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India: Are vertical farms the way forward for Bengaluru?

Pollution and space restraints — something that Bengalureans tackle every single day. Scarcity of water and erratic climate changes have become unfortunate realities, but we still carry on leading our lives in traditional ways that were meant for a plentiful world. It is said that by 2050, there will be well over nine billion people in the world, and 70% of them will live in urban areas. As a result, there is bound to be food shortage and food security issues.

This is why 23-year-old Rutusha Nagaraj Kapini, a fresh graduate of The Oxford School of Architecture, picked vertical farming as the topic for her thesis, which, she says, is the way forward in an urban metropolis like Bengaluru. And such was her research into the topic that she received two awards for it — Zonal Winner, Council of Architecture National Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Architectural Thesis 2017 (top 10 in Zone 4) and Archi Design Best Thesis of the Year Award 2016 (Student of the Year Award — national level).

For her thesis, Rutusha had to find an innovative solution to the following problem: 'Increasing population has drastically reduced farming lands. Raw food, such as vegetables and fruits, are loaded with toxic chemicals and pesticides'. Having attended the All India Convention of Architects in 2008 (both her parents are architects), Rutusha was inspired by Dr Dickson Despommier's speech — he is considered the father of vertical farming. "He spoke about how vertical farming can be beneficial in urban populated cities in India, as it can produce nutritious food that one can access within the city. He is the reason I picked this topic," she says.

Read more at The Times of India
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