The Sowing Our Garden program will carry out community projects in 60 spaces of 12 municipalities in the country. The initiative will be partially financed with funds of 12 million pesos provided by the Planning and Budget Office (OPP). In addition, it is supported by the Ministries of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, and the Environment.
The event, held on Tuesday 26 at the Executive Tower, was headed by the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou. The president was accompanied by the deputy director of the OPP, Benjamín Irazabal; the general coordinator of the Decentralization and Cohesion Area of that organization, María de Lima, and the promoter of Sembrando, Lorena Ponce de León.
In addition, the Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, Álvaro Delgado; the assistant secretary, Rodrigo Ferrés; the interim Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Juan Ignacio Buffa; the director of Citizen Coexistence of the Ministry of the Interior, Santiago González, as well as mayors and representatives of the municipalities, and mayors from all over the country.
On this occasion, the OPP will lead Community Gardens in localities of 12 departments. For this, 30 agreements were signed with the respective municipalities that will execute the projects starting this year, for about 12 million pesos. In 2021, another 30 agreements were signed.
The general coordinator of the Decentralization and Cohesion Area, María de Lima, explained that this project represents a commitment to generating spaces for dialogue, meeting and exchange, in favor of coexistence and the promotion of tolerance, while generating environmental policies.
For her part, Lorena Ponce de León explained that, through a call for competition that included the 125 municipalities of the country, 60 proposals for orchard development were selected. Some of the benefited initiatives are already being implemented and require improvements, she specified, in addition, she highlighted their importance to value the work on the land. Likewise, she underlined the social containment and community work that these experiences generate and the educational contribution that they have.
Irazabal, meanwhile, highlighted the articulation carried out by Sembrando with representatives of different sectors of society and emphasized the work carried out by the intendants and mayors for the arrival of policies in the territory.
Sowing Our Garden is a nationwide initiative to promote the importance of growing and self-managing healthy food, through the use of common spaces, and the promotion of citizen participation. The project is based on three themes: environment, health and community.
