In Latin America, urban sprawl has generated a growing food crisis in the cities and in the suburbs that particularly affects the poorer classes and extremely poor. The situation is especially critical because of the fluctuation of food prices, the impact of economic recession and unemployment. It is important to note that the poor consume more than 50% of their income to buy food they need.
Urban expansion also involves the loss of land needed for food production, increasing demand for water for domestic use and the increase in solid and liquid waste.
Over the next 20 years climate change will represent a real threat that will involve both a reduced availability water for irrigation and domestic purposes as an increase in rainfall in some areas is already manifest in the form of droughts and flooding. Similarly, the average temperature increase will affect food production cycles and the same quality of life for people.
In this context, more and more local governments, regional and national programs to increase urban agriculture, trying to fight poverty, improving food and nutrition security and protecting biodiversity. In addition to this large number of NGOs, universities, social movements and enterprises involved in promoting urban and peri-urban agriculture.
The community gardens located near popular restaurants and abandoned or unused space (eg under high voltage lines or along roads or rivers), in institutional spaces such as schools, hospitals, and private gardens, courtyards and terraces, shows a growing presence of agriculture in the city, especially to meet the basic need to eat.
urban and peri-urban agriculture offers the possibility of access to food for home consumption to saving in the consumption of money for the purchase of fresh food, improve and diversify the diet and enhance or recover indigenous crops with high value nutrition. Also entered in the small markets of micronutrient-rich foods at very competitive prices, and fostered a family-owned small businesses.
In El Alto (Bolivia) recent research shows that urban farmers have significantly improved their consumption and their feeding from 6 to 15 species of fruits and vegetables included in their basket of consumption . A Vila Maria del Triunfo (Peru) and Bogota (Colombia), the consumption of fruit and vegetables per capita has increased significantly from 47 to 62 g per day in just six months after the start of the government program to spread agriculture urban.
urban and peri-urban agriculture is also a source of income obtained through the sale of surplus production that does not require intensive skilled labor, however, no large upfront investments.
Recent studies show that with an investment of $ 500 you can generate a job urban agriculture, integrating the poor and very poor, which in most cases are from rural migrants or homeless, indigenous population and women with low levels of education. Cities such as Montevideo (Uruguay), Rosario (Argentina), Porto Alegre (Brazil), Recife and Salvador (Brazil) can rely on alternative systems and diversified marketing as our markets, retail outlets or in gardens or informal delivery of boxes of fruit at home.
work in the field of urban and peri-urban areas, especially with the most vulnerable and excluded, is a great motivation for local authorities interested in politics of inclusion and social integration. Agriculture makes it possible to strengthen the groups and enhance cooperation for the sharing of resources and capital. 63% of farmers in Rosario and 76% of the Vila Maria del Triunfo are poor women with low levels of education.
Urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture also enhances the sustainable management of urban space. A Teresina (Brazil) 192 hectares are used as the urban community gardens. A Rosario (Argentina) using public and private spaces (by convention) for the development of community gardens -gardens and parks that occupy over 10 hectares of urban land located in areas at risk. Urban and peri-urban agriculture contributes to mitigating the effects of climate change. In desert cities like Vila Maria del Triunfo, El Salvador Vila or Tacna (Peru) where it rains only 25 mm per year, urban agriculture has increased the parks by helping to improve the landscape and environmental quality through a system of urban forests. In densely populated cities such as Sao Paulo and Bogota and peri-urban agriculture increases the permeability of the soil by improving the conditions of the underlying aquifers and reducing the risk of flooding.
Growing in cities and suburbs also means better to recycle solid and liquid waste through the use of technologies appropriate to the socio-economic reality. In Porto Alegre the organic waste is processed for use as food for animals and Lima are the effluent used for irrigation of green areas.
Still, in El Alto kitchen gardens feed more than 500 families poor who live at about 4000 meters above sea level, they should make use of simple technologies such as micro solar greenhouses for vegetable production. In Colombia on 90 municipalities in the department of Antioquia 7500 urban gardens are producing more than 18 different species of vegetables, fruits and herbs. In Bogota, Cartagena and Madelin, the local government and international cooperation have trained more than 50 000 people to grow gardens in many urban areas, including terraces, balconies and courtyards. It is estimated that a family $ 1.30 savings per day due to growing their own food. A Curitiba in Brazil about 8 000 6 000 students and urban farmers cultivating food gardens in 1280 employing more than 200 ha of urban land and come to produce more than 4100 tons of food per year. In Quito (Ecuador) Agrupamento program promotes agricultural and livestock activities involving more than 520 demonstration gardens and more than 100 herds of rabbits, sheep, pigs and fish. A Moreno Argentina in the program of municipal and peri-urban agriculture has generated 4900 29 community gardens and urban gardens. In Lima, Belo Horizonte have integrated the political programs against hunger with those of urban agriculture and regional planning.
Some Latin American countries can rely on national programs that promote urban and peri-urban agriculture as in the case of Brazil or Cuba in Cuba National Program of Urban Agriculture this activity has strengthened the national and local levels. In Brazil, the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger invests more than $ 5 million a year for various activities to support urban and peri-urban agriculture. In Argentina the program PRO-HUERTA promotes national urban agriculture and develops partnerships with local programs.
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