Urban agriculture as a part of a sustainable metropolitan development program: A case study in Mexico City

Link to Sembradores Urbanos.

Mexico City is one of the biggest urban centers in the world

By Pablo Torres-Lima, Alfonso Chávez-Muñoz, Gerardo Ávila-Jiménez and Sergio Contreras-Prado
The Journal of Feild Actions
Field Actions Sceince Reports
Special Issue 1, 2010, Urban Agriculture

Abstract

Planning land use processes are indispensable for designing policies and activities in peri-urban areas, above all because of the impact of the conversion of agricultural land for urban purposes and the possibility of reducing poverty and assuring the food supply. In Latin America, there are a limited number of studies which discuss institutional involvement and proposals for participative and multi-sector planning with the aim of generating viable conditions for urban agriculture in megacities, within the framework of sustainable development. This article analyzes the principal components of a planning process which promotes the development of agricultural production zones in Xochimilco-Tlahuac, Mexico City.

The experience was conceptualized in 2008 with the integration of data obtained through fieldwork, interviews, ethnographic techniques and geomatics, in order to intervene in policies and strategic activities. The positive aspect of this work includes promoting the idea that it is critical to support urban agriculture, by district or metropolitan authorities, in order to address various issues on the city’s development agenda, from the perspective of strategic planning and the practice of their implementation. We conclude that it is also necessary to re-assess the aspect of socio-territorial organization in the study region, in order to achieve an integrated, habitable and sustainable city by organizing agricultural activities in the rural areas of Mexico City.

The complete report can be found here.