Awareness Drive on Organic Urban Farming

For those of us living in cities we enjoy service of a lot of people in our everyday lives. The services range from newspaper delivery, cleaning services to home maintenance and home cooking. And these people who make our lives easier don’t lead a easy life themselves. They live in the same cities as us where the cost of living is substantially higher than the countryside and their meager income does not help their cause. As a result their access to fresh and nutritious food is quite limited. Urban farming can be one of the solutions to this problem. To assess whether the urban poor can grow a part of their own food, I visited a slum in Tulasipur, Cuttack back in June and carried out an awareness campaign on Urban farming. The entire program was carried out by an NGO called IIEC which works in the area of inclusive development of the underprivileged.

Answering Questions during Awareness Drive on Organic Urban Farming

What I realized during the awareness campaign is that, though people live in cramped spaces, they do not live vertically. In other words they do not stay in apartments. Everyone stays in an individual house with limited space. But almost everyone has access to some space where they can grow a few vegetables. Some of them even have a concrete roof which is unused. On the bright side, I was very happy to see some of the residents already growing a few vegetables and green leafs.

After the awareness campaign was over a lot of the residents came forward and showed interest in learning techniques of organic urban farming . Their only caveat was that the input cost of this activity has to be near zero. I promised them to be back soon and share my experience with them.

Organic Urban Farming Training – Day 1

07 Sept 2017

Day 1 of Training - Talking about Amrut Jal preparation — Day 1 of Training – Talking about Amrut Jal preparation

I had only 2 days for the training. So for day 1 I focused on hands on training that would get everyone going. For day 2 of training which was supposed to be held with at least 2 weeks gap, I decided to focus on class room training and discussions. Day 2 of the training was also for doing a review of what people would have done till then.

Everybody chipping in for preparing a lasagna garden bed

Training was arranged at the home of one of the participants. In the pre -lunch session I talked about garden bed preparation, potting mix features and preparation. The participants were very happy to learn how they can use organic waste like dry leaves, grass clippings and egg shell etc to build their garden soil. As I talked about using very cheap inputs like cow dung manure, compost, coco peat and oil seed cakes to prepare potting soil, it became clear to them that with very little input cost they can easily grow a few vegetables for their own consumption. I also stressed on mulching and its usefulness. The participants were really surprised to hear the benefits and importance of the same.

Participants were busy mulching a freshly prepared garden bed until camera was pointed at them

After a couple of hours of class room session we moved outside and I showed a demo of how to prepare a garden bed for growing vegetables. I got everyone to get their hands dirty and participate in making the bed. The layering of organic material, manure and soil was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed making the lasagna garden bed and also coined a new term for it. They called it Biriyani bed. As biriyani is also a dish that is made by layering rice and meat alternatively I couldn’t have agreed more with the new name given to layered garden bed.

In the post lunch session we mixed potting soil and planted few seeds in a couple of pots. I also taught them how to prepare an organic fertilizer called Amrut jal using cow dung, cow urine, jaggery and water. And again the participants were pleasantly surprised to learn that they can easily make an excellent organic soil conditioner and fertilizer using animal waste which is easily available to them.

Participants learning how to make inexpensive potting soil

Day One of the training program ended with a question answer round. I was being bombarded with questions and had to really keep pace with them and answer each of them. I was very happy to see the usually shy people open up and get their questions answered. We came back after distributing a few tomato, beans, eggplant and bitter gourd seeds. The next training session was planned to be held after a couple of weeks, so that everyone can start on growing a few plants in the mean time. I really could not wait to come back and see the progress.

Organic Urban Farming Training – Day 2

24 Sept 2017

Participants listening attentively on day 2 of urban farming training

Couple of weeks and a few days later we were back in Tulsipur for the second and concluding part of organic urban farming training. This time the training was going to be mostly indoors and hence was held in the community hall of the locality. As a start we did a review of experience of the participants who had planted a few seeds in their backyards and containers. Most of them had positive news and were very happy to see success in germination and growth of the plants. Some people also had faced a few issues which we discussed and I suggested a few solutions. The next part of the training was pest management using organic methods. This is the session in which the participants had a lot of questions. I tried to answer as many as possible and suggested a few home made organic pesticides like neem spray, giger garlic spray and chilli spray as solution.

Pest management was the most interesting session for the participants

Post lunch I talked about composting kitchen waste and showed the participants how to do it in the correct way. Waste disposal in cities, especially in the slum area is a huge issue. Organic waste dumped near their locality creates a lot of problems for the residents. As they learnt how to compost kitchen waste it became clear to them that not only they can reduce the garbage problem, they get good quality compost for their plants by composting their organic waste.

In the end after the final question answer session the participants looked a little concerned. As the training program had ended they were not sure whether they could get solutions to their gardening problems in future. I promised the participants to support them further on their farming journey through phone and bid farewell.

Few participants taking notes on preparation of Panchagavya

I believe that to be able to grow a few fruits and vegetables is a basic life skill everyone must possess. Organic gardening not only helps to get fresh and nutritious vegetables in our diets, it also helps people to grow as human beings by working with nature. About six months earlier I had taken a proposal of organic urban farming training for the urban poor to IIEC. And this day I feel very happy and content to have been able to impart some of my experience to them.

What People Are Saying About Us

Shweta NarulaNarula Restaurant, Bhubaneswar
The reliability of and emphasis on organic fertilizers such as compost, green manure as an alternative to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides is the need of the hour. With increasing number of diseases and ill health of people, consumption of organically grown fruits and vegetables will contribute largely towards well being of all. Prabal's workshop on organic urban farming is an ideal platform to learn and utilize the methods of preparing organic materials, residues, nutrients and recycling them. Very interesting and knowledge enhancing workshop. Must do.
Navneet AroraHome Maker
The summer course on Urban Farming organised by Prabal and Shweta was just what I needed. Though I am an enthusiastic amateur kitchen gardener, I was beginning to feel tired due to poor yield and crops lost to pests as I was against using any chemicals. Learning tried and tested methods from Prabal's and Shweta's own experience as successful organic gardeners filled the gap in my understanding. I feel I now understand the entire process of soil preparation, composting, crop rotation etc much better. I am back into gardening with renewed vigour and am looking forward to a bumper harvest this season.
Pulak PatnaikNetwork Engineer
Messenger of Greens, that's what I would call Prabal who has shown me the path to terrace gardening. He has gone on from being a friend and a terrific painter to become a guide and showed me the how to grow my own vegetables in my own house. An IT guy and a painter who is now spreading awareness about the need of urban population to go green and grow green is doing a terrific job through this website. Cheers and I hope more people follow this path not just to help nature, but to help themselves.
Nikky PujariChicago, Illinois
The Organic Terrace blog is well researched, simple to follow and written by someone who is not just passionate about growing organic vegetables but very experienced in all of its facets. I followed instructions on tomato growing and immediately saw results - 13 big, red, sun-ripened organically grown tomatoes on a 10 inch container..wish I could attend the workshop too. Love the blog!
Uday SahuAtmaram Chain of Hotels and Restaurants
I had been planting the odd vegetables in my terrace without real success. But last year I started taking consultation from Prabal of http://organicterrace.in and things have completely changed since then. Not only I learned proper ways of growing vegetables in containers, the passion of Prabal was so inspiring that in approximately 3 months I had a full fledged vegetable garden on my terrace. I also managed to get free giveaways of eggplant, tomato saplings by organicterrace.in, which helped me to build my garden faster. Huge thanks again to organicterrace and Prabal.
G JagadishFormer LIC Officer
The "Organic Urban Farming Crash Course" organised by Sri.Prabal Mallik, Founder, Organic Terrace and Ms.Shweta Agarwal, Director, Paz Farming has come to my fortunes at the right time when I was in need of it the most.

I knew that my desire was ripe to start my own terrace vegetable garden but was unsure of how to start one. I came to the program with almost zero gardening experience. Thanks to Prabal Babu and Madam Shweta for making the aspirants like me learn most of the latest skills in organic terrace gardening. Now with this 21-day course I feel that I am thoroughly equipped having bestowed with the right knowledge, skills, abilities and confidence to start a successful "terrace garden" and "open land farming" as well.

My sincere thanks with whole lot of appreciations go to the duo for a splendid academic exposure clubbed with hand-holding guidance.
I wish OT n PF all success in their future endeavors.
Susmita PaniFormer Reader in English at Ravenshaw University, Freelance ELT Consultant
Attending the three-week organic urban farming workshop, organized by Paz Farming and Organic Terrace was a revelation. Both Shweta and Prabal are extremely knowledgeable, competent and exude confidence that comes from experience. They are keen, dedicated, helpful and more than willing to share information. The wonderful team created a climate of collegiality among all of us who ranged from 20 to 60 years. It was a genuinely interactive and participatory workshop where we covered a wide gamut of topics through hands on practice. Anyone who has the slightest interest in environment and organic farming must attend this workshop.