Policies to promote Agroecology: contributions from a Buenos Aires Experimental Station in the period 2020-2023

Abstract

Agroecology has grown as an approach that can provide answers to the social, economic, environmental and productive unsustainability of the dominant model of horticultural production in the province of Buenos Aires. In recent years, there has been growing institutional recognition of agroecology and the incipient implementation of public policies by the provincial government. In this framework, we describe the institutional management process of the Gorina Experimental Station (EEG-MDA) belonging to the state of Buenos Aires during the period 2020-2023, in which it managed to achieve recognition as an Agroecological Unit. Different public policy instruments are addressed to promote agroecology—innovation and management of agroecological knowledge, access to resources, access to markets and food security—in the layout and construction of the agroecological profile of this experimental station. In terms of impact on public policies, the actions carried out in the EEG-MDA in the period analyzed achieved technical results that strengthen the advance of agroecological management in the territory. This experience shows the relevant role that this space of the provincial State can assume in the generation of knowledge and technologies of agroecological management for a public policy that strengthens sustainable productive development, that improves the quality of life and the quality of food produced for the Buenos Aires population.