Italy: Youth resilience through urban agroecology in Rome

Food Hero Lorenzo Artibani: “We believe that a transformation of our food systems implies reconnecting people to nature.”

FAO
2021

Excerpt:

Through Orto 2.0 anyone can “rent” a 50 m2 plot to create its vegetable garden in the countryside of Rome, Italy, with the advantage to have a team of 4 young farmers taking care of each aspect of the growing process: sowing, transplanting, cultivating, harvesting, and delivering.

Users are provided with an app for mobile devices, through which they can set up their virtual vegetable patch choosing from a list of seasonal vegetables to plant. During the crop programming, users are guided by an intercropping system, to help them obtain greater yields. Through the same app, users can follow the status of their vegetable garden by receiving timely updates on each step of the growing cycle.

Orto 2.0 is a flexible tool, and it is up to users to decide to what extent they want to be involved in the handwork. For the most curious and eager to learn, the team offers training on vegetable gardening. Once the vegetables are ready to harvest the users receive a notification and can select whether to go to the field and collect their crops in person or to receive them at home within three hours after harvest. In this way, vegetables’ high quality and freshness are guaranteed.

Read the complete article here.