“Financial leverage and project advice”: Activ’Cités highlights its urban market gardening project and its partnership with ECT. Visit ECT’s urban market gardening zone is nearing completion this autumn, after a month of inert earthworks, terracing the plots and laying a fertile substrate.
What are Activ' cités' plans for the Grenay site?
Activ’cités is a local authority that works to improve the quality of life for residents of Bully-les-Mines, Grenay, Mazingarbe and Sains-en-Gohelle. With this in mind, the Régie is planning to set up a market-garden farm in this Grenay housing estate, which is part of a Priority Urban Neighborhood (Quartier Prioritaire de la Politique de la Ville – QPV). With a dual objective of social support and economic revitalization.
In concrete terms, what are your ambitions?
Firstly, to build bridges to employment, with around ten people a year on fixed-term integration contracts. Secondly, to be a vector of social cohesion within the neighborhood, with the participation of volunteers in market gardening activities and urban ecology events. Then, to develop a short circuit of nourishing and inclusive agriculture: local production at lower prices. But also to create a dynamic for local residents to cultivate their own vegetable garden.
What will the market gardening activity involve?
Activity will start in 2024. It will include the cultivation of a dozen or so species or varieties of fruit and vegetables traditionally grown in market gardening, using a “culture raisonnée” approach. We also want to plant an orchard. In the next 3 to 5 years, our ambition is to move towards organic farming.
How do you see the partnership with ECT?
This partnership provided financial leverage. It enabled us to put the central plot under cultivation and make the market gardening project viable. We’re very sensitive to the circular economy: inert soil from the construction industry was used to earth the cultivation areas, and fertile soil was recreated by mixing it with green waste compost.
ECT also advised us on the organization of the trays and paths to optimize future market gardening. Finally, we have joined forces to combat the invasion of the site by Japanese Knotweed.
Activ’Cités, a local authority
Activ’Cités is a local association that works to integrate people in difficulty in the Lens-Liévin area, and more specifically in the towns of Bully-les-Mines, Grenay, Mazingarbe and Sains-en-Gohelle. It offers a range of activities to maintain green spaces and improve the living environment, while at the same time supporting civic initiatives.
