra.com, Viverde www.barranquillaverde.gov.co ), to discuss and exchange ideas on the needed actions to implement urban gardens in the South American city: type of urban spaces to be used, required actions to make an urban garden, steps to be taken in order to maintain an urban garden as well as the required measures to take into account when implementing an urban garden.

The two-hour meeting began with a presentation of the work carried out by the Urban Gardens Office of the City of Rome as well as the scope and activities of the RU:RBAN Network, followed by a description of the active citizenship in the peri-urban area of Southern Rome and the social inclusion of immigrants and asylum seekers through agricultural activities taking place today in the Italian capital city. Focus was set on some characteristics that make of Rome an example in the field of urban agriculture: the largest agricultural municipality in Europe, the presence of over 200 urban gardens in its territory, the extraordinary human capital organized in associations that supervise and improve the commons of the city such as degraded and abandoned public areas that are turned into urban gardens. The good management of Roman urban gardens reside in “community gardens” and in active citizenship, thanks to the citizen associations to which the City Council of Rome assigns the management of the areas through public notices.

ULG members of Rome showed to the representatives of Barranquilla how community gardens can be places of social integration and local economic development: a tool of inclusion of needy citizens and green / circular economy. Some associations, such as Seniores Italia, host and train young refugees and asylum seekers, a concrete example of the integration of migrants in Rome that are engaged and trained in the green economy, an expanding sector, especially today due to Covid-19. The positive impact of urban gardens to promote integrated development is shown through the 2015 performance indicators data from the Italian National Statistics Institute. The  public-private cooperation initiative “Orto del Sorriso” in Jesi (Marche region, central Italy), was presented as an example for job placement in innovative activities for the environment and social cohesion addressed to people in difficulties (migrants, students, prisoners on probation).

The participants from Barranquilla were extremely interested in all the cases presented by the representatives of Rome. The meeting gave them the opportunity to see the creation of urban gardens as  a dual purpose tool for their city while they face the Covid-19 pandemic and the immigration emergency: the opportunity to provide for one's livelihood through the production of food in this moment of severe economic crisis on one side, the integration of migrants through work in agriculture on the other. It was clear to the representatives of the Colombian city that urban gardens would have a considerable impact not only as a response to the citizens’ needs in terms of nourishment, but also from a social point of view in terms of integration, creating relations and training opportunities to access employment. Specific interest was expressed in the amount of investment required, on average, in the management of urban gardens and the quantity of agricultural products that can be obtained. Participants from Rome clarified that the answer to these aspects depend on the climatic context and the dimensions of the area available for urban gardens. Some examples in Italy that were shared during the meeting: an investment of €1,000 on an area of 50sqm in Tuscany produces 140kg of vegetables, the same investment in France produces 250kg of legumes. The investment costs of a hectare of the Parco Ort9 urban garden, in the Southern peri-urban area of Rome, stands at around €100,000, of which €20,000 correspond to the annual fees of the users. However, it is necessary to take into account that the Parco Ort9 corresponds to a medium-high level organization with a central well, water collection tanks, lighting, irrigation system through a high technological features, etc.

In terms of financial resources necessary for the creation of urban gardens, a representative from the IUC Programme explained that the Programme offers the opportunity to develop an Action Plan for the implementation of pilot actions. Another piece of information shared with the participants from Barranquilla is that ANCI Lazio has recently participated in a call for proposals under the Europe-Aid programme for a cooperation project with cities in Peru to carry out pilot actions for urban gardens, with a requested financing of €1 million. Other funding opportunities are those through the public-private partnership. In this regard, the city of Thessaloniki, a partner of the RURBAN Network, has developed valuable experience that can be shared with the city of Barranquilla. The intervention of the participants from the city of A Coruña was particularly useful to underline that, prior to the RU:RBAN project, the city had experience in individual but not community gardens such as the ones existing in Rome. The creation of citizens' associations was, therefore, the critical factor. The promotion and dissemination of what the city of Coruña is doing through RURBAN is, therefore, a process of creating local communities around urban gardens.

The representatives from Barranquilla were extremely grateful for the information, knowledge and experience shared during this meeting, which hopefully was the first of many more to come. A meeting centered on practical and “hands-on-deck” aspects useful to understand the mechanisms and dynamics involved in the field of urban agriculture in order to allow Barranquilla to embark on an innovative and sustainable path in this direction…and RU:RBAN will be there if and when needed.