With the purpuse of developing a large agroecological productive area that will be used in a responsable and sustainable way, on 2017 the Ministry of Production of Santa Fe Province, launched the project “Santa Fe´s Metropolitan Agricultural Park”, which is integrated by five districts nearby Santa Fe: Recreo, Monte Vera, Arroyo Aguiar, San José del Rincón y Arroyo Leyes. These locations concentrate around 600 rural business such as horticultural production and livestock activities.
The Ministry requested UNL´s assistance and created an interdisciplinary team formed by teachers and researchers from the Architecture, Design and Urbanism Faculty (FADU), the Water Sciences Faculty (FICH) and the Agricultural Sciences Faculty (FCA).
After signing an agreement for the requested assistance and consultancy, UNL drafted a document to settle the technical support needed for this Park’s creation. The document systematize and completes notions and concepts as a contribution to this area’s collective construction process.
The investigation is directed by the architect Graciela Mantovani, Professor at FADU and Master in Urban Management. She claimed: “Other Academic Units such as FCA and FICH joined the project, because it is an interjurisdictional and interdisciplinary subject, and so it was very important for the investigation that the actors involved had a great knowledge of the territory from different perspectives. After the investigation, we developed the maps to adress a new way of use of the “Periurban land”.
The figure of Periurban land
The Park is an emblematic territorial management figure, designed to protect and boost a specific area with an identity and tradition of it’s own.
This periurban and agricultural zone which is being pressured by urban growth, has to continue it’s activity essentially devoted to food production for a metropolitan area compounded by more than 500.000 inhabitants. This job must be done in harmony with ecological and social values.
Taking in consideration the territorial management drafts for regulation, there are two kind of lands: urban and rural. In this case, the Ministry’s suggestion was to incorpórate a third category: the periurban land.“We worked on the definition of periruban and also of the agricultural park as a territorial regulator. This definition process was challenging when we tried to take it to a concrete level. The concept of periurban park, to us, is an under construction definition and we continue investigating” said Mantovani. “Our perspective is to continue digging into this topic because it is a complex, diverse and dynamic territory; it is in continuous change. It is not rural but neither urban, nevertheless it encloses a lot of activities that the city can not sustain amongst it’s surface, activities that are not rural activities either”, she added.
In that sense, it is important to continue the investigation in order to find solutions to the problems that may be present in territories that are in permanent conflict between the production of food and the use of phytosanitary products. New strategies are needed for this activities to continue in a more sustainable way, having in consideration that these lands are next to houses and residential areas.
The importance of knowledge transfer
UNL’s help was requested by the provincial government to participate from the project “Santa Fe´s Metropolitan Agricultural Park”. Researchers had to investigate the impact of current territorial management of the periurban lands and nearby areas. Through a Highly Specialized Third Party Services (SAT) contract, the investigation begun, involving several academic units.
After the Ministry requested UNL’s intervention, the Investigation Results Transfer Centre (Cetri Litoral), along with the intervening academic units, called and joined a specialized investigation group that atended this public demand. The SAT is a mecanism for the association of different groups and institutes devoted to investigation and development inside UNL and the region.
“This activity is a good example of UNL’s contribution to territorial studies for future formulation of public policies. Our university shares it’s knowledge and methods on the seek of a better quality of life amongst it’s area of influence. Also, it is important to highlight the power of these teamwork instances between the public sector and universities”, emphasized Cetri Litoral’s director, Christián Nemichenitzer.
This investigation’s director commented: “As participants of the developing environment, we think transference is crucial as a way of giving back something possitive to society. What we produce is thought to have any sense of construction and actual visibility, even if it’s in an indirect way as it is a public policy”. On the other hand, she highlited “inside university and our classes, to talk about this experience has a positive impact, because it is an actual and concrete experience of our own”.
The bill
The Production Ministry developes a bill about the creation of agricultural parks, entities or subentities, in order to give this project an institutional frame. In that sense, the law strenghten the management of land’s uses and sets up a public policy that increases the quality of life of the population.
“The process developed along with the Ministry was collaborative. It was held in three instances:
First we obtained information about the territory, and after that there were other collaborative instances like workshops and focus groups in which several institutions, local governments, producers, and citizens, etc., were involved”, commented Graciela Mantovani.
The first results of this projects are related to the actual bill and also with the topic discussed between the ministry and municipalities, to settle which would be an accurate management plan in accordance with each territorial particularities.
The university extension award
The team formed by architects Victoria Ivón García, María Celeste Peralta Flores, Mirta Graciela Soijet and Graciela Mantovani, won the first prize for University Extension at the XXXVIII event and XXIII ARQUISUR Conference (Public Architecture Schools and Faculties Association from South America). It took place on October 2nd, 3rd and 4th 2019, at Federal de Minas Gerais University, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
The project entitled “To strenghten Santa Fe´s Metropolitan Agricultural Park”, was presented under Category C: Assistance or Technology Transfer. Thereon, Mantovani said that “this award make us very proud. We put a lot of effort and work on the investigation process, the relation with the environment and also knowledge transfer. We reached our goals successfully”.
