Pilot City - Bangalore, India

RUAF-CFF project which aims at creating a resource centre on urban and peri urban agriculture for South and Southeast Asia region has been initiated for Bangalore in February 2006. Bangalore is the second pilot city in the region and the project aims at identifying the status of urban and peri urban agriculture scenario in the Bangalore. The project will link various stakeholders involved in UPA activities in the city. The programme will strengthen UPA through process of consolidating information from the city. The project will provide necessary training to stakeholders such as urban farmers, municipal administration, educational institution, and NGOs in executing a pilot project on urban and periurban agriculture as a tool for self sufficiency. Mainstreaming the gender and creating a platform for favourable policy that promotes UPA are the crucial components of the process.

The programme has identified a lead partner NGO for the city, which will then engage local municipal administration, and institutions such as school and university and urban producers to create a UPA enabling team as a platform for mutual exchange and support to promote UPA in identified municipality within Bangalore city.

The work in its inception stage in Bangalore progressed from short listing the lead partner, the work plan for Bangalore was discussed and other potential UPA activities existing in the city in the meetings held since March. A survey of municipality was taken up in Bangalore and three municipality were shortlisted namely Anekal, Kanakapura and Magadi. Magadi. A Municipality  with a population of 25000 has emerged as a clear intervention  in terms of the stretch of the farming in the area, the number of farmers in the population and also there keen interest  to interventions like solid waste management and with an active NGO presence working on supporting livestock raising as microenterprise. Magadi, is as of now an intervention area for involving the stakeholders and carrying out the programmes.  The intervention in periurban zone will try to look into providing additional information to the farmers, what are the opportunity available to them and what are the constraints that is affecting them.

About the City

Bangalore (officially Bengaluru) is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Located 12.97° N, 77.56° E on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka. Bangalore has an estimated metropolitan population of 6.5 million (65 lakh) and covers an area of 741 km² (286 mi²), making it India's third-most populous city and Fifth-largest metropolitan area. Situated at about 1000 meters above sea level, it is known for its salubrious climate where temperatures remain moderate through out the year. The maximum temperature in July is around 32°C / 90°F and the minimum around 22°C / 73°F. It is connected by air, rail and road to all major cities of the country and has direct international connections to many cities worldwide.

The clean and spacious city of Bangalore has many imposing structures full of historic and modern architecture. The majestic Vidhana Soudha, a magnificent post-independence structure housing the State legislature and Secretariat, stands in the center of the city with its attractive dome and galleries.

Vidhana Soudha

The city has several institutions of Learning and Research. Many of them such as the Indian Institute of Science, Raman Research Institute, National Institute of Mental health and Neuro-Sciences, National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore University have worldwide acclaim. The high-tech industries such as Aerospace, Electronics, Silicon Valley of India with almost all Computer related multinationals setting up their India head office at Bangalore Computers and now fast spreading software have made Bangalore their home due to easy access to a vast pool of scientists and engineers in the city, now its Silicon Valley of India with almost all Computer related multinationals setting up their India head office at Bangalore. In the area of art and culture too, the city boasts of a rich heritage and tradition and has several schools of classical music and dance.

The city abounds in picturesque parks and gardens and other scenic spots. The extensive stretch of green land of Cubbon Park and the enchanting botanical gardens with Glass-House of Lal-Bagh, both situated right in the middle of the metropolis, lend all the charming grandeur to the city. About 20 Km from the city is situated the Bannerghatta National Park. It is a dry decidious forest which has abundant variety of trees like Neem, Sandal, Tamarind, Jalari.  This park is inhabited by the Asian Elephants, leopards, Sloth Bears, Chital, Sambar, Monitor Lizards, Pangolin, Vipers, Cobras, Macaques, Porcupines, Mongoose, etc and lot of bird species are also to be found in this park. Moreover the best time to visit the park is between September and October.

Bangalore boasts of some of the oldest and most beautiful temples in the city. The Venkataramanaswamy Temple is a 300 year old temple. Another impressive temple is the Gavi Gangadhareswara temple, an unusual cave temple. It has been designed in such a manner so that the rays of the sun pass between the horns of a Nandi Bull placed outside the temple, and thereby, illuminate the image of Lord Shiva.

Types of Urban Agriculture

MPAP Process

In each pilot city in the South Asia, namely, Hyderabad and Bangalore in India and Gampaha in Sri Lanka (Figure-1), it is envisaged that the MPAP process will involve the following activities

•  Inception Workshop
• The establishment of a local city based UPA enabling Team
• An exploratory study:  Stakeholder analysis, training and information needs assessment, UPA related situation analysis and policy analysis
• Strengthen existing capacity through a MPAP/UPA Capacity Building workshop and sub-sequent stakeholder specific training initiatives 
• Presentation of the findings of the exploratory study to a Multi-Stakeholder Forum and at a Policy Awareness Seminar
• Development of a series of road maps/action plans that will address key constraints/opportunities to sustainable and economically viable UPA
• Initiation of a co-funded Pilot Project in each pilot city as identified during the action planning process
• Work towards the formation of gender equitable policies that will facilitate the inclusion of UPA in long-term Municipal Planning

Figure: Multi-stakeholder Action Planning Process adopted by the RUAF-CFF Project

July - 2006

Magadi is small township about 45 kilometers from Bangalore city boundary, with a population of nearly 25000 people and  nearly 7200 households. The main occupation of the people is farming. As part of RUAF-CFF project, the town ship has been chosen for interventions in order to improve the access of documented experiences in production system, improved land use and resource utilization such as water and decomposable solid waste for productive purpose to those involved in Urban and Periurban agriculture. The RUAF-CFF team from IWMI and AME foundation visited the area on 13th July, 2006 to take an overview of the existing setup as a part of initial situation analysis to take up a baseline survey on the agriculture scenario in the area. The team interacted with the farmers and vegetable vendors to get an overview of  supply and consumption pattern.

Bangalore

1. FGDs with residence associations in target areas
Five FGDs (2nd 22nd, 27th June and 13th, 14th July and 7th August, 2007) were conducted by Initiatives for Development Foundation (IDF) in the selected areas namely J.P. Nagar, Banashankari and Jayanagar. The sessions included context and overview, brainstorming sessions, summarization and feedback from participants. Key Outcomes include;

• Residence agreed to let their terraces to trained ‘Malis(Labor)’ to provide employment to the urban poor in return for vegetables grown on their terraces.
• Participants expressed desire to have training with or without cost.
• That the poorer sections of residence association see an UPA as an employment opportunity.

Training associated with the FGDs included a Student (x6) volunteer one day orientation workshop on 1st June 2007 and a MS access and data processing workshop with a 10 participants from IDF on 2nd -3rd July 2007.

Pilot Project Proposal (Dissemination City)
Residents Associations have to write proposals in consultation with stakeholders by November 2007.

b) Organic Terrace Gardening: 25th August, 2007
Expression of interest from FGDs organized in three selected areas of JP Nagar, Jayanagar and Banashankari by IDF and visitors to UPA Stall at Lalbagh Horticulture Show.  Accordingly, One Day Training Programme on Organic Terrace Gardening was conducted on Saturday the 25th August 2007. A press release was issued on the event to realize unpaid publicity and the insertion was carried by 10 news papers. 19 participants from different parts of Bangalore attended the training.

Bangalore Magadi

Facilitating multi-stakeholder process

Rapid Situation Analysis: (To be completed by mid-October)

Several ‘layers’ of Magadi Taluk based on (IRS 1C/1D PAN+LISS III Satellite Data 2000-2001) has been obtained. In addition a 1:3000 scale Map of Magadi has been obtained and a preliminary ‘Magadi Town Profile’ has been prepared.

Area of interest is Magadi Town and surrounding of 3km radius. This includes approximately 15-18 villages from urban area.  Gathering  the population/agricultural statistics for these villages (attempt to get a breakdown by Kharif and Rabi seasons) is under process. Based on the agricultural statistics a village cluster (2-3 villages) will be identified. These villages will be the focus for PRA. During the PRA process a Gram Sabha will be held (act as surrogate for a MSHF) to introduce project and initiate interest and facilitate PRA. Stakeholder Analysis: will be undertaken by end of September in order to list stakeholders and determine stakeholder profiles and existing/potential linkages with each other. This will be in the form of individual interviews, FGDs and collation of relevant information. Stakeholders identified to date include and whom have already participated in meetings and discussions include; Municipal Council, Departments of Education, Agriculture, Horticulture, Sericulture, Rural Development, Watershed Development and Animal Husbandry, local NGOs namely Chiguru and Sadhana and WSHGs (x53 in TMC).

Solid waste management plan for Magadi and the list of WSHGs has been obtained. Policy Narrative to be prepared ( translated) by end of October.

MSHF to be held in 1st week of November 2007. Working Groups (SHGs, Schools, Farmers, SWM) to be formed. Action plans to be developed by Mid November and presented to 2nd MSHF at end of November. Pilot Project agreed upon and prepared by end of December 2007.

MPAP Process (Magadi)  and  Outcome mapping with selected and interested stakeholders will be held by end of September. Action Planning workshop of 2-3 days that will result in action plans for Magadi will be held in November.

Work Plan - Powerpoint Show (1.24mb: 21 slides)