Urban agriculture (UA) stimulating the participative management in the construction of social politics

The debate about UA contributes with the democratization in the use of the urban spaces approximating public power and civil society. With the aim of coming up with a study about the institutional relations in the making process of the UA politics, this research has analyzed the methodological strategy Multi-stakeholder Policy formulat ion and Action Planning on Urban Agriculture (MPAP) from the program Cities Farming for the Future (CFF) in the city of Belo Horizonte/MG, the unique experience of its kind in Brazil. The research methodology has integrated the participative observation and pre-structured interviews. By having as study references Foucault (2010), McAdam et a.l (2008) and Long (2007), it was possible to see, through the actors interface relations, the differences towards interests and agency power among the actors for the effectiveness of the cooperative actions. The capacity of the UA was very well emphasized presenting itself as a useful structure for politic opportunity, considering the possibilities for planning and implementing intersectorial actions between actors and socio-economic, environmental and urban politics. The originality of the results is in the exercise of participative management during the creation process and implementation of the UA. All this process has increased the discussion of the UA to the actors involved in the fight movement for housing and urban reform; the UA was included as one economic activity defined as category of use of land allowed in the city, that has been approved by the law 9.959/2010 that updates the law of use and urban land occupation. It has also been approved the law 10.255/2011 that institutes the UA city policy. The totality of actors involved in this discussion has influenced to the incorporation of the UA in the Director Plan for Development and Integration of Belo Horizonte surrounded urban region.