00:00 Juicy berries, fresh chillies, bitter gourds and bumper crops of various organically grown
00:07 fruits and vegetables.
00:10 They are the reason Mumbai resident Zeeshan Ameri began volunteering at this food forest.
00:16 It's located inside the grounds of one of the region's biggest cancer hospitals.
00:20 A good hour's drive from his home.
00:25 I come from the most concrete part of Bombay which is Kurla and it's all about just buildings
00:30 and slums.
00:32 And I was lucky to find this farm so close to Bombay in Kharghar.
00:38 And it's very important to have access to nice and fresh veggies instead of having all
00:44 these injected veggies out there.
00:48 Locally grown organic produce.
00:50 Rather than food grown with fertilizers and pesticides shipped from industrial farms far
00:55 and wide.
00:56 Today, Zeeshan is one of some 500 volunteers who currently tend to the crops here at the
01:03 Earthen Roots Community Farm.
01:06 It began as a tiny garden under the direction of Manaswini Tyagi.
01:11 She is trained in permaculture, a type of agriculture that adapts itself to the natural
01:15 environment with minimal external interference.
01:20 But finding a natural environment in the city to cultivate was no easy task.
01:26 Then she heard that a neglected plot of land on the site of a hospital was soon to get
01:30 a makeover.
01:31 St. Jude Child Care Centre wanted to have a backyard ornamental garden, you know, for
01:39 beautification.
01:40 It looks good and all.
01:41 Because this whole place that you see that has become into a food forest was not like
01:46 this.
01:47 It was a dumping ground.
01:48 So they wanted some plants to look for it, for it to look beautiful.
01:51 So we suggested rather than growing something ornamental, why not let's plant something,
01:56 you know, to grow something edible.
01:59 Twelve years on, this thriving food forest now contributes fresh, healthy ingredients
02:04 to the meals of children undergoing treatment here at the hospital.
02:10 Volunteers can also take home the fruits of their labour.
02:14 They are among a growing number of people in cities like Mumbai, eager to add locally
02:19 grown nutritious ingredients to their diets.
02:24 Catering to that appetite, Saurabh Nagre set up a company that grows young edible seedlings
02:29 known as microgreens.
02:33 When we look at any other vegetable, how it is coming into a city and how we are eating
02:38 it, it is more or less being sourced from somewhere which is outside the city.
02:41 It's very difficult to be able to manage to grow a real like quantity of vegetables which
02:47 can serve a lot of masses within the city itself because of the constraint of space
02:52 that we generally go through.
02:53 So here when I understood about microgreens, I could see that the constraint of space was
02:58 not as much compared to other vegetables.
03:00 So giving fresh food access, like same day harvested, same day given food, that kind
03:06 of an experience can only happen when you're working on something like this.
03:11 This team grows 15 different varieties of leafy greens for some 200 local customers.
03:19 Microgreens can be cultivated in small spaces with minimal sunlight and water, making them
03:24 ideal for crowded urban areas.
03:27 Experts believe they can boost the health of the entire city.
03:34 Microgreens are essentially valued for the micronutrients.
03:39 So they are the additions to your diet, not to add calories.
03:47 These are the additional inputs to add quality to your diet.
03:52 And by quality, we are essentially looking at important vitamins like vitamin C, important
04:01 vitamins like riboflavin or important minerals.
04:06 When you look at nutrition in India today, even today, if you look at lower socioeconomic
04:12 status or probably middle income also, the only idea which people have is weight loss
04:16 and weight gain.
04:17 That's the only thing.
04:19 Nobody talks about having food or looking at diet which will help you live a better
04:25 quality of life.
04:26 So they are very reluctant when it comes to making lifestyle changes.
04:31 That's why this college department is on a mission to introduce microgreens into family
04:35 homes across Mumbai.
04:37 Suvarna Kotkar is among a group of college staff learning how to grow this superfood
04:42 on their own and use it in their daily diets.
04:51 I started using them in salads.
04:53 I even cook them as vegetables and make cheela like this.
04:57 It's quite healthy.
04:59 Now I know these recipes and have the ingredients ready.
05:02 They're quite simple and quick to put together.
05:05 I've also found it gives me energy in the middle of my work day as it's light and healthy
05:09 to eat.
05:10 So I've really benefited from learning about microgreens.
05:15 Back at the food forest, Babita Raja has been volunteering here with her autistic son for
05:20 close to five years.
05:22 For him, she says, the work is therapeutic.
05:27 I wanted him to be a part of this ecosystem, which he seems to really love.
05:34 He used to enjoy coming here as a guest and now he's a volunteer.
05:38 So he enjoys weeding, he enjoys pulling out tomatoes from plants.
05:43 So now when there's a tomato in our own balcony garden, he's like, "Amma, tomato!"
05:48 I mean, there's a sudden eureka moment for him.
05:51 Oh, these things come from plants.
05:54 Manaswini Tyagi says urban farms don't just offer city residents an invaluable chance
05:59 to connect with nature.
06:01 She estimates that this food forest alone sequesters over four tons of climate-warming
06:06 CO2 each year.
06:09 And yet, after over a decade, her garden of Eden is under threat from the fast-growing
06:15 city.
06:16 Last year, it's been like seven, eight months now, we were told that there is a road that's
06:22 going to come through the farm in an L shape, so straight, and then this is part of that
06:30 road also.
06:31 So when that road construction starts, the whole farm will go.
06:36 The hard work wasn't in vain.
06:39 Over the years, thousands of people found information and inspiration here.
06:44 Now the work is set to continue at a new community farm.
06:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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