Events
Exhibition: Growing Sustainable Cities
Hosted by the Indian Institute for Human Settlement's Library and the UPAGrI research team, this exhibition delves into the various aspects of urban agriculture.
Check the full details on the link above.
38th annual event ‘Oota from your thota’ (Food from your garden), Bengaluru
Maitreyi Koduganti, Amruth Kiran, and Sheetal Patil participated in the 38th annual event ‘Oota from your thota’ co-organised by Garden City Farmers and Organic Terrace Gardening Group, Bengaluru on 6th June, 2021. With the theme being ‘Gardening and Beyond’, the team discussed 'Ways to Integrate Urban Agriculture into City’s Development Agenda', by drawing on the findings from the UPAGrI research project.
Farming the City, Online Conference 2021
Sheetal and Parama participated in the second edition of the Farming the City conference organized by People’s Resource Centre (16-18 April 2021). Drawing on the experiences of citizens from different socio-economic backgrounds across multiple Indian cities, they presented the role of urban farming in offering solutions to issues of food access. The stories they shared from Bangalore and Chennai highlighted urban agriculture as a means to building urban/community resilience to disruptions such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Microtalk at The Nature of Cities Online Festival
Maitreyi, Swarnika and Amruth participated in The Nature of Cities festival (22-26 February 2021), where they presented a ‘microtalk’ on ‘Sustainability outcomes of urban agriculture: a case study of Bengaluru India’. In the talk, the team shared the perceived benefits of urban agriculture and explored the possible linkages with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
British Academy Water Workshop
Chandni, Sheetal, and Maitreyi participated in the British Academy's Infrastructures of Wellbeing Water Workshop on 23 April 2021. The workshop brought together 7 research teams, all of which are working directly or indirectly on water issues in cities. We shared ideas on a propositional case study which aims to unpack the linkages between urban farming and water reuse/recycling for productive purposes. The case will focus on rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse practices in Bangalore and Pune, India.
Stakeholder Engagement Event, Tanzania
The UPAGrI Tanzania Team organised a stakeholder engagement event in December 2020 to discuss urban and peri-urban agriculture drivers and outcomes in Dar es Salaam and Morogoro. The event also provided inputs in the Tanzania research themes and pathways for research impact.
Nutrition for all – Virtual dinner
Sheetal participated in a virtual dinner organized by Edible Issues in collaboration with the Future Food Institute and Bangalore Oota Company. Over the dinner she shared her thoughts on the role of urban farming in providing food and nutrition security, especially to socio-economically marginalized urban communities. Additionally, the benefits of urban farming in strengthening the provision of numerous ecosystem services (such as improving plant biodiversity, microclimate regulation, curbing water run-off, maintaining water quality, and enhancing human health) were highlighted.
British Academy Meeting on Modelling 'Infrastructures of Wellbeing'
The British Academy's organized a meeting of research teams engaged in developing models as part of their 'Infrastructure of Wellbeing' projects. Teja Malladi and Ashwin Mahalingam participated in this workshop held on March 24, 2021 and shared their ideas and preliminary results on modeling the future spread of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Bangalore and Chennai.
Virtual Field Trip on The Nature of Cities Festival
Parama, Sheetal, Maitreyi, Swarnika, and Amruth ran a virtual field trip to Bengaluru's urban farms at The Nature of Cities festival on 25 February 2021. In the session titled ‘Garden city’s farming habits: a field tour in Bengaluru, India’, the team discussed experiences, perceived benefits and contributions of urban farming to ecological, social and economic sustainability. The trip showcased the practices of three urban farmers, who discussed their personal journies of urban agriculture and its outcomes on their personal well-being.
UPAGrI Panel at Urban ARC Conference
The UPAGrI team organised a session for at IIHS's Annual Research Conference (Urban ARC) under the theme of Urban Imaginaries. The India and Tanzania team presented findings from their ongoing research with Prof Nitya Rao chairing the panel.
Who Feeds Bangalore? Webinar
Sheetal Patil, Chandni Singh, and Prathigna Poonacha ran an online session titled "Who Feeds Bengaluru?" The session also brought four urban farmers in Bangalore (individual gardeners, a collective farming enterprise, and a mid-sized organisation growing its food), to discuss the multidimensional benefits urban agriculture provides. Spread over 2 days, Who Feeds Bengaluru (WFB) explored different forces that shape how the city of Bengaluru eats.