ABSTRACT
Although it is not Milan’s claim to fame, it is a large agricultural metropolis. The city is surrounded by a belt formed by two regional parks. Saved from industrial and real estate pressures, these parks constitute some of the most fertile plains in the world. In addition to a considerable historical-architectural heritage, the rural landscape has maintained its character rather than identity and production characteristics. The irrigation water system and water meadows still constitute a unique landscape: a mosaic of agroecosystems consisting of woods, marshes, meadows, watercourses, and, of course, crops. In particular, cereals rotated according to the ancient cereal and fodder-livestock vocation. In recent decades, these traditional destinations have been joined by the production of vegetables, fruit, and small farmyard farms, mostly organic and primarily aimed at the Milanese market.In 2019, the Neo-Rural District of the Three Waters of Milan obtained funding from the Lombardy region to improve their agroecosystem as part of the 2014–2020 Rural Development Programme and launch of the Biodistretto dei Navigli Integrated Area Project.
