Strengths

During the thirty years of agroecological development in Rosario, initiated and strengthened in situations of severe political and economic crisis in the country, urban and peri-urban agriculture has been diversifying, expanding and consolidating as a socio-productive strategy, permanently integrated into the logic and dynamics of the city. This has been made possible by the virtuous articulation of the local tradition of food cultivation, the initiative of non-governmental organizations, the political decision, the availability of land for production and the need and willingness of growers who currently constitute an increasingly valuable local labor force. The knowledge and agroecological practices that are now local heritage were built collectively within the framework of sustained public policies. 

In this process, the management of the Urban Agriculture Program (PAU-2002) and the Periurban Green Belt Project - Healthy Food Production of Rosario (PCVR-2016), hierarchized as a Program since 2020, were key in this process. These technical teams have been carrying out a successful management -at urban and suburban (PAU) and peri-urban and rural (PCVR) territorial levels. 

Since the beginning of both Programs, activities have been developed that respond to the multidimension-nality of Agroecology as a science and as a practice. Training, knowledge building, coordination and support to producers in the production processes, design and implementation of short marketing chains, value addition and quality control through participatory guarantees, in a work integrated to a platform of participating actors. The Huerteros/as and Quinteros/as are key players in these processes and play a priority role.

In intra- and suburban areas, the management of the PAU has enabled the improvement of neighbourhood environments through the production of vacant spaces - public and private spaces that cannot be developed, most of them with some level of degradation - requalifying the landscape and providing identification, self-sustainability and resilience components to different sectors of the city.

It is worth noting that access to and tenure of land for urban agriculture has been adequately resolved through the creation of Horticultural Groups and Horticultural Parks on non-buildable public and private institutional land (flooded areas, road or railroad sides, and public or private urban voids exposed to improper occupation). In other words, on a type of land that does not compete with other relevant urban uses. In most cases, although the land is owned by the State or by institutions or companies that cede the land through an agreement and in exchange for a tax exemption, tenancy is granted to the gardeners as long as they comply with the requirements set by the Municipality (agro-ecological production and producer profile). The existing regulatory framework has made this production mechanism viable for 20 years. There are currently eight operational Horticultural Parks and a large number of Horticultural Groups in different neighbourhoods of the city. These spaces constitute a consolidated territorial structure of urban agro-ecological spaces.

The large-scale neighbourhood production spaces, equipped and coordinated by the Urban Agriculture Programme, function as spaces of containment in crisis situations. Vulnerable families can access land to cultivate if it is available or join plots already assigned to them and share the work. Likewise, the initial experiences of organising family and Horticultural Groups during political and economic crises, as well as the implementation of pre-sale strategies to

The inclusive characteristics of local agroecological development policies, created and sustained by the various socialist governments of the city since 2002, have been put into action in the territory by technical teams trained and deeply committed to agroecology, to the population and to their work. This articulation between policies and technical actors has been and continues to be key to the city's agroecological development. 

 In the city, as in Argentina and the world, a cultural change is taking place in relation to the type of food demanded by social sectors that have access to information on the relationship between health and food. The COVID 19 pandemic promoted the massive "consumption" of this information and increased the alternatives of access to supposedly healthy food according to the new demands. This process has been generated, to a large extent, within the hegemonic logic of consumption, driven by the information circulating on social networks, and has had a particular impact on the eating patterns of young people and adolescents. In this context, mention should be made of the intense socialisation work on the benefits of agroecological food carried out by the PAU and the PCVR. Complementarily, the successful and sustained operation of the Agroecological Marketing Fairs has been relevant, as they constitute active areas of socialisation and information on the quality of the food and the possibilities for its preparation. This communication translates into social recognition of the activity and brings city dwellers closer to the production areas.raise funds and overcome production losses due to droughts or seasons of continuous rainfall, constitute a valuable know-how that makes Rosario's agro-ecological system a component of the city's resilient core.

Since 2013 the Municipality of Rosario has had a protected Rural Area in the Periurbano for food production, regulated by municipal regulations in which Agroecology is promoted. Ten percent of the initial 800 Ha was reclassified as industrial land in 2016 and 50% of the remaining area was subsequently threatened by the recategorisation of its use, also from agricultural to industrial. Following the participatory defence of these lands, Ord 10.139 was passed in 2020, validating the 720 Ha protected as a Food Protection and Promotion Area (APPA), the Green Belt project as a Programme (Ord. No. 10141/20) and the Ordinance regulating the figure of Agricultural Park (Ord.10142/20) was sanctioned.

The Peri-urban Green Belt Programme - Sustainable Food Production promotes and accompanies intensive and extensive producers in the processes of Agroecological Transition. Initially, producers were trained in good environmental practices and agroecological production. Subsequently, thirty (30) farmers were supported in the provision of infrastructure, safe water, working machinery and access to inputs for sustainable production. Producers' houses and rural roads were improved to provide accessibility.

The transition proposals have met with a good response from conventional producers, largely because of the possibility of trading their agrochemical-free products through the short value chains already enabled by the Urban Agriculture Programme. Also, because of the reduction of production costs without agrochemicals or chemical fertilisers, as well as sales without the intervention of intermediaries, which implies a significant increase in farmers' incomes.

There is currently a validated proximity marketing structure and short agro-ecological production channels: Forty points of sale in fairs; home delivery of bags; permanent markets (Suelo Común Greengrocer's - Mercado del Patio); Wholesale Agro-ecological Market. 

The implementation during 2017 of the Provincial Programme for Sustainable Food Production in Periurban Areas, of the Ministry of Production of Santa Fe, was a necessary and relevant initiative that was discontinued at the end of 2019 with the change of provincial government. These interruptions of valid processes, frequent in the face of political-partisan changes in Argentina, make the sustainability of agroecological public policies in Rosario highly valuable.

The Centro Agroecológico Rosario, CAR (Programa de Agricultura Urbana-Subsecretaria de Economía Social- Secretaría de Desarrollo Humano y Hábitat de la Municipalidad de Rosario), is an area of reference in the field dedicated to research, experimentation, seed production, mother plants and training. Created in 2017, it is a strategic device for the consolidation of agroecology in the city of Rosario and the region. Its aim is to respond to the challenge of producing healthy food locally, produced using inclusive technologies without the use of agrochemicals. The CAR is a "compendium" of what has been built by urban agriculture in Rosario between urban farmers and technicians within the framework of the Municipality's public policies. Its organisation and its members are articulated to transmit the knowledge and practices experimented and tested for thirty years in the city and the region.

The CAR shares activities with different departments of the Municipality of Rosario, with the Inclusive Nurseries Programme of the Province of Santa Fe, with the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), the Argentine Association for Biodynamic Agriculture (AABDA), the College of Agricultural Engineers of the Province of Santa Fe and the National University of Rosario (UNR). As a reference centre, it is constantly visited by technicians, civil servants and farmers.

A broad Local, National and International Platform of Public and Private Actors committed to the construction of the Agroecological System in the region and in Rosario, constitutes a base that is sustained and strengthened by the political commitment of technicians and municipal officials, but also by the social commitment of the different participating actors. Public and private technical institutions, universities, companies, citizens, non-governmental environmental organisations, international funding agencies, among many others, have contributed to the achievements of the Urban and Periurban Agriculture Programmes of the Municipality of Rosario.

The PAU and the PCVR, together with members of this broad platform of local, national and international actors, have studied and quantified many of the benefits of agroecology in the city. These results form an important body of locally valuable information that underpins the development of a healthy food production system in the city. The socialisation of this information allows the population to become progressively aware of these social, economic, environmental, health and urban planning benefits. This knowledge also feeds into public policies and constitutes a rigorous and valuable input that strengthens the contents of the local agroecological process, which has been repeatedly recognised by important international awards. The citizens of Rosario, after so many years of experiencing the city's agro-ecological development and being recognised for this process, are proud of and identify with Rosario as a city where healthy food is produced.