About Urban Farming: exciting project at Khoj Studios
The idea of sustainable farming is not new in India. We have an
age-old tradition of subsistence agriculture, which is basically sustainable
farming. India has the largest percentage of small farmers who survive on
age-old practices and traditional knowledge. But in recent times, heavy
industrial agriculture has overcome the tradition and at the same time, there
has been an increasing alienation of urban consumer from the process of
production and transportation of food.
In recent times, many artists and activists have taken up these issues through their works. I personally got involved in this field, through Aulinjaa project, which was supported by the Khoj's Negotiating Routes program. Since then I have been investigating and sharing these with my fellow practitioners in Delhi. Recently I got the kind invitation of Rootings Symposium and visited Chicago. Here I met many artists, activists, urban farmers and organizations, actively involved in the questioning and investigating of food in urban context. it was wonderful to see a free flow of ideas and knowledge. Also it was interesting to see a large support base through artists networks and activist organizations. This is something we kind of lacked in Delhi, in context it was natural to utilize the established platform of Khoj and bring together a large gamut of people involved with the idea of food and farming.
In recent times, many artists and activists have taken up these issues through their works. I personally got involved in this field, through Aulinjaa project, which was supported by the Khoj's Negotiating Routes program. Since then I have been investigating and sharing these with my fellow practitioners in Delhi. Recently I got the kind invitation of Rootings Symposium and visited Chicago. Here I met many artists, activists, urban farmers and organizations, actively involved in the questioning and investigating of food in urban context. it was wonderful to see a free flow of ideas and knowledge. Also it was interesting to see a large support base through artists networks and activist organizations. This is something we kind of lacked in Delhi, in context it was natural to utilize the established platform of Khoj and bring together a large gamut of people involved with the idea of food and farming.
Khoj director, Mrs. Pooja
Sood was very kind to accept this proposal and make it part of Khoj programing
for the current year. While I was in Delhi in January, we started the program
on 11th January with a casual meeting of artists and activists, like Ravi
Agarwal, Arun Kumar HG, Aastha Chauhan, Ruchika Negi and many more.
Some of the ideas, which we all agreed to were:
> Renegotiate the term Urban Farming in a India specific context.
> To create a platform of sharing knowledge, to open it up forum of discussions and to promote newer ideations.
Some of the ideas, which we all agreed to were:
> Renegotiate the term Urban Farming in a India specific context.
> To create a platform of sharing knowledge, to open it up forum of discussions and to promote newer ideations.
> Realize specific projects, involving community engagement.
The second meeting took
place on 27th Jan to confirm the final list of participants and to officially
announce the project to Public.
It is going to be a
exciting year ahead with this project and you can follow it through a common
blog at: http://blog.khojworkshop.org/?p=559
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