Abstract
The urgent need to implement agricultural systems that provide greater sustainability and resilience to the challenges of the climate change process has meant that alternative paradigms for agri-food systems and agriculture have become more relevant in recent times. In this study, we present the building process and consolidation of an agro-ecological project (Extiercol) in a rural area of southern Spain, with a prolonged depopulation process and close connections to nearby urban areas. Through participatory action research, the specific objectives of this study are (1) to describe the agroecological collective process from its creation by a youth association to its establishment as a viable agricultural project; (2) to identify the drivers for the development of this type of transition process towards agricultural sustainability and (3) to analyse urban-rural alliances in the establishment of agroecological projects. Finally, the replicability of this project was assessed, with a special focus on the main barriers to be addressed in order to implement this agricultural system such as difficult to land access or a negative perception of sustainable management by farmers. Through this study we have shown how the connection between the food production area and nearby urban areas can be achieved through an agroecological project.
Highlights
Agricultural land comprises 9.1% of the territory in Spain [1]; in these areas, the transition from organic to conventional agricultural systems took place within a short period of time in the 20th century [2]
There was a link between urban growth and expansion; capital accumulation; concentration of the means of production, technologies, innovations and power and the configuration of decapitalised spaces characterised by unemployment, a lack of productive structure, sluggish economic activity and population decline in rural areas [4]
The introduction of ‘greening’ measures in the 2013 EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform was intended to reduce the environmental effects of agricultural intensification; these measures have had limited environmental impacts [7,8]
Summary
Agricultural land comprises 9.1% of the territory in Spain [1]; in these areas, the transition from organic to conventional agricultural systems took place within a short period of time in the 20th century [2]. There was a link between urban growth and expansion; capital accumulation; concentration of the means of production, technologies, innovations and power and the configuration of decapitalised spaces characterised by unemployment, a lack of productive structure, sluggish economic activity and population decline in rural areas [4] In this context, a territorial relationship of domination and inequality is re-created in which the rural areas are isolated and reduced to a dependent and submissive space for the extraction and production of resources and labour. The link between the supply of local agricultural products and the provision of ecosystem services may be one of the keys to a future shift towards more sustainable regional agroecosystems In this sense, according to [12] “The agroecosystem is regarded as an epistemological tool for creating an ontology or representation of agriculture based on a system view”. The ecosystem services valuation and an equitable value chain with farmers seem to be fundamental aspects
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