Agroecology as a territorial response in a decolonial key: approaches from the horticultural belt of la plata

aproximaciones desde el cinturón hortícola platense

Abstract

The horticultural belt of La Plata (CHP) is a territory characterised by the presence of horticulture as an intensive productive activity. In this paper, we will focus on how agroecological farmers, belonging to the agroecology area of the Federación Rural por el Producción y el Arraigo, use agroecology to elaborate a territorial resistance in a decolonial key that questions and seeks to transform the dominant horticultural production-commercialisation model of the CHP, whose territorial configuration is an expression of the coloniality of power, applied to horticultural activity. The methodology used combined a reading and literature review with the results of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with three women peasant from the agroecology area of the Rural Federation. As a result, we found that women peasant, thanks to agroecology, recover the human dimension in their practices, as well as the health dimension, and especially the capacity to transform their reality. Therefore, we argue that, through agroecology and organisation, peasant question and transform the colonial forms of domination of the dominant horticultural model of the CHP, revaluing their role as food producers and thus decolonising power, being, knowledge and nature.