An hour and a half away from her home in Hyderabad, life coach and image consultant Priya Rajiv drives to Akshara Ananda, a ‘wellness farm community’, where she indulges in planting, tending to plants, vegetable plucking, animal feeding, etc, and enjoys the fresh produce too. “Every time we visit the farm we learn something new, either about crops, the soil, seasons, etc,” says Rajiv, a part of the growing tribe of city folks undertaking farming on the side.
Often urban settlers complain about the pressures of city life and contemplate leaving everything to take up farming. While farming itself is a harsh profession, the dream of city dwellers to take up farming is becoming a reality in a different way. Several projects on city outskirts offer a farming experience, to own or rent pieces of land devoted exclusively to farming. And these urban farmers get to experience organic produce, reconnect with their roots, and also to de-stress and rejuvenate.
Essentially a real-estate project sprawling across 150 acres close to Hyderabad, Akshara Ananda’s founder Ashwin Rao says: “I sell land in one-acre lots, priced at Rs 1.6 crore per plot.” How it works is that the entire 150 acres is maintained by Rao and his team, while the land owners can visit their plot and invest time and effort as they please. “Time is the main ingredient in farming, which an urban farmer might not be able to commit, as the land owners have their daily jobs and routines. So we make it a collective experience, and whatever comes out of this entire land—fruits, vegetables and dairy products—is distributed among the plot owners.” Akshara Ananda even houses a clubhouse with several cottages where land owners can stay while engaging in farm activities.
Over 1,500 kilometres north, Gurugram, another tech hub like Hyderabad, is witnessing a similar trend. On its Facebook page, Green Leaf India describes itself as a ‘community organic farming’ space where one can lease out land and grow organic vegetables on their mini farms. The 3.5-acre land is further divided into 600 sq yards each of mini plots, which one can lease out. A six-month lease costs Rs 35,000 per month, including the input costs and wages for a farm labourer couple who take care of all the activities on the farm. Hence, one doesn’t need to get their hands dirty in all aspects of farming, but can enjoy it as a hobby.
According to K Srinivasa Rao, founder and CEO of Hyderabad-based Inacres, which, too, aids city dwellers to become urban farmers, the concept especially “picked up since the Covid pandemic when people realised the importance of health and well-being, much of which is connected with what one eats”.
And it shows. According to Akshara Ananda’s Rao, within a year of starting, “we have sold 40% of the 100-odd plots”. Similarly, Green Leaf India “has approximately 60 members who are growing their own organic vegetables in their leased out lands/mini-farms,” as per their Facebook page.
Meanwhile for an urban farmer, “Every time we visit the farm, walk around, drive the tractor, eat healthy, we come home rejuvenated and fall into a deep sleep,” says Rajiv, adding, “Such is the joy of simple pleasures and nature’s treasures.”
