Introduction: City context

The city of Bogota is the capital and seat of the national government of Colombia. It is located in the Department of Cundinamarca, at 2630 meters above sea level in the eastern branch of the Andean mountain range.  Bogota has a total area of 163,575.2 hectares, divided into 20 localities (75% is rural land, 23% is urban and 2% is expansion land).  Currently, it is the most populous city in the country, with a population of 6,778,691 (DANE 2005), and an annual population growth rate of 2.3%.  Around 40% of the population are migrants. Its GDP per capita is around US$3,054 (equivalent to 17 minimum salaries), nevertheless, it has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, at 11%, with underemployment reaching 32%.

According to the National Planning Department (DNP), currently more than 20% of the population of Bogota lives in poverty and more than 3% are considered to be indigent.  Administratively, the city is divided into 20 localities – 19 urban and one rural – each of which includes a variable number of zonal planning units (UPZs). 

The locality of Bosa

Due to the importance and size of the city of Bogota, the Cities Farming for the Future program (CFF) decided to focus its intervention on the Bosa Central UPZ located in the locality of Bosa in the extreme southwest corner of the city.  Bosa Central does not have rural land, and is one of the three localities with the biggest deficit of green areas (2.9 m2/person), and the next to last in urban infrastructure (educational and health centers, community infrastructure, etc.).  Its population is young (30% are less than 15 years old), an 87% of its inhabitants are concentrated in socio-economic strata 2, which makes it the locality with the fourth largest number of poor and extremely poor people as measures by the NBI or Unmet Basic Needs Index (20% of the total population of the locality).  Of this group, children under 5 and women up to 49 years of age are the most effected.
Source: http://www.bogota.gov.co/

Most important types of urban agriculture

One of the main characteristics of UA in Bogota is the scarcity of vacant areas to practice it; as a result, the activity is carried out in small spaces, whether on the land itself (soft ground) or using receptacles, boxes or containers (hard ground).  The urban farmers that use hard ground do so generally inside their houses in interior (cement) patios and roofed terraces.  The containers can be of varied material, quality and size (i.e. recycled wooden boxes, bottles, tires, buckets). 

In the locality of Bosa, the exploratory study found that the plant species found most often are lettuce (68.2%), followed by acelga, coriander, strawberries and mint (54.5%).  64% of the UA experiences (both on soft ground and hard ground) involve some kind of organic solid waste management like compost or growing worms.

Limitations and opportunities for developing urban agriculture

In the participatory workshops held as part of the participatory diagnostic study of UA, both women and men urban farmers from Bosa identified the following limitations and opportunities related to UA:

Development Strategies

As part of the diagnostic activities, the project will define the strategy to be implemented with regard to the multi-stakeholder space that will promote UA in the city.  Currently, there is an entity called the “District UA Roundtable”, which for the past two years has led the process of creating UA policy in Bogota.  Unfortunately, the Roundtable has been inactive for the past several months.

Examples of projects

The CFF Bogota will begin to implement the “Farming in my house” Project which seeks to innovate in a number of areas.  A first innovative element is the design of 20 gardens on hard ground (interior and roofed patios), which is intended to be agreeable, functional and low-cost.  At first, the project will help to improve the diet of the beneficiary families, with the cultivation of around 10 species including vegetables, fruits and grains, thus helping to guarantee the availability, access and consumption of healthy, high-quality food.

Another innovative aspect of the project will be the combination of food security and scientific research (conducted by the Botanical Garden of Bogota and related to the efficiency of growing plants in certain containers), while taking advantage of household space.  It will also promote innovative solid waste management mechanisms (composting) and the collection of rainwater in each house, thus contributing to the process of environmental awareness raising, through the implementation of environmentally-friendly technologies.

Results so far

The participatory UA diagnostic study in the locality of Bosa is in its final stage of preparation, including activities like a situational analysis, the mapping of available land for UA and a legal review.

To date, six participatory workshops have been held which served to gather information to analyze the stakeholders that are promoting or developing UA programs.  This initial data collection allowed the urban farmers themselves to identify the strongest actors or those closest to UA, and the weakest actors or those farthest from the activity.

In addition, and with regard to the positive effects of UA, the urban farmers have identified the following elements:
• Food and nutritional security
• Social fabric
• Environmental (solid waste and rainwater management)
• The sale of products
• Personal development

Contacts

LILIANA RAMÍREZ
Local Coordinator, CCF Bogota program
University of Rosario
Bogota,Colombia
E-mail: liliana.ramirezh62@urosario.edu.co

CAROLINA GÓMEZ
Technical Coordinator, Bosa Locality, UA Project
Bogota, Colombia
E-mail: mgomez@jbb.gov.co

SANDRA GUARÍN
Coordinator of International Cooperation
University of Rosario, Chancellor’s Office
Bogota, Colombia
E-mail: sandra.guarin@urosario.edu.co

GUNTHER MERZTHAL
Regional CFF Program Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean - IPES
Lima, Peru
E-mail: au@ipes.org.pe

Linkages to regional websites

For more information on the RUAF-Cities Farming for the Future Programme in the region, contact the regional coordinator at RUAF Latin America and the Caribbean or see their website.

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