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Hyderabad (India)Introduction: City context Hyderabad is the capital city of the state of Andhra Pradesh located in South India in the heart of the Deccan Plateau at 536 meters above sea level. The core city, together with it’s nine surrounding municipalities are covering an area of 500 square km. It receives an annual rainfall of 700-800 mm during the short monsoon and cyclone season from June-October. According to the 2001 statistics, Hyderabad has a population of 6 million, a 17.2 % increase over the population of 1991 making it one of the fastest growing urban areas in India. With such a rapid increase in urban population a concomitant rise in urban poverty and decline in the quality of the urban environment are of growing concern to the city authorities. In this context, Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture [UPA] assumes an important role as a source of livelihood for the urban poor. Most important types of Urban Agriculture in this specific city The three main UPA activities in Hyderabad are: fodder and vegetable production, urban forestry and dairy/milk production. 1. Fodder and vegetable production with wastewater irrigation In Hyderabad, about 600 million litres per day of wastewater enters Musi River which is subsequently used for irrigating para grass (used as a fodder grass), leafy vegetables and paddy along the ‘Musi River Corridor’. A number of small and medium scale industries also release their untreated effluents. According to the Landsat image February 2005, about 2108 ha para grass in and around Hyderabad and approx 10,000 ha of paddy along the ‘Musi River Corridor’ is irrigated with wastewater. Preliminary studies conducted by IWMI show that there is a very small area under wastewater irrigated peri-urban vegetable production mainly by women farmers. However, fodder and vegetable production contributes significantly to livelihoods and food security of resource-poor urban and peri-urban women and men. In and around Hyderabad, women constitute the majority of both vegetable producers (they rent the land) and vendors. Women tend the buffaloes and men harvest or purchase the fodder. Livestock rearing is on the rise in these regions. The use of wastewater in fodder and vegetable cropping systems has been shown to be beneficial for farmers as a result of the reliability and fertilizer value of wastewater that may result in considerable savings in inputs translating into higher incomes. Furthermore, there is a chain of beneficiaries who depend indirectly on wastewater for their livelihoods (and who are usually not accounted for in the value attributed to wastewater such as landless labourers who work in agriculture or in animal husbandry. In Hyderabad, it was found that households that produce vegetables saved 20% of their total food expenditures by retaining part of the produce for household consumption (Buechler and Devi, 2003). Further, Para grass production and sale contributes about an estimated annual income of US$ 4.5 Million or Rs 202 Million to the local economy of Hyderabad (IRDAS, 2005).
Vegetable production Production of fodder 2. Urban Forestry Parks and Forestry in urban areas are often considered to be the lungs of the city and are also utilized for recreation and as 'Carbon sinks' for CO2. Hyderabad Urban Development Authority [HUDA] has done exemplary work on urban forestry in Hyderabad under the Green Hyderabad Environment Programme [GHEP]. The main aim of this programme is to “Achieve sustainable improvement of the living environment with active stakeholder participation and a focus on gender and poverty alleviation.��? The main activities that have been carried out to date include;
The HUDA GHEP, programme has contributed significantly to the training and empowerment of women’s groups in Hyderabad. Poor women from slums and those whose economic status puts them below the poverty line are given training in ‘plant nursery raising’ annually at six central plant nurseries covering city and its peri-urban areas. In addition, and of fundamental importance to the programs success, HUDA ensures buy-back of the seedlings produced. Normally each beneficiary would get about US $ 13 to14 per month. Over the past 5 years, over 550 women groups were formed involving over 6000 women. The trained women have raised about 8.7 million seedlings for planting in the project sites and for distribution to local bodies and the general public. To date, approximately US $ 441,380 has been distributed to the women who were involved in this programme. The women groups are also taking up cultivation of leafy vegetables in between the planting rows. The earning by sale of these leafy vegetables on every alternate day is US $ 4.6 per group. Further, HUDA has created 4 million man days of direct employment for the urban poor under the GHEP programme of which nearly 70% was for women. Apart from direct employment, utilisable resources namely, fodder, fuel wood and broom grass was created under the programme which improved the social status and economic condition of those involved. Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad [MCH] has also undertaken extensive work on urban forestry with a primary focus on the development of parks. In this regard MCH has undertaken rejuvenation and development activities in Indira, Chacha Nehru, Jalagam Vengala Rao, and Imliban Parks. In addition, thirteen other major parks have been identified for development. There are 709 of Colony parks/open spaces within the area covered by MCH. Of these, over 471 (66 %) have been developed into forest with the remaining 238 (34 %) set aside for use as colony parks. Further, MCH has also coordinated the development of fifteen Theme Parks with the intention of creating awareness among citizens with respect to different plant species and to encourage academic interest among students, botanists, ecologists and other interested persons. In addition to above mentioned activities, MCH had by the end of August, 2000 planted over 450,000 plants. These plants were planted mostly in avenues, green belts, open spaces, grave yards, around water bodies and in institutional lands. These activities are on-going. 3. Dairy / Milk production Milk is an important dietary requirement for children and young people and plays an important role in the Indian cuisine. In Hyderabad, with the rapidly expanding urban population combined with urban consumers’ increased purchasing power, it is inevitable that milk production and consumption are also rising rapidly. Some preliminary estimates by IRDAS reveal that, of the 1.8 million litres per day of milk consumed by the Hyderabad city dwellers, 100,000 litres per day are supplied by private vendors from within the area under Hyderabad Urban Development Authority [HUDA] jurisdiction. In dairy producer households, 25% of the milk produced (assuming a household of 6 members owns one buffalo) is retained for household consumption and 75% is sold. Dairy producers’ livestock also serves as a security asset in times of need (Buechler and Devi, 2003). However, very little information is available on the number of milk cattle that are kept within the HUDA area, the number of families dependent on them for their livelihoods and the municipal regulations that affect them.
Description of the MPAP process RUAF-CFF programme started in South Asia beginning with Hyderabad as the first pilot city in the year 2005. Keeping in mind the involvement of multi stakeholder in action planning and policy design pertaining to UPA an enabling team was formed with Mr. Bheer Singh Parsheera, the agriculture production commissioner for Andhra Pradesh as the chairperson. Two enabling team meeting were organized as an introduction and for sensitization process to the various line departments such as Department of Agriculture, Horticulture, HUDA, MCH, Department of Livestock and Fisheries. Following Institutions are the Partners of IWMI in Hyderabad: A training of trainers workshop was organized in 2005 followed by a MPAP training programme for the enabling team members on the multistakeholder and partnership process. An exploratory study has been implemented for the whole of Hyderabad, as well as is for Seriligampally Municipality, a fast growing muncipality located in the western part of the Hyderabad urban agglomeration. With support of the Roda Mistry College of Social Work, the Jawahar Lal Nehru technological institute, and the Municipality existing urban agriculture systems in Serilingampally were identified, agricultural land areas identified and household interviews implemented. The Serilingampally study identified that agricultural production was dominated by Kharif season paddy cultivation and small scale vegetable production. The results of Customer and Vendor Surveys indicate that Serilingampally is in effect entirely dependent on external agricultural production to meet nutritional demands and as such is ‘food insecure’. Serilingampally residents and particularly low income households have limited financial ‘buffering capacity’ to counteract externalities that impact on the cost of vegetables and fruits. Externalities impacting on vegetable and fruit prices include increasing fuel prices, reduced supply due to climatic factors and continued loss of agricultural land in the hinter-land of Hyderabad due to rapid urbanization and increased production costs including labour costs (due to shortage of agricultural labour through migration to Hyderabad). This would suggest that there is tremendous opportunity for locally produced (either at a commercial or household scale) perishable vegetables to meet the increasing market demand and to act as a buffer to escalating food prices Perceived Constraints to UPA in Serilingampally: Opportunities and potentials for UPA in Seriligampally:o Rapidly increasing number of consumers Further, it is envisaged that the promotion of UPA in Serilingampally will act as a catalyst for small and medium enterprises associated with nurseries (vegetables, ornamentals and fruit trees), composting and the local manufacturing of low space and vertical cultivation structures. However, the exploratory survey also indicated a general lack of awareness of partner organizations in Hyderabad on the feasibility of agriculture in an urban context. It was therefore decided to further advance with awareness raising and demonstration activities (“proof of concept”), before embarking on an action planning process in Hyderabad. Awareness raising and demonstration In November 2006, a regional exchange/study visit was organised between representatives of the Western Province, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka and representatives from partner organizations in Hyderabad and Bangalore, with the aim to: • Address the lack of awareness and change perceptions of partner organizations in Hyderabad and Bangalore on the feasibility of UPA in an urban context through the use of Low/No Space Technologies to facilitate Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture As a result of the exchange visit, the Andra Pradesh Horticulture Institute integrated Low/No Space Technologies in their curriculum. IN 2006 and 2007, IWMI-RUAF also participated in various Horticultural Exhibitions to showcase urban agriculture technologies. At the same time, some case studies on existing urban agriculture activities in Hyderabad have been implemented and documented, and two new pilot and demonstration projects have been set up, involving the establishment of a school garden and home gardens. The pilot project will establish productive kitchen gardens in 38 households in Surabhi Colony and a 1.0 acre school garden for an 800 pupils at Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential High School and Jr. College for Girls. The overall objective of the Pilot Project is to improve nutritional security poor urban households and school children providing sustainable access to fresh and safe food. Examples of ongoing projects Pilot Project development: Surabi Colony: Kitchen Gardens Click here If you would like to know more about this project. Linkages to regional websites, key documents, photos, maps For more information on the RUAF-Cities Farming for the Future Programme in the region, contact the regional coordinator at RUAF South and South East Asia or see their website. Click here to return to the worldmap.  |
