Agreements and challenges in a participatory horticultural guarantee system

Abstract

This experience takes place in the district of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires province, located 60 km from the Buenos Aires Autonomous City (CABA). In its peri-urban area, the development of the horticultural production stands out and it is mainly in hands of families and workers which are mostly Bolivian migrants (Benencia and Quaranta, 2009). It is currently part of, together with the districts of Berazategui and Florencio Varela, the productive horticultural belt that surrounds the CABA, which represents the largest production of fresh vegetables of Argentina, supplying mainly the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires with 16 million habitants (Barsky, 2013). This narration aims to share and ponder on the need to redefine the agreements during the implementation of the Participatory Guarantee System (SPG) of the Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences of the National University of La Plata (FCAyF-UNLP). During its elaboration and implementation, farmer families, research-extension teachers and students of the faculty, researchers of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) and field technicians work together. The zonal production supplies a large part of the urban center of CABA and the first suburban belts. About 15-20 % reaches the consumers through direct commercialization channels, mainly fairs and delivery of vegetable bags. The rest is marketed through hub markets with no differentiation of the agroecological productive management and with the participation of numerous intermediaries that distance farmer families from consumer families.