(Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2021-12-26) Fontalvo Buelvas, Juan Camilo; de la Cruz Elizondo, Yadeneyro
University vegetable patches are small spaces which have been created firstly for educational and productive purposes. However, these city green areas offer much more than learning and food. From a human development perspective, these cultivated spaces could be a channel to simultaneously satisfy fundamental human needs. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explain the relationship between university gardens and the satisfaction of fundamental human needs through a bibliographic and experiential approach from the Agroecological Garden of the Faculty of Biology at Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico. This exploratory research was carried out following the case study methodology, which distinguishes four stages: formulation of the reflection question, unit of analysis, information gathering methods and instruments, and information analysis. The results showed that vegetable patches at universities can respond primarily to the satisfaction of leisure, understanding, participation and identity needs, and, to a lesser extent, to the needs of subsistence, protection, creation, freedom, and affection. Some benefits associated with meeting needs in these cultivated spaces are related to urban sustainability and social well-being, fundamental aspects promoted by urban agroecology. The conjectures described here may represent an important starting point for a more in-depth discussion of the relationship between gardens and human needs. In the future it will be necessary to visualize those methodological tools that allow describing the processes and social phenomena raised here.
