Brainstorming session on development of Special Ecological Zones along river basins to achieve

Food sovereignty for the Chennai Region.

Attendees:- Santha Sheela Nair (Retd IAS), Jagan Mohan (Professor, TNAU), Jagannathan R (Director,
Nallakeerai), Sujatha Byravan (Independent Consultant on Climate and Development), Sudhir Chella
Rajan(Professor, HSS/IGCS, IIT Madras), Christoph Woiwode (Visiting Professor, IGCS, IIT Madras),
Avilash Roul (Guest Faculty, HSS/IGCS, IIT Madras), Jagannath Srinivasan (Project Officer, IGCS),
Rishika D (Project Officer, IGCS), Uthra Radhakrishnan (Senior Project Officer, IGCS), Tarun Philip
(Project Officer, IGCS), Ramachandran Arumugam (Research Associate, IGCS)

Background:-

It is during the Pandemic times that the major gap in resilience for the most vulnerable groups becomes
evident across the world, in developing, emerging and advanced economies. Primarily, these constitute
subsistence farmers, the landless, migrants and various other types of daily wage workers.

In developing countries, where there is no effective safety net, the precarity of these groups is tragically
exposed in a disaster of the magnitude of COVID-19. Perhaps the most widespread catastrophic effect is
hunger and malnutrition, particularly for children, pregnant women and the elderly. The development
community has long known that food sovereignty, or the ability for groups of families to sustain
themselves nutritionally is the easiest and most ethical route to build a self-reliant social safety net.

Unfortunately, urban and peri-urban regions are characterised by food markets with considerably large
food miles even for many perishables. This project’s goals are to develop a model framework for
envisaging food sovereign spaces in the urban and peri-urban geographies of representative city regions
in India thereby building climate resilience through sustainable peri-urban agriculture in the city regions.

Agenda:-

For the peri-urban initiative, our focus in the session was to get an expert opinion from the domain to
understand the extent of feasibility of food sovereignty and gauge the further steps in the study.

Objectives of the preliminary study:-

Through an initial investigation for a baseline study about food supply and markets in the Chennai region,
we mapped places from where Chennai’s food is sourced and they happened to be coming in from atleast
200Km away. In a quest for self sufficiency, especially, in times like these, where there are restrictions on
logistics and supply chain linkages (especially) are distorted, we started to explore ways to minimize risk
of not having access to food during times of disaster. Hence, the rationale behind exploring the potential
for an increase of regionally produced food in combination with the protection of agricultural land near
water-bodies.
Our initial study was to estimate land availability in the immediate hinterland (especially along the 4 river
basins around Chennai) and if it’s enough to grow our food. The preliminary estimates from GIS land-
Use Land-Cover data analysis show that it is possible to grow a majority of food in our basins by creating
buffer zones/special ecological zones near water bodies, including the inflow of tanks and lakes and along
the hydrological channels of streams and rivers dedicated to sustainable agriculture.
We are also trying to devise strategies to use the unused Poromboke land (Land of the commons) to
encourage community farming practices (especially promoting zero budget natural farms and productive
food forests with local nitrogen fixing species) where the local populace are the cultivators and generators
of food value-chain of Chennai. Within human settlements, we will consider the expansion of kitchen and
rooftop gardening, after a preliminary assessment of rooftop and backyard availability.

Outcomes:-

Challenges :-

 There could be an issue with Water availability for agriculture when the entire food basket would
need to be grown in Chennai’s basin. There could be numerous Commitments like towards
irrigation of existing belts of paddy, floriculture; drinking water requirements to the city. A lot of
the water resources in the region (including ground water) are dedicated towards Chennai’s water
needs. There are many well fields especially in the Kosasthaliyar, Araniyar river basins that are
dedicated exclusively from which water is drawn to supply to the city.
 Currently convincing farmers in the belt who grow paddy and floriculture over vast stretches to
give up their traditional crop preferences (which might give them clout and bargaining power at
markets) could be difficult.
 A lot of the city’s horticultural consumption is attributed to the Hill vegetables that might not
grow in Chennai’s agro-ecological zone.
 The land required could be significantly higher when further grains’ consumption like millets et
al is included.
 Non-availability of Labour is a major limitation especially in growing labour-intensive crops like
horticulture. Post schemes like MGNEGA, development of secondary industries and townships in
the peri-urban Chennai, has lead to the migration of labour into non-agriculture related activities.
Currently paddy is grown in this belt which is mostly mechanized except for weeding,
transplanting. Currently, even the Aged/rescue labourers that were available engage in security
related activities.
 The organic farms probably can’t stand the clout of existing belts from where the produce is
currently sourced from especially in terms of cost Competitiveness. The advantage of lower
transportation costs could be negated by cheaper water, labour costs in the traditional rural areas
they are sourced from.
 While even assuming that the production system would be replaced, how are the marketing
systems going to change (Eg. Farmers markets) need to be adopted (comparative costs)

Some strategies to be adopted to address some of the issues:-

 Labour and water requirements are significantly lower for food forests, natural farming
techniques. Due to the availability of natural ground cover in natural farming the plants are able
to sustain with dew and the minimal soil moisture available. Eg: The successful growing of
groundnuts in the month of May in the fields in dry, arid Anantapur districts, AP using ZBNF.
 With increase in horticultural crops the water required would come down when compared to
paddy growth. (horticultural requirement is only around 5-10% of paddy requirement).
  Additional labour requirements for horticulture crops could be seen as driving profitable agro-
employment opportunities in the region. Most of the labourers have migrated to other activities
due push factors like decrease in agricultural activity in the area and seasonality of employment.

Steps for further analysis:-

 The Data on consumption requirements must be sourced/ confirmed from official sources to
supplement our study
 There is a need compliment the food basket analysis by examining the Consumption and retail
side policy/strategy scenarios.
 Methods that yield High productivities at minimal labour and water requirements are the key to
going forward.
 There should be focus on encouraging indigenous varieties that grow in our agro-climatic zone
like ladies finger, Eggplant, Tomatoes, greens and on methods like ZBNF, food forests that do
not compromise on productivities even when there is reduced use of water and other inputs.
 There needs to be a plan/strategy for the areas that already grows this food. Going forward we
need to understand if they would continue to grow the same crops and bring it to the same
markets here or the methods of distribution and market dynamics going to change.
 Further Details on stakeholders, steps of distribution of produce across the region need to be
studied. Complimenting the food basket analysis with the stakeholder analysis regarding the
current and potential influences on each of them. This would yield an understanding of the
opposition from various agents and their clout we would encounter in replacing an existing well
oiled process.
 A detailed study of the market forces, methods of marketing the produce, kind of social capital
required (Eg. Formation of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)), the scale of production for
the model to be viable is required to be done.
 Ensuring a Balance between Economy, ecology, social aspects of food production and
consumption systems is key to sustainability. This Analysis should not just from markets’ point
of view but also subsistence and of encouraging smaller areas of production and how they could
be connected to food security, accessibility especially for low income communities. The Urban
farming project amongst Low income communities of Perumbakkam ensuring their subsistence
and income generation could be a potential model to be reviewed.
 Understanding strategies to garner support of FPOs in Peri-urban Chennai to switch to food
forests.