BENGALURU: A group of Whitefieldians are inspiring people around them with their unique urban farming initiative. They have taken an empty plot, set aside for public use in a residential layout on ECC Road, for this. The initiative kickstarted with a Facebook post by Sandeep Anirudhan from Whitefield. The response he received was overwhelming, with hundreds sending in request for registration.
In fact, a couple of schools have also approached them to take up similar kind of initiative at their campus to make children understand the nuances of a life circle. Local coporator S Muniswamy has assured the group use of public land, for free. The produce from this land can be donated to the poor and needy.
The Facebook page created by Sandeep has seen over 300 people registerations since March 2016. Sandeep says, “If this initiative stabilises and gets sustained support, we will take this to other parts of Whitefield too.”
So how did the idea of urban farming come to Sandeep? He says, “I have been doing sustainable studies for 12 years now.” Sustainable studies, an integrated discipline that includes instruction in sustainable development, geography, environmental policies, ethics, city and regional planning, economics and anthropology.
He continues, “I realised that today we are completely disconnected from everything around us. About 99 per cent of the population has remained consumers because of lack of awareness. We are outsourcing everything including production of food grains or vegetables. The kind of produce that we consume is filled with chemicals. There is a sustainable solution to everything. We just need to look for it.”
He further added, “Once people start producing their own food, they will realise what it takes to cultivate them. They will connect with Nature. Chemicals and pesticides are not required to cultivate food grains,” he says.
They have a community called Aikyam - Sustainable Living. “We want ordinary people to talk about it, and not experts. This is one of the projects under Aikyam. Once we have a good number of volunteers, we will work on other initiatives.”