UPAJ FARM
Journey of an architect in urban sustainable agriculture
When business and corporate houses have their physical locations, and food is being delivered at our doorsteps, we forget about a significant aspect of our lives: agriculture. With a massive onslaught of jobs in the technology sector, there has become a considerable void in cultivating lands. We use grounds for building our humble abodes, some of us with human architects, in this age of technology.
However, agriculture could soon become a lost art as we see the growth in sustaining its market rather than the sustenance of quality products. The number of people entering into agriculture has been so less that it could only be termed a ‘boon,’ when architects usually working with bricks, mortar & their design, make agriculture their natural abode, their humble dwelling. One would call it ‘going back to the basics,’ but for Ms. Avanee Jain, it has been her calling since her childhood.
We have come from being sustainable and self-sufficient in discussing how humanity could co-exist with nature. When sustainability has become a hot debate, Ms. Avanee Jain, an architect herself, has broken all her educational and ‘worldly’ barriers in a manner so that she could re-inculcate in society a love for agriculture.
Upaj Farm is one of the very few farms in our country promoting organic urban farming. Her farm’s seasonal grow your own kits are bringing sustainability back in the urban homes designed with architectural skillsets.
Bringing us close to nature’s bounty, knowledge about growing organically, buying seasonal plants, and appreciating the beauty of agriculture is the humble vision of Upaj Farm.
Today, growth sectors are increasing our planet’s carbon footprint. Upaj’s Farm’s business model is a breeze of fresh oxygen in many cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, amongst others, where it has been able to leave its organic footprint.
There is a massive curtain of technology that has overburdened our vast Indian farmlands requiring cultivation and nourishment. A healthy way of life is becoming bland for the farmers also. Their kids are now encouraged to make their own abodes in cities. The art of farming requires a fresh breeze from our concrete homes to our country roads.
Our appreciation of farming will not only help our conscience breathe but also help our fellow countrymen farmers realize Al gore’s Inconvenient truth we swear by. Farmers will re-discover the gifts we city-dwellers have sacrificed, for we all recognize the seriousness of climate change. Our small bit will help, but the majority of our subcontinent’s land is still farmland, and that is where the re-construction has to start.
Upaj Farm’s GIY(Grow It Yourselves) Kits offers holistic nourishment to the consumers and the depleting mother nature in our concrete jungles. It helps us concretize the true nature of our lives, given that we are still surviving on the food we grow on our soils.
This is a pristine form of self-indulgence in which we could keep alive our homes with the breeze of mother nature herself. Our kits are eco-friendly and contain instructions for planting and nourishing your plant. We grow thousands of plants and have selected some seasonal plants to succeed at your porch, balcony, or any place convenient for raising mother nature in your humble abode. These plants don’t require a knack for farming, but just your wonder to see them grow, along with our easy-to-follow instruction manual.
