Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

On July 11, the final event of the European project on urban and peri-urban agriculture Interreg Med MADRE was held in El Prat de Llobregat.

This event was the occasion to present all the results of the project and to debate and address the priorities for action to consolidate metropolitan agriculture within a sustainable food system.

The MADRE project is characterized by being an innovative project that faces the challenges of urban and peri-urban agriculture promotion and has key partners to create transnational and multisectoral collaboration in the Mediterranean area.

Key project results

Xavier Tiana, MedCities Secretary General and head of International Relations of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), and Raimon Roda i Noya, manager of the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park Consortium welcomed the event and introduced the session.

This event was the occasion to present all the key results of the project and eight future recommendations were presented in a policy paper published with the support of Llaurant Barcelona. As an example of the steps to follow after the project is closed, the creation of the AGRI-MADRE platform on metropolitan agriculture and food systems in the Mediterranean. In addition, the participants of Lavola association presented a compilation of metropolitan initiatives aligned with the MADRE Project recommendations.

Finally, Gemma Francès Tudel, from Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park moderated the round table that brought together different AMB department's representatives from the Strategic Planning area, Infrastructure, Social and Economic Development department and a political representative from Sant Boi de Llobregat City Council. The main debate issues focused on the need of a transversal point of view on management policies related to urban and peri-urban agriculture. This is how the local agricultural system challenges would be addressed in a more efficient way. After the debate, a speaking time was opened, where the participants were able to get involved and contribute to the conclusions of the debate.

The MADRE project has capitalized relevant academic knowledge, pilot actions and cooperation networks, in order to allow metropolitan agriculture to reach high levels of expertise and start new networking processes. This project began on February 2017 and will close on July 31 2018, and has addressed the main challenges of the six Mediterranean metropolises participating in the project - Barcelona, Montpellier, Marseille, Bologna, Tirana and Thessaloniki-, and has worked to agree on eight policy recommendations regarding the issue of urban and peri-urban agriculture.