A month earlier, we had published our study on urban and periurban agriculture in Mumbai.
Continuing with our research and action efforts, we invite you to join us for the upcoming public meeting on agriculture and allied activities in urban and periurban Mumbai.
Date and Time: August 7, 2021 | 3-5 PM IST
Concept Note
According to a report in 2017, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) stated that there was no data available on urban land being used for agriculture. Four years later, the lack of research-based urban policy and planning for agricultural possibilities and inclusion remains unaddressed. While conducting research, PRC has found that there is very little literature on the challenges, economic factors and statistics in farming activities in urban and peri-urban India.
Within the wide range of farmers in the coastal city of Mumbai, those farming for personal, commercial and spiritual benefits become the centre of the urban farming discourse. Meanwhile, indigenous farmers, agricultural labourers, agricultural migrants, artisanal fishers, generational cattle-rearers, women waste-managers of Mumbai remain on the fringes of economic, social and health benefits. Permitting some agriculture-related activities and creating the category of ‘illegal’ in food production puts many, especially the marginalised, at risk.
Even if agriculture has always existed in the urban eco-system, it has never been a primary concern in urban policy and planning. Even if it is being discussed today, why are certain farmers left out of the discourse? Is it possible to imagine a Mumbai spatially and culturally designed to incorporate agriculture in it, to imagine farming as one of the many urban activities? What are the essential values that policies on urban agriculture should be written on? The seminar will try to answer these pressing questions at the intersection of urbanism, ecology, food production and inclusivity.
Recording of the session will be shared and made available here.
