The PROBOT, the land bank that manages the cultivation lands of the Lower Llobregat AgrarianPark, has integrated into the Land Banks Network promoted by the Barcelona Provincial Council. This network aims to facilitate access to land for agricultural entrepreneurs, recover unused cultivation fields, and promote local and sustainable agriculture. With this addition, the service now has 295 available plots, representing 604 hectares of vegetable gardens, orchards, vineyards, drylands, and pastures.

The incorporation of PROBOT into the Land Banks Network represents an opportunity to revitalize the agricultural sector of the LowerLlobregat Agrarian Park, which has great economic, social, and environmental importance for the province of Barcelona. PROBOT offers landowners a free service for the management and dissemination of their lands, and to those interested in leasing them, technical and legal support to formalize contracts.

The addition of PROBOT to the Land Banks Network has received a positive evaluation from Sònia Callau, head of the Agrarian Territorial Directorate of the Barcelona Provincial Council. Callau has emphasized that «this network is key to ensuring the future of agriculture in Barcelona, in addition to contributing to food security, landscape preservation, and the fight against forest fires». She has also stated that «PROBOT is a strategic project for the park, as it will reactivate abandoned lands and generate new job and business opportunities for young farmers».

A centralized web platform
PROBOT is the land bank of the Lower Llobregat Agrarian Park, which manages the agricultural lands of this protected area of ​​almost 3,000 hectares, located in the lower part of the Llobregat river delta. The service was created in 2019 with the support of the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Consortium of the Agrarian Park, and aims to revitalize the rental and sale market of agricultural land, facilitating contact between owners and interested farmers. With the incorporation of PROBOT into the Land Banks Network, offers and demands for cultivation lands can be consulted online through a centralized web platform, where the characteristics of available estates can also be explored. Currently, the land bank of the Lower Llobregat Agrarian Park offers 13 plots, with a total area of ​​5.26 hectares.

The Land Banks Network of Catalonia
The Land Banks Network of Catalonia is a pioneering initiative in Europe that the Barcelona Provincial Council has co-financed since 2018 under the BCN Smart Rural program. Currently, the network hosts ten publicly managed land banks distributed throughout Catalonia, although most of the actions focus on six of the existing agrarian parks in the Barcelona province: the Lower Llobregat Agrarian Park, Montserrat Rural Park, the Lower Tordera Agrarian Space, the Odena Basin Agrarian Park, the Mataró Agrarian Space, and the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees Rural Park. In addition, the Land Bank of Sant Vicenç dels Horts also forms part of this network, along with the land banks of Les Garrigues, Priorat, and Baix Camp.

Since its inception, the service has experienced significant growth, not only in the quantity and extension of available plots but also in the number of formal applicants and citizens interested in cultivating unused agricultural and livestock estates. More than a hundred people have shown interest in one of the offered fields, and of these, 74% have submitted formal applications. During the last year, land applicants have grown by more than 29%, and a total of 16.2 hectares have been recovered between cultivations and pastures. 

For more information about the land banks under the BCN Smart Rural program, please contact Pere Navarro, engineer of the Agrarian Territorial Directorate of the Barcelona Provincial Council.

— BCN Smart Rural Editorial —