Lezioni apprese da una lunga esperienza di cooperazione internazionale a supporto dell’agricoltura urbana di Dakar, il caso dei Microjardins

Urban agriculture (UA) is nowadays called to enhance metropolitan resilience in front of a more and more industrialized food chain. One of the many International Cooperation for Development focuses is nowadays on UA. In this paper we discuss the history and diffusion of Microgardening in Dakar, Senegal, drawing some final lessons from this long-lasting project. Since 1999, Microgardens’ network in Dakar received different and various supports. The paper resumes the activities conducted by the University of Milan during the last two years and focuses on the data collection and analysis related to two specific activities: GIS implementation and value chain analysis. ESRI ARC GIS was used to produce participatory cartography and Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) technique was used to collect information about the Microgardens value chain in Dakar. Building on the results of the Microgardens programme in Dakar we can suggest three general features that should be taken into account when planning future interventions on urban food systems.