Urban farming in India — Is it serious business?
As more people aggregate in megacities, urban agriculture is starting to be viewed as a sustainable way to produce and efficiently supply locally-grown fresh produce to cities. In India, there are 2 starkly contrasting varieties of urban farming
Urban farmers by choice: A relatively recent crop of startups and small companies catering to eco-conscious and organic-friendly urbanites who want to grow their own rooftop fruits and vegetables.
Urban farmers by default: Small-holder farmers that subsist (and sometimes operate successful businesses) on patches of agriculture-zoned land that have gradually been enveloped by urban development.
Urban farmers by choice
Plentiful sunlight, and relatively friendly year-round weather mean that a growing number Indian city-dwellers have successfully taken to rooftop farming. Some examples are this rooftop organic farm in Pune, or this one in Kerala. These individuals with their rooftop vegetable and fruit gardens and even mini-paddy fields supply their own kitchens and those of friends and family year round.
There is also a host of startups facilitating small scale urban farming, for individual homes and for institutions like schools. Some examples are Jaipur-based company The Living Greens , offers to help set up and maintain organic urban rooftop farms, iKheti, which offers similar services in Mumbai and Pune,Delhi-based Khetify and Edible Routes, Hyderabad-based Homecrop, and Bengaluru-based Greentechlife and Squarefoot Farmers. While there are plenty of hobbyists, and family-and-friends farmers, there is a long way to go before rooftop farming is serious business in India.
Civic bodies like the corporation of Thiruvananthapuram have initiated larger scale, sustainable initiatives to help citizens grow healthy fresh produce locally. Residents are offered services and subsided kit to grow up to 30 vegetable varieties.
Hydroponics and vertical farming techniques are also gaining some ground, but have yet to be proven to work with traditional indian vegetables. Ajay Naik operates a hydroponics farm in Goa, growing vegetables like lettuce and salad greens. Startups such as FutureFarms that aim to help urbanites grow fresh healthy produce using hydroponic techniques.
Urban farmers by necessity
In stark contrast to these ‘farmers by choice’ are the traditional farmers who use urban land because it is all they have available, and depend on urban farming for subsistence.
The best known example is probably the fruit, vegetable and flower growers who operate on small patches of land along the banks of the Yamuna river in Delhi. The vegetable and flower growers who own or rent small patches of land along the banks of the Yamuna, in suburban Delhi. They make just enough to subsist, seasonally rotating crops such as tomato, peas, onion, gourd and bitter gourd, spinach, cauliflower and radish, for sale in the local vegetable markets. As many as 7000 small urban farmers are estimated to exist around Delhi alone, providing fresh vegetables to the urban population. Constant threat of displacement by construction, lack of clarity about land ownership and zoning, as well as effluents that pollute the water they use for irrigation.
A second example is a 1000+ buffalo dairy farm in the midst of Jogeshwari (pictured), just underneath the flyover. While its a thriving, profitable business, supplying fat-rich buffalo milk to the community. However, concerns around and the health and safety of the animals and that of the humans living in proximity to them, concerns around zoonoses, and disposal of animal waste. They also have to contend with the city corporators, and builders eyeing prime property for yet another skyscraper. Is there a way to modernize, sanitize, mechanise and preserve these havens of productivity?
It seems like Indian city-dwellers are trying to bring farms to their rooftops on one hand, while crowding out existing urban producers on the other.
