A case for urban farming

A recent panel discussion, with experts from India and France, offered insights into the urban gardening practices in both countries.

“When we think about cities, agriculture doesn’t come to mind,” says Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Dean, School of Environment and Sustainability (SES) at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). 

And yet, there was a point in the not-so-distant past where it was not usual to find pockets of agricultural land in one’s city, he says at a recent event held at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, which consisted of a walkthrough of a digital exhibition titled Growing Greener Cities followed by the panel discussion on the role of urban agriculture for sustainable cities. “You need to think about agriculture in urban centres as part of sustainable transformation of cities for the coming decades,” says Mr. Krishnaswamy, adding that it is a concept and practice we need to know more of.

The panel discussion, which comprised experts from India and France, delved into this, offering insights into the urban gardening practices in both countries. From the benefits of practices like aquaponics and hydroponics to the physical and mental health benefits of growing one’s own food, the allure of urban gardening was hard to ignore.

“My reflections on this topic come from a 3-year-old project we did at IIHS,” says Prathijna Poonacha Kodira, a researcher and practitioner who works on climate change adaptation. Not only does growing your own vegetables, herbs, and fruits offer health advantages, but it also helps improve biodiversity and waste recycling, she points out in the panel discussion, which also saw participation from Dr. Rajendra Hegde, a trustee of Garden City Farmers and Flore-Anais Brunet and Marie Friers, both from the Association Française d’Agriculture Urbaine Professionnelle, a French network of urban agriculture professionals.

Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture as Green Infrastructure (UP-AGrI) project, the 3-year-long project that IIHS worked on in collaboration with the University of East Anglia, IIT Madras, The Open University of Tanzania and Tanzania Horticulture Association, among others, sought to examine how food grown in and around cities helps build better ones. The results of this project were then showcased as part of the Growing Greener Cities exhibition, which “brings together examples of urban and peri-urban agriculture in India and Tanzania, highlighting its outcomes for human well-being and environmental sustainability through life histories, short films, infographics, and photographic essays,” as the website puts it.

Talking about the genesis of the project, which was kicked off in 2019, Poonacha says it sought to answer this fundamental question: what are urban agriculture’s sustainability and wellbeing outcomes? In India, Pune and Bengaluru were selected as research sites—a similar process was carried out in Dar es Salaam and Morogoro in Tanzania—with researchers reaching out to a spectrum of people involved in urban agriculture.

The researchers used several methods, including informant interviews and surveys, during the project that concluded in November last year. “This exhibition was one of the outcomes,” she says, adding that the other outcomes included a compendium and action agenda. “It was a way of capturing stories and narrating what was happening in India and Tanzania…to imagine what the future of urban agriculture would be like.”