Planning and development of peri-uran agriculture: case of greater Warangal

Abstract

The world’s population is estimated to be more than 6 billion by 2050. By the increase in the population, there is increase in the need of food to feed the increased population. Agriculture nowadays faces many challenges, making it more difficult to full fill its primary objective, i.e., feeding the population. Population growth and the change in the diet of the people which is associated with the rising incomes, drive great demand for agriculture products. This demand increases the price of agricultural products and become inaccessible to the urban poor. This lead to food insecurity in the urban area. Peri-urban agriculture is one of the way to achieve urban food security. As it is close proximity to the urban population and market places, it provides fresh food for urban population, especially in supplying food which is perishable, as they cannot be preserved for long time. It contributes to the quality of life and also provides Social, Economic and Environmental services to the people in the urban area. So cultivating the perishable agriculture products near to the urban area can shorten the urban food supply chain and improve food security in the urban area. So the study mainly focuses on the periurban vegetable cultivation. The study analysis the importance of peri-urban agriculture on the urban food supply chain and develop strategies to strengthen urban food supply chain. Peri-urban areas of Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) is taken as study area. Warangal is the second largest city after Hyderabad in the state of Telangana. It has a population of 8.3 lakhs (Census 2011). The total number of peri-urban villages are 49. It has an area of 54,812 ha with a population of 1.6 lakhs (Census 2011). The study is supported by the primary and secondary data which is collected during the field visit. Qualitative data is collected through the interviews of the farmers, vegetable vendors and the vegetable market incharge. The study of existing situation of the agriculture activities in the peri-urban areas of Greater Warangal is done to identify issues related to agriculture production. The extent dependency of urban food supply chain on peri-urban area of Greater Warangal is analysed by studying the vegetable supply chain and mapping the sources of supply of vegetables and finding gap between the supply and demand of vegetable products. Forward and backward linkages is also studied to evaluate the profitability of farmer on the vegetable crop. SWOC analysis is done to find the strength, weakness, upcoming opportunities and challenges. From the study, it is observed that there is very less vegetable cultivation in the peri-urban areas. The main reason is that vegetables do not have minimum support price and they cannot be stored for long time like other grain crops. The gap between the supply and demand of vegetables is very high. So there is need to increase the vegetable production in the peri-urban areas to fulfil the demand of the urban area. The strategies are developed for different identified issues in the study. Strategies that promote vegetable cultivation in the peri-urban areas are also given to strengthen the urban food supply chain. Other recommendations on minimum support price (MSP) for vegetables and the technology used by the farmers etc. are also given to encourage farmers in vegetable cultivation.