Creado por Tianguis Irrazonable

Since pre-Columbian times the chinampas have been a traditional farming method and they still are an example of sustainability and productivity.

The chinampas have the potential to provide healthy food of high quality grown in a fair way to present and future generations of Mexico City. However, Xochimilco, its culture and their farming practices are being lost. The abandonment of the fields, the low water quantity and poor quality and informal urban growth are a few examples that put at risk the area of conservation and impedes its productive potential.

With our work we have impacted around 150 persons. With your help we can reach more families and continue to protect the chinampero system as a holder of a universal richness that still offers authenticity and integrity in its values.

------ For whom?
Today, around 16,000 abandoned chinampas exist in the area, which have the potential to become productive. The resting chinampas that are in use are not all destined to agriculture.

San Gregorio Atlapulco is the town with the largest proportion of chinampas in use, and even though it has the characteristics of urban life, it still conserves its rural roots and activities. At the same time, it is suffering from the increased frequency and magnitude of extreme climate events, such as droughts, frosts or floods that affect crops and livelihoods in general.

With a group of farmers of San Gregorio we are working on an experimental and learning chinampa, whilst developing a program to increase the capacity of research, reflection and innovation in the community. Thus, they are able to adapt their practices and their crops to these challenges.

Our project is based on a participatory method where the local actors are the main source of diagnosis and proposals. In this way, their active participation is stimulated and they are not just beneficiaries of the project.

------ Our solution:
Over three years we have worked in different communities and have been able to reactivate several chinampas and incorporate more farmers into the collective.

The project is designed based on the community’s identity, where the xochimilca ancestral agricultural tradition is the link between the people and their territory, and their interest in conserving it. Our objective is that the beneficiaries turn into active and proactive actors therefore turn into multiplying agents, so in the medium and long term aim to replicate and scale this experience in different communities in Xochimilco.

We co-design and implement tangible solutions to production problems through transformative learning experiences focused on three lines of action:
1. Agroecology
2. Business development
3. Community organization


Our focus on reaching more resilience in the community is based on training the farmers to innovate, research and adapt to new conditions. We also seek to improve economic profitability through stimulating market-based diversification of production and through supporting commercialization in higher value chains. With a central line of action of developing a cooperation between local actors we aim to strengthen the community.

------- Who are we?
A non-profit organization that develops and implements transdisciplinary innovation projects, as well as research and consulting in the fields of agriculture, food and community development.

Our aim is to combine the rescue and dissemination of the agricultural patrimonial heritage with the implementation of new tools and techniques, boosting the future of agriculture.

The collective is formed by Charlotte, David, Francesca, Raúl and Silvia, together with farmers from La Espejera in San Gregorio Atlapulco.

To develop this project we are collaborating with the Instituto Internacional de Recursos Renovables, la Universidad del Medio Ambiente, Pronatura, Centro de Innovación CEMEX - Tec de Monterrey, makesense and other private, public and academic organizations.


------ Conversion rates for rewards:
- Chapines (seedlings) $100 mxn / $5 usd
- Adopt an Ahuejote $200 mxn / $10 usd
- Veggie basket $500 mxn / $25 usd
- Ahuejote Experience $800 mxn / $40 usd
- Adopt a hive $3000 mxn / $150 usd