3 months ago
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In rapidly urbanising Kerala, what is the aboriginal of agriculture? At a clip erstwhile a wide reply to the question remains problematic, the College of Agriculture, Vellayani, a constituent instauration of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), is attempting to connection a solution done its newly-established Centre for Urban Agriculture.
The Centre, which functions nether the college’s Centre for Agricultural Innovations and Technology Transfer (CAITT), is promoting municipality farming arsenic a applicable and sustainable solution for increasing cities successful constricted municipality spaces.
As a archetypal step, the Centre for Urban Agriculture is piloting a programme successful the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation wards with plans to standard it up and grow to much municipal corporations. “We are conducting ‘field days’ successful the wards to promote national information successful municipality farming. These tract days supply hands-on vulnerability to applicable technologies specified arsenic rooftop cultivation, balcony gardens, hydroponics, discarded management, pest and illness absorption and different technological methods for producing nutrient successful constricted municipality spaces,” G.S. Sreedaya, Professor and Head, CAITT, and Associate Director of Extension, told The Hindu.
For helping retired municipality growers, the Centre has launched an e-commerce platform, www.urbanagri.coav.in, and a ‘Handbook connected Urban Agriculture.’ Farmers tin registry connected the e-commerce platform, upload photographs of their produce, bespeak prices and marketplace the harvest directly. It besides serves arsenic a diagnostic enactment service, enabling them to upload harvest problems and person adept advice.
Further, KAU is besides acceptable to motorboat a Masters programme successful Urban Agriculture astatine the College of Agriculture this year.
The college, which stood archetypal successful ‘Agriculture and allied sectors’ successful the latest Kerala Institutional Ranking Framework (KIRF),’ is providing a caller propulsion to municipality agriculture erstwhile the pandemic-time craze for rooftop farming successful Kerala has been connected the wane.
Urban farming nevertheless gains value successful an property erstwhile feeding increasing municipality populations wholly done village-produced nutrient transported implicit agelong distances is becoming unsustainable, notes the college.
The Economic Review 2025 has observed that portion the 2011 Census placed 47.72% of Kerala’s colonisation successful municipality areas, projections suggest that by 2036, astir 96% of the colonisation “may beryllium urban, reflecting a accelerated shift.”
In January this year, Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar’s Policy Address to the Kerala Legislative Assembly besides posited a imaginativeness of Kerala’s aboriginal maturation into the ‘largest metropolis successful the world’ and ‘a well-connected, State-wide municipality region.’
As municipality agriculture is emerging arsenic an indispensable strategy for nutrient and clime resilience, KAU is readying its programme arsenic a continuous process, Jacob John, Dean, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, said. “Now, determination are fewer enactment systems for municipality farming though the exertion is there. In that sense, our programme volition enactment arsenic a span for providing enactment to municipality growers,” Dr. Jacob John said.
The College of Agriculture observes that municipality farming, isolated from providing home-grown food, helps chill municipality spaces, improves biodiversity and reduces stormwater runoff, making cities much greener and liveable.
