In order to regulate the increasing number of allotment gardens in cities, the Campania region published a number of policies directed at “social and community gardens” with three key components: “social assistance, town planning, and zonal management”.

Allotment gardens in Italy increased 4% with two million square meters in 77 key urban centers between 2016 and 2017. This phenomenon pressed municipalities, and Regions like the Campania Region in the south of Italy, to adopt regulations and allotment-based management schemes within an urban agricultural context.

In accordance with the Regional Law No. 5, dated 30 March 2012, the Campania region put together regionwide oversight developing its social agricultural programs—a platform that provisions “eco-friendly development and a bottom-up stance in the form of EGI governance”. In 2009, the region published a number of policies directed at “social and community gardens” with three key components: “social assistance, town planning, and zonal management”.

Self-production of food in urban areas in Campania has several benefits, including food and environmental education, development of bartering among tenants, recovery of traditional crops, development of organic agriculture, promotion of new forms of socialization, training in biological horticultural techniques and orthotherapy, psychosocial rehabilitation, and physical and motor skills development.

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