Urban Farming - A Sustainable Model For Indian Cities
etInternational Journal on Emerging Technologies 8(1): 236-242(2017)ISSN No. (Print) : 0975-8364ISSN No. (Online) : 2249-3255Urban Farming - A Sustainable Model for Indian CitiesHari Prasad Agarwal and Radha SinhaAffiliation-1,affiliation-2(Corresponding author: Hari Prasad Agarwal)(Received 27 December, 2016 accepted 16 January, 2017)(Published by Research Trend, Website: www.researchtrend.net)ABSTRACT: The population of cities in India continues to expand exponentially. It is predicted that by2050, 55% of Indians will be living in urban areas. Traditional Agricultural Industry is challenged tokeep pace with this as it is estimated that agricultural land capacity can increase by 2% only.The concept of Urban Farming has gained the serious attention of Planners and Academic communitiesin India. The combined issues of Population explosion, rapid urbanisation and climate change are posinggreat threat to the Food Supply. Urban Farming is seen to have potential for cities to have at least somemeasure of Food Security.Urbanfarming is a process of using innovative scientific farming techniques to produce high yield andhigh quality of fresh organic food in very limited urban areas like terraces and balconies, all year -round.It is seen to have many advantages including non- dependence on vagaries of Climate, use of recycledwater from Sewage and treated Wet waste as compost, proximity of producers to consumers, reduction ofcarbon footprints etc.The Concept of Urban Vertical Farm has been around since the 80’s but the Urban Farming Industry isnot growing so fast. The main challenges seem to be Economic viability and Sustainability There is still alack of any comprehensive knowledge and know-how in the public realm regarding practical aspects ofUrban Farming. The Economic costs and viability for large scale urban Farming seems prohibitive. Thus,so far, the urban farming industry has not grown much. In this paper, we research into the Sustainabilityof UF, using the SAFA dimensions of Sustainability as reference. i.e. Environmental, Social, Economicand Institutional dimensions.In this paper, we study six successfully functioning Urban farms, some are by individuals, some are cooperatives and some are supported by Institutions like government or other institutions and analyse theirSustainability Dimensions. This paper tries to study these operational models of Urban Farms from theaspect of repeating the same model in other regions.Key words: Urban farming, Sustainability ,health and nutrition, , cost, yield, Solid waste and sewagemanagement, social well-being, Environment, Biodiversity, Economics, land value, Government policies.I. INTRODUCTIONTerrace gardens and farming in urbanized areas are asold as Babylon. But today Urban Greening and UrbanFarming has acquired a new significance due to thecurrent trend of rapid urbanization around the world.In India,the share of urban population was just 30% in2010, A report by UNDP estimates that this will riseto 40% in 2030 and over 50% by 2045. The urbanpopulation in India is set to increase from the current3.5 billion to more than 6 billion by 2050*Areas undercultivation increase by just a miniscule 2% annually incomparison to the Urban growth.The combined issues of population explosion, rapidurbanization and climate change are posing a greatthreat to food supply. The Farmer population hasdecreased and various factors contribute to the pooryield of existing Farmlands. The youth are taking tonon-agricultural vocations and employment in non agricultural sectors. Thus the Urbanizing communitiesare confronted with urban growth, changing life-stylesand food security problems .The urban population living and employed in citieshas to source their food supply from the market. Asmuch as 70% of their income has to be spent onbuying food. Thus they are vulnerable to thefluctuations in the market prices. To support thisvulnerable population is a great challenge for urbanGovernance. In many parts, it is seen that the urbanpoor are utilizing vacant plots in the city to growvegetables to enhance their income also.
Agarwal and SinhaIndia, being an agricultural country, urban farming hasbeen a traditional activity at household level which hasits origin in household kitchen-waste management.Thus we see great potential for farming lies just belowthe surface! Urban farmers have access to knowledge,emerging technology, and research in agriculture.Many have carried out highly successful experimentsin growing fruits and vegetables under mostconstrained urban conditions. They have become thetorch -bearers and teach by example their methods togrow maximum yield from minimum space available.Let us study some of the very successful urbanfarming initiatives by learned persons in our owncountry with a view let their experiences guide us todetermine the key principles involved for success andsustainability of Urban Farming.In order to get a more holistic understanding offactors involved in sustainability of Urban Farming asa tool for Urban development, we use the basic SAFAmodel which defines four pillars of sustainabilitynamely -economic resilience, environmental integrity,social wellbeing and good governance. As we align theissues of UA in India with these four pillars, we cansee if they support the adoption of Urban Agricultureon a full scale for Sustainable Urban Development.II. SUCCESS STORIES IN URBAN FARMINGUrban Farming activities in urban and peri urbanresidential areas are making significant contributionsto sustaining and distribution of knowledge within thecommunity of practice. There are also other benefitsfrom them such as community building, managementof green spaces, ecosystem service provision,including improvement of local climate Biodiversityand cultural services .Let us study some of the verysuccessful urban farming initiatives taken up bylearned persons in our own cities with a view let theirexperiences guide us to determine the key principlesinvolved for success and sustainability of UrbanFarming.We have selected two individual Farmers, twovoluntary farming communities and two groups ofcommercial farmers for our study.A. Case study-1: Green terraces roof-top, KeralaVegetable farming by CLUSTERS of farmer land inKerala remains water logged for most of the year.Hence vegetable prices went high. The Kerala statedepartment of horticulture has taken initiative ofpromoting roof-top cultivation of vegetables in urbanas well as Peri-urban areas.Vegetable initiatives for urban clusters: they use growbags to cultivate cauliflower, tomato, bottle gourd,bitter gourd etc. on terraces and on sticks, poles too.The farmers receive training from the state departmentwho have taught them to grow vegetables on terraces,sticks and poles too. They grow cowpea and cucumbertoo.237Two Farmer Interest Groups (FIG) having 25 memberseach in peri-urban areas have registered under thecompanies act and also under Vegetable and FruitPromotion Council of Kerala. The VFPCK has set up amarket and the urban farmers are able to sell theirproduce for a good price. The peri-urban farmers arehappy with the scheme.B. Case study-2: Networks of farmers, KeralaOn a busy road, amid high-rise buildings, in conventroad of Ernakulam, Kerala, grows the terrace farm(nurtured by 70-year old ARS Vadhyar, a civilengineer). It has 3 coconut trees, 35 banana trees,papaya, guava, chickoo, grapes, pumpkins, ash gourd,snake gourd, bitter gourd, okra, tomato and manymany more vegetables. All on just 1500 sq.ft. ofterrace. Those who take up terrace farming are notregular farmers, but professionals like engineers,doctors, employees of public and private sectors.Senior citizens, women home makers and evenstudents.“Each district in Kerala has a minimum of 20,000roof-top cultivators.” says K. Prathapan, Director,State Horticulture Mission. The main reason for thistrend is growing health consciousness and fear ofconsuming contaminated foods.The social media has played a crucial role insustaining the organic terrace farming movement.Groups such as Kitchen garden, Krishi bhoomi etc.share knowledge among members. They got togetherand organised a 3-day exhibition cum trainingworkshop on organic terrace farming. Such initiativeshave generated awareness among people also informedabout government subsidies, technology transfers andschemes.C. Case study-3: Garden city Farmers Trust,BengaluruThis is a committed group of intellectuals leading ahighly successful movement in Bengaluru toencourage citizens to take up organic terrace farming.The Trust is managed by a group of nine people.Nearly 10,000 people have already turned farmers inBengaluru city. The group is now trying to raise thefunds for distributing of creepers in city slums, wherepeople are deprived of clean food and air. It hopes tobring back the green standards that the city was knownfor before the IT sector revolution.Dr. V. Kadur, founding father explains there is nothinglike 100% yield in agriculture. 15-20% is always lostto insects and birds. We have to learn to live withinsects and other micro-organisms and go ORGANIC.Otherwise we may be permanently damage the ecosystem.Motto-“ Eat what you grow and grow what you eat.”They have been motivating citizens to convert allavailable spaces in and around their dwellings intogreen, edible patches.
Agarwal and SinhaThe effort is slowly snow-balling, with many suchgroups greening vacant plots in the city.D. Case study-4: Roof Top Revolution inSakthikulangara, KeralaS.K., a sea-side local municipal corporation is a villagefamous for fishing and fishery related activities. Thesoil there is highly acidic and unfit for cultivation ofany kind. Agriculture held no promise.Now all this is a thing of past. The initiative ofAnthony john has transformed this barren area into ahub of a new garden revolution. Each family isencouraged to producefresh, hygienic organicvegetables.Anthony john’s formula:Growth medium: treated coir pith, bio-char 95% &local soil 5%.Plantation of seeds in PVC channels split length-wisein half, kept in stacks.Irrigation: drip method using a timer automaticCompost: by converting his own kitchen waste andother bio-waste for which he developed low costaerobic bio-composting unit.Ooze(activated compost tea): the liquid which oozesone of the garbage is enriched with bio-fertilizer andfriendly microbes and the liquid is sprayed on theplants. Also diluted sea water is used for providingessential nutrients.He is highly successful in cultivating a variety ofvegetables, lettuce, kale, tomato, brinjal and cabbageetc. And now he is a role model for terrace farming allover Kerala too.E. Case study-5: Urban leaves in Mumbai blossomingon a concrete backdropPopulation in city of Mumbai has increased 12 timesover in the past century. In such crowded conditionsu/a seems unlikely to be put into practice, since it mustcompete with real estate developments for access toand use of vacant lands. But dr. doshi’s city farmingmethods are revolutionary. In his terrace of 1200 sq.ft.,dr. doshi has grown fruit such as mangos, guavas, figsetc. his method of using sugarcane waste, compost andgarden soil in poly bags, tires, drums etc. his policyconsumes the entire household waste and makes hishousehold self-sufficient in provision food 5kg. andproduced daily for 300days in year.Urban leaves is a community empowerment programsof vidya vaardhi trust which has come lovely way indeveloping skins and techniques of urban farming.Preeti patil, has for many years, oversaw the cateringfor thousands of employees at Mumbai port trust. Themassive wet-waste generated was being trucked awayuntil dr. r.t. dodhi inspired her to change the waste intoa resource. Putting to use the terrace above the kitchen,preeti has used “amrit mitti” a nutrient rich soil alongwith pulverised kitchen waste and produced anabundance of fruit, vegetables and greens.238The movement, begun in 2009 has growntremendously and urban leaves now conducts learningsessions, encourages growth of new similarcommunity of urban farmers. Regularly has sale oforganic vegetables in different parts of the city.“No one can force anyone to be part of this. You cantransform people only by example. When people seehow much can be achieved even in limited confines ofbalconies and windows, they realize even they can doit.”, says Preeti.F. Case study-6 Growing vegetables on garbagedumps in East CalcuttaCalcutta, India, has some of the most outstandingwaste-into-farmingsystems in the world. AtCalcutta’s main garbage dumping site, the municipalcorporation leases about 800 hectares of older dumpplots with rich compost for intensive farming . Smallfarmers and cooperatives produce 150 to 300 tons aday of up to 25 varieties of vegetables which fetchhigh prices in Calcutta. The intensive farminggenerates employment for about 20,000 youths, menand women.The site consists of fingers of solid land jutting into aseries of lagoons east of the city. The fields are servedby unpaved roads. Farmers provide their own securityby rotating night-watch duty. The farming system islabour-intensive, including hand-carried irrigationwater.Inorganic materials are removed from the garbage byan informal recycling industry before the waste gets tothe dump site. The remaining organic waste is rich innutrients, and no chemical inputs used. This traditionalfarming produces safe food and is environmentallysustainable.Sale of the produce is to middlemen at the farm gateand direct sale at city centre markets. Rent is paid tothika tenants, or landlords, who lease large tracts fromthe Calcutta Municipal Council. The West BengalState Department of Agriculture provides monitoringand tests for food safety.III. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT MODELSA. A glance at the definition of Sustainability“Sustainable development means ensuring dignifiedliving conditions with regard to human rights bycreating and maintaining a widest possible range ofoptions for freely defining life plans. The principle offairness between the present and future generationsshould be taken into account tin the use ofenvironmental, economic and social resources. Puttingsustainability into practice entails comprehensiveprotection of bio-diversity in terms of eco-systemsspecies and genetic diversity, all of which are vitalfoundations of life.” (Barnwal, 2012).
239Agarwal and SinhaIn other words, we may state that sustainability is acontinuous “good Life” that is a combination of Highlevel of Human wellbeing combined with a high levelof eco-system wellbeing that supports it.The human population whilst rushing towardsprogress in the 20th century had forgotten that in orderfor Man to survive, we need to maintain the ecosystem which supports us. In order for man to survive,we need to adapt to nature and not visa-versa.B. Models of sustainabilityConstruction of Models help us to understand theconcepts of sustainability better.Three Pillars Basic Model has three vital dimensionswhich are interdependent and together they make forsustainability- Environmental Dimension, EconomicDimension, Social dimensionFig.1 . Three pillar basic model.An improvement on this model is inclusion of onemore dimension- Institutional. It could stand forGovernment Institution or Private Institution or anAlliance of both. Together, they are said to form thefour Pillars of Sustainability.Fig. 3. The Egg of Sustainability.This Model for Sustainability was designed in 1994 byInternational Union for Conservation of Nature, Therelationship between the Eco-System and People islike one circle within another , like an EGG and itsyolk. Just as an egg is good only if the yolk and Whiteboth are good.Social and Economic development can only besustainable if the Eco-system or Environment offersthe necessary resources and raw materials.Thus the Environmental can be regarded as the SuperCo-ordinating System to the other three dimensionsSocial, Economic and Institutional.These later can prosper only if they adapt themselvesto the limits of environmental carrying capacity.In the light of the above Model, we can examine thesustainability of Urban Farming as a tool forsustainable Urban development and draw thefollowing conclusion :Sustainable Development Human wellbeing Ecosystem WellbeingIV. URBAN FARMING- OPPORTUNITIES ANDCHALLENGESAn analysis has been made of various sources,including opinions voiced by practicing UrbanFarmers to summarise below the main Benefits andChallenges, opportunities and constraints posed forimplementing Urban Agriculture in the context ofIndian cities.It is formatted to align with the four pillars ofSustainability.Fig. 2. Dimension of Sustainability.Thus we see that Urban Farming can be sustainable ifit has Environmental Integrity, EconomicallyResiliant, Promotes Social Wellbeing and is backedwith Supportive Governmental Policies.A. Urban Farming – OpportunitiesUrban Farming, although it appears to be simple,impacts a community in various ways. Provides Foodsecurity, environmental benefits, biodiversity, eventhe city form gets modified ,city-dwellers get sociallyconscious and gement: The most important benefit of UA is itspotential to utilize the organic wastes produced by thecity. It contributes to natural resource conservations. Itcan turn waste from a problem in to a resource.
Agarwal and SinhaIt reduces the public cost of transportation andmanagement of waste. The funds saved can be betterutilized for more constructive programs of urbanamenities.As the private sectors gets involved in UA, citizenscan create cleaner and better living environmentespecially in areas not receiving waste managementservice from Municipal corporations.Most cities today face acute problems in finding placefor dumping waste resulting in air water & landpollution in cities & in bio regions. Examples ofRamsey site bio region Deepor Beel in Guwahatigreatly disturbed due to dumping of garbage. Deonarin Mumbai is also a dumping ground, polluted the citywhen it caught fire.Waste water and solid waste systems are costly for cityadministration & yet they do not have capacity toservice the entire city centre. Urban farmingcontributes to this process by a) producing crops forlife stock consumption, b) by composting wet wasteand c) processing waste water for direct productionand for irrigation.Conservation of resources: UA assists the conservationof bio regions and their resources by reducing thepressure to convert deserts, mountain slopes and rainforests into cropland. Because Urban Agriculturemethods are intensive, and yield from UA is estimatedto be more than six times that of rural production.UAalso uses very little water due to innovative irrigationsystems (drip irrigation, aeroponic cultivation).Replenishing of soil nutrients: Composting of organicwastes puts the nutrients back into the soil. There is nocontamination of soil and water bodies. Significantecological, economic and health benefits thus accrue.Enhancement of Bio Diversity: By greening the city,UA gives scope for Bio diversity of vegetation, birds,return to their habitat. Many varieties of vegetableswhich have stopped being produced can berevived.UA beautifies the city, moderates theMicroclimate and making it comfortable for living.Disaster mitigation: This benefit of UA is perhaps leastappreciated and least understood, for example, onsteep slopes, flood plains, wet lands and other disasterprone areas, trees and orchards and marketable grassessuch as vetiver can be planted They are excellent forreducing erosion and vulnerability to disasters.Economic Resilience. UA can provide incomegenerating activity for people with low skills and littlecapital as well as for people with little mobilityincluding women with children and aged persons.Stronger economy base. UA puts unused land to useby paying competitive rent or surface reuse andmaintains the land in good condition for the owner.Cost and energy savings.240In packing, storage, refriger
Urban Farming - A Sustainable Model for Indian Cities Hari Prasad Agarwal and Radha Sinha Affiliation-1, . lack of any comprehensive knowledge and know-how in the public realm regarding practical aspects of . tomato, bottle gourd, bitter gourd etc. on terraces and on sticks, poles too. .
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