The role of homegardens in the conservation of vegetable diversity in a suburban pluricultural area (La Plata, Argentina)

TITO, G.; PÉREZ, M.; MAIDANA, A.; BRAVO, M.L.; POCHETTINO, MARIA LELIA

Estambul, Turquía

Congreso; IVth International Congress of Ethnobotany (ICEB 2005); 2005

Yeditepe University

The study  zone is situated in the periphery of La Plata, capital of the province of Buenos Aires. An important horicultural belt is located in its outskirts which production provides of vegetables  for the big cities? consumption, ruled by market demands. In the last years several small horticulture producers have had difficulties in finding competitive answers to those demands and consequently some of them have decided to turn their production systems into one that does not involve the use of agrotoxics, focused in the production of their own seeds and in the use of techniques based on ecological principles. In order to do that, they have restored cultivars adapted to the local agroecological conditions that present a lower incidence of plagues and diseases, and represent  a genetic material suitable for the pretended production. The purpose of this contribution is to record those cultivars and the traditional knowledge referred to them. Through ethnobotanical methodology the botanical materials and information associated in 40 domestic units of Parque Pereyra were registered. Through participative techniques, their cultivation and conservation  were promoted: socializing the results of the technical innovations for the development of these cultivations and exchanging experiences,  decreasing the costs by employing low consumable techniques and consolidating new marketing channels. Three typical cultivars of Cucurbita maxima var. zapallito, Foeniculum vulgare and Beta vulgaris var. cycla have been recorded, resulting of forty years of selection. Their features as well as the value assigned to them in the diversification of the periurban horticulture are discussed.