What does the future hold for Delhi’s urban farmers?
In March 2015, ‘City Forest’, a new recreational park, opened on the banks of the Hindon River.
To the east is the city of Ghaziabad; to the west, Delhi. Up to 100 acres of land are set aside for walking trails, cycle tracks, camel safaris, horse riding and guided tours. When complete, City Forest will include food courts, butterfly parks, watch towers, an amphitheatre, herbal gardens, a deer park, and a bamboo garden.
Ten interconnecting paths through the park are named after wildlife: ‘Kokila Path’ (nightingale), ‘Gauraiya Path’ (sparrow), ‘Mayur Path’ (peacock), ‘Saras Path’ (crane), ‘Jugnu Path’, (firefly), ‘Bulbul Path’ (songbird), ‘Bagula Path’ (heron), ‘Deer Marg’ (deer), ‘Teetar Path’ (pheasant), and ‘Bater path’ (quail).
Santosh Yadav, vice-chairman of the Ghaziabad Development Authority, said that as the city struggles to accommodate migrants and growth, the park would become the “lungs of the city already gasping for air”. City Forest promises green space, access to wildlife, and a break from the often busy and noisy streets of Ghaziabad and Delhi.
But City Forest has neighbours. Between the two huge cities, the river, the City Forest and the neighbouring Hindon Air Force Base, are other kinds of green space: fields cultivated by local people from the village of Karhera.
Many Karhera residents are farmers, looking after buffalo or growing vegetables for their own tables or to sell at market.
Although City Forest has been widely advertised, most people in Karhera don’t feel it’s there for their benefit. Wealthier residents come from the suburbs of Ghaziabad for parties or family days out, enjoying the chance to get away from busy city streets. For locals, though, there is a downside.
Understanding how life is changing for people in Karhera was the aim of the project Risks and Responses to Urban Futures. This means working with villagers and others to map changes in how the land is used, document how people make a living from farming and other activities, and see what stresses they encounter from outside — including the City Forest and other developments.
A story of change
Karhera is a farming community in the midst of urban growth. Some of its residents have left farming to invest in real estate, rented their property to migrants, or have well-educated sons and daughters with white-collar jobs. But many remain dependent on the fields for their livelihoods.
The farmers of Karhera are part of a vital system of urban and peri-urban food production in India, which keeps hungry city-dwellers supplied with fresh produce. Leafy vegetables like coriander, mustard and spinach, and milk and butter are popular — supplied to markets, sold to large distributors like Mother Dairy, or consumed at home.
In recent years, agriculture in Karhera has become more profitable for some, changing from subsistence farming to a business. One farmer from the Rajput caste said: “We are all alive and having our food because of the spinach cultivation”. As well as higher incomes, spinach cultivation has brought financial stability for many men and women, including migrants to the area. Some farmers have bought tractors; others have found that farming pays better than other jobs like construction. Consumers, especially poorer ones, feel the benefits too, as the farms provide a cheap, local and reliable source of food.
Although by no means rich, the community has found ways to make money from the land, even in the midst of the city. But the land they depend on is at risk. City Forest is the latest in a series of developments which are changing life for the people of Karhera.
The cities either side of Karhera are growing. There’s a demand for new houses and attractive parks for the people who live in them. A power station has appeared, supplying much-needed energy but adding to air pollution, and a flyover has reduced access to land near the river. A pond used by the community was filled in as part of a road building project. And villagers also fear that a metro line connecting Delhi and Ghaziabad will raise the price of land, making it more attractive to property developers.
As fences were built around the City Forest, farmers lost access to a vital resource. Many of the fenced-off areas had not been formally used for growing crops, but were used for grazing and storing cow dung. The land had also been a place to get free fodder, especially for poorer Dalit women who used it to feed their animals. As the fences went up, the supply was cut off.
Land and water
Land and water are strongly connected too, and a supply of clean water is vital. Since factories sprung up on the banks of the river 20 years ago, the water has turned from clear to black. It can no longer be used for irrigation or drinking.
The land near the banks is also poisoned. Some locals have speculated that factory managers had poured waste water into boreholes, contaminating underground water sources.
The river water is also reduced by pumps from the factories, limiting the supply of pattera, a plant which grows on the river bed. Villagers forage it and use it to tie spinach in bundles when it is harvested.
The dwindling water supply can be seen in the changing way local people access it. Shallow tube wells have dried up. Diesel-powered submersible pumps are now used to dredge up water from 100 feet or more below ground — costing time and money. 25 government submersibles near the fields have put further stress on water supplies.
In response to falling water supplies, villagers began to depend more heavily on recycling waste water from their homes and drain water, or ‘runnel water’, to irrigate their crops. However, this water was also becoming more contaminated as the community expanded, leading to more illness among farmers, especially women.
Farming and the environment
Although farming is sometimes blamed for pollution, it can bring valuable environmental benefits too — sometimes in surprising ways. 400 miles away from Karhera, farmers in the town of Gorakhpur have experimented with flood buffering to protect vulnerable land.
Organic waste from city dwellers can also be put to good use on urban farms — repurposed as compost or animal feed. And the farms’ demand for water can be reduced by re-using waste water, as well as rainwater harvesting.
And cheap, fresh, accessible local food not only helps poorer consumers — it also reduces pollution and traffic by reducing the amount of food that needs to be brought in by road.
Environmental groups and planners in Karhera’s region are only just beginning to recognise these benefits — partly through the help of the Risks & Responses to Urban Futures project.
Is there another way?
Through working with people in Karhera, the Risk and Responses to Urban Futures project has revealed a complex picture of people in a farming community at the edge of the city, facing changes beyond their control.
So what would a fairer and more sustainable approach to city planning look like?
First of all, it would mean recognising how Karhera works. It would mean looking at how people use the land, mapping where they get fodder for their animals, where they store materials and how the map of the area changes over time. It would mean understanding the changing social life of a farming community.
But it also means recognising the forces that make life more difficult: restrictions or losses of land, toxic waste from factories, water pollution and dwindling groundwater supplies. Developments like City Forest, which bring pleasure to some people of the city, can bring uncertainty for others too.
The question is whether the authorities in Delhi and Ghaziabad will value the peri-urban farmers in Karhera and other places like it.
In 2011, the government of India launched a US$68 million project to encourage vegetable growing in peri-urban areas. The Indian government also included urban and peri-urban agriculture in its 12th five-year agriculture plan for agriculture (2013–2017). Similar steps are being taken in many cities and countries around the world. But even though the benefits of urban agriculture have been recognised in some quarters, Karhera’s farmers still face fierce competition from other priorities.
For now, growing health problems, fragmented communities and the loss of livelihoods in informal communities barely feature on the radar of planners who work in the city centres. As land prices soar, and growing populations demand green spaces, there is no doubt that high-profile parks and real estate could bring more short-term profits. But urban farmers, if allowed to succeed, could continue to be an important source of local food security, and a valued part of South Asia’s cities.
Find out more
‘Karhera: A photo book’ tells the story of change in Karhera through words and images.
About the project
The Risks and Responses to Urban Futures project explores the connections between ecosystem services (ES), livelihoods and poverty in peri-urban areas of South Asia. It aims to produce evidence and tools to link ecosystem services with poverty alleviation.
The project is funded by the ESPA (Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation) programme. Contact: Fiona Marshall (f.marshall@sussex.ac.uk).
Team members: Fiona Marshall, Ritu Priya, Ramila Bisht, Linda Waldman, Jonathan Dolley, Pritpal Randhawa, Milap Punia, Pranav Desai, Priyanie Amerasinghe, Jörn Scharlemann, Salman Siddiqui, Ambika Khadka, Kanika Mehra, Anuradha Adhikari, Chandima Subasinghe, Chaya Shamma, Aviram Sharma, Chaya Devi, Rajashree Saharaia, Abhinav Kapoor, Bhushra Rizvi, Ima Chopra, Meghna Arora, Yasir Hamid, Kumud Teresa, Jyotishmita Sarma, Sumegha Sharma, Pradeep Tandon and Rahul Rathore.
