India: Municipality to set up urban farms at 250 schools; organic veggies to be used in midday meals
This will be along the lines of two successful organic farming projects that have been established at the Mumbai Public School in Collector’s Colony, Chembur, and the Scouts and Guides District Centre, in Powai
By Prayag Arora-Desai
Hindustani Times
Jun 9, 2023
Excerpt:
Ajit Kumbhar, joint municipal commissioner (education and vigilance), said, “We launched these two pilots last year in collaboration with World Resources Institute India, and some private players, to assess their feasibility. Since these projects have been successful, we are going to expand urban farming to more than half of the 450 school buildings BMC owns.
The ‘City Gardening Project’ should be able to grow enough vegetables to include in midday meals for students in these schools. We are exploring multiple options including portable farms, vertical farms, and also looking at ways for optimising water use in them.”
The two pilot projects in Chembur and Powai were the result of a ‘nature-based solutions accelerator’ program incepted by WRI India and the BMC pursuant to the latter’s engagement with the global Cities4Forest initiative. In July 2021, Mumbai became the 70th city globally and the third in India to join the Cities4Forests alliance, which helps cities around the world protect and protect and conserve trees, urban parks and forests.
“The NBS-Accelerator was envisioned as a means to allow urban local bodies like our own BMC to access climate finance. We often hear of billions of dollars of green capital being available to developing countries but local bodies themselves do not have access to it. Mumbai’s participation in the Cities4Forests alliance was initiated during my tenure as environment minister and we are glad to see it come to fruition. Hopefully it will encourage many more such green investments at a city level,” said Aaditya Thackeray, former environment minister, Maharashtra.
