INTRODUCTION

The municipality of Villa Maria del Triunfo is located in the southern part of Metropolitan Lima and is one of the 43 districts that make up the capital of Peru.  With a population of 355,761 (50.17% of which are women) and an annual population growth rate of 3%, this district is one of the largest in the city.  Due to its geographical characteristics, its rate of urbanization is barely more tan 20%, while the rest of the municipal territory (some 70.57 km2) is unoccupied, with large vacant areas like streams, hills, areas under high-tension wires, etc. The Economically Active Population (EAP) of the district represents 36% of its inhabitants.  Of these, only 13% have adequate employment, 76% are

underemployed and 10% unemployed.  57% of the population lives in poverty, and 22% in extreme poverty.  Poverty and a lack of jobs limit the access of the population to food, leaving thousands to go to bed hungry each night.  As a result, 23% of children under 8 are malnourished.

MOST IMPORTANT TYPES OF URBAN AGRICULTURE

According to the situational assessment of urban agriculture in Villa Maria del Triunfo carried out within the framework of the Cities Farming for the Future Program (CFF), the most common practices are: 

- Producing inputs, like organic fertilizer (compost) and seedlings.
- Growing crops and livestock, 83% of the farmers produce vegetables, 45% fruit, 31% aromatic plants, 18% ornamental plants and 52% raise small animals, mostly to contribute to household food security.
- Product transformation, 20% of the farmers occasionally process their products (jellies, jams, sweets).
- Commercializing products, 20% of farmers sell their products within the district itself. 

 

LIMITATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN AGRICULTURE

Urban farmers, municipal officials, organizations and institutions of Villa Maria del Triunfo identified the following limitations and opportunities for urban agriculture in their district:

Limitations Awareness-raising and promotion.  The population has little information about the contribution of urban agriculture in improving the district and its inhabitants. Training and technical assistance.  The current availability of training is not sufficient to improve production and ensure the sustainability of the farms. Resources are still insufficient to implement and improve the urban farms or gardens. Physical insecurity, there is no security to protect the farms from robbery or vandalism. Water. Villa Maria del Triunfo, located in desert area, faces a severe water scarcity problem. Commercialization. There is still no strategy for selling the urban agriculture products produced in the district. Regulatory framework.  There are no specific municipal ordinances that promote or facilitate the development of urban agriculture in the district.

Opportunities Municipal political will.  Urban agriculture is a strategic activity for the local government in its struggle against poverty.  This is reflected in its inclusion in the Comprehensive Development Plan to 2010 and in the creation of an urban agriculture office within the municipal structure.  Local know-how. Much of the population is familiar with agricultural work since they are recent immigrants from the countryside. A population that participates. There is a strong tradition of participation in social organizations and community work, which facilitates the development of urban agriculture. The presence of strategic allies.  Public and private institutions and the civil society are interested in reaching consensus and cooperate with other stakeholders to promote urban agriculture in the district. Commercialization, there is a potential demand in the local market (with 239 community kitchens and 81 markets in the district) for urban agriculture products. Vacant areas, in Villa Maria del Triunfo there are available spaces (hillsides, common areas, land under high-tension wires) that can be used to practice urban agriculture, if they are recuperated with the appropriate techniques.

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

The Municipality of VMT has a Sub-Department of Urban Agriculture through which it promotes urban agriculture as a strategy to improve food security of the population living in poverty and extreme poverty and to generate complementary household income.

Since 2005, the Municipality, with the support of IPES and the RUAF Foundation, initiated a multi-stakeholder strategic planning process (PMPEA) as a part of the global Cities Farming for the Future program, in order to consolidate the activity and to scale it up in terms of the range of issues addressed (food security, job and income creation, and environmental management) and the target population and institutions (involving more local institutions).

The process includes 4 stages:  Strengthening Local Capacities, Diagnostic Assessment, Strategic Planning, and Implementation. Currently, the process is in the implementation phase, with a Multi-stakeholder forum in which the main participants in urban agriculture in the city have formulated and designed, in a participatory manner, a Strategic Plan for Urban Agriculture for Villa Maria del Triunfo.  Various strategic actions established in the plan are being implemented by the members of the Urban Agriculture Forum.

 

EXAMPLES OF PROJECTS

CCF pilot project

Within the framework of the CCF program, IPES, the RUAF Foundation and the Municipality of Villa Maria del Triunfo, with co-financing from the Energy Network in Peru, have implemented a pilot project encompassing 4000 square meters in the area of Inca Pachacutec.  The pilot project has been named the Pacaras Productive Learning Center and will benefit 12 families.  As its name indicates, it is a multifunctional space which combines a productive area with an area where new urban production technologies will be researched (i.e. hard ground production) and a learning center where farmers will be trained.

IPES-REP Project
Since early 2006, the Energy Network of Peru has been financing the implementation of farms located below the power line right-of-way in Villa Maria del Triunfo.  Called “Building technical and organizational capacities for managing holistic productive units in Villa Maria del Triunfo,��? this project currently includes four farms (total area, 1 hectare) which benefits 45 farming families.  The activities have improved the technical-productive abilities of the famers, and improved their nutrition while generating complementary income, as they have begun to sell their products locally.

IPES-Cordaid Project
IPES and Cordaid (Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid) from the Netherlands implemented a project entitled “Optimizing water management to combat urban poverty:  developing productive and recreational areas through the use of treated wastewater��? in Tablada de Lurin, one of the seven zones into which the district is organized.  The goal of the project is to implement a wastewater treatment system to re-use water in multi-functional and productive green areas.  This novel concept makes it possible to integrate urban agriculture with other spaces intended for recreation (green areas), cultural promotion and community education.  Over the next two years (2007-2008), an arid area of 2.5 hectares, currently vacant, will be transformed, directly benefitting 40 families and indirectly benefitting over 300.

 

RESULTS SO FAR

Strengthening local capacities

• As a result of the political seminar and exchange in the city of Rosario (Argentina), municipal decision-makers were made aware and expanded their vision of the impact of UA, and reinforced their commitment to the multi-stakeholder process.
• The workshop-course allowed technicians from the municipality and IPES to increase their understanding of UA, build capacities to develop the UA assessment in a participatory and gender-sensitive manner; design and carry out the strategic planning process; build the multi-stakeholder platform, revise and develop legal and institutional frameworks for UA and design/negotiate projects.
• The process and its methodology has reinforced the decentralization of the activities of the sub-department of urban agriculture of the municipality, transferring its efforts of capacity-building, technical assistance, etc. toward the seven zones of the district.
• During the process, the urban farmers have progressed in their levels of organization, a network has been formed (which is in the process of being legalized) and coordinators and sub-coordinators have been democratically elected in each of the district’s seven zones.

 

Diagnostic Assessment

• There is now qualitative and quantitative information available about the situation of urban agriculture and  the urban agriculturalists of Villa Maria (the results of the situational analysis were summarized in the publication called “Villa Maria Planting for Life��?). 
• The stakeholders who are directly linked to, along with those who are interested in getting involved in the local process (the vision of urban agriculture, issues of interest, contributions and roles in promoting it, etc.) have been identified and described.
• Vacant areas that are available and suitable for urban agriculture have been identified and mapped out.
• An analysis has been done of the legal-regulatory framework related UA in Villa Maria del Triunfo

 

Strategic Planning

• There is a multi-stakeholder platform for dialogue, consensus-building and decision-making (the Urban Agriculture Forum of Villa Maria del Triunfo) which includes local government institutions, international cooperation agencies, universities, NGOs, civil society organizations and representatives of the urban agriculture network.  The forum has been organized into working groups based on thematic expertise and institutional interests. 
• The Urban Agriculture Forum designed and validated the Strategic Urban Agriculture Plan in VMT. 

 
Implementation

Currently, the working groups of the Urban Agriculture Forum are implementing the strategic actions included in the Plan.  Some of the results of these efforts include:

• Pilot project designed and implemented (co-financed by the CCF program).
• A training plan for developed and implemented to build the organizational and technical capacities of the Urban Agriculture Network.
• The urban farmers designed, in a participatory fashion, a logo and brand to commercialize their products. 
• A wastewater treatment plant is being designed together with a multi-functional productive space.
• A recipe book was written and published, which includes recipes contributed by the urban farmers using the products from their farms and gardens.
• The urban farmers carry out periodic activities to sell their products through farmers’ markets.
• An Urban Agriculture Week was organized in Villa Maria del Triunfo (last week of August 2007).

REFERENCES

• Villa Maria Planting for Life
Situation, limitations, potential and stakeholders for urban agriculture in Villa Maria del Triunfo

• City Agenda for Urban Agriculture in Villa Maria del Triunfo (2007-2011)

• Video on urban agriculture in Villa Maria del Triunfo

CONTACTS

Noemí Soto
Local coordinator of the Multi-stakeholder Process, IPES/RUAF
Lima, Peru
E-mail: noemi@ipes.org.pe

Gunther Merzthal
Regional Coordinator for Latin American and the Caribbean, IPES/RUAF
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. Click here to return to the worldmap.