FARMERS-TO-CONSUMERS PIPELINE: AN ASSOCIATIVE EXAMPLE OF SUSTAINABLE SOIL-LESS HORTICULTURE IN URBAN AND PERI-URBAN AREAS.

As urban populations rise, new strategies to address nutritional requirements are needed. People moving from rural areas often end up in the suburbs, facing severe poverty and unbalanced nutrition. The improvement of urban agricultural production is constrained by reduced access to fertile land. The introduction of low cost hydroponic gardens may be a sustainable way to launch horticultural production in roofs, terraces and courtyards. Gardens also play social functions, restoring the associative mentality lost when emigrants left their communities. In this study, we propose the adoption of community hydroponic gardens as a tool to overtake poverty, improve nutrition and increase associative attitude. A democratic organization of women farming groups, together with the role of a technical assistance centre is shown. Agricultural production is managed by the groups, where both intercropping patterns for home consumption, and commercial leafy vegetable production are carried on. Fresh produce for the market is washed and packaged and sold to main supermarkets and restaurants of the city. The technical assistance centre provides tutoring, agricultural inputs and manages commercial relations, and its sustainability is assured by a rate of the vegetable marketing income. It also offers training to students of local agricultural schools. A socio-economic overview of the advantages created by the installation of community gardening is also considered. We will hereby report our results in Latin America, proposing the model to other contexts.