02 Rurbanizing

What if Madurai leapfrogged over countryside destruction and developed a joint “rur-ban� growth strategy through village-based agriculture hubs?

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RUR-BANIZING Food Hub-and-Spoke Networks Rur-banizing proposes a new model of development for the periphery of Madurai corporation through a food hub-and-spokes network. This includes three strategies: a closed-loop water system, a food hub, and farming clusters. The programs proposed are to be implemented in three phases, and first be tested on the pilot site in Paravai, a site selected for a food hub by the Municipal Corporation.

Chenxing Li, Zhou Wu, Zhuoran Zhao Rur-banizing

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Madurai is a Temple city that has also had robust farming traditions and food culture throughout its history. It has been the supplier of fresh produce to the region, and its renowned Jasmine flowers are worldrenowned to various countries around the world for use in perfumes and ceremonial events. However, with the rapid urbanization of farmland and depletion of traditional water resources, farmers are now struggling to survive, and need new ways to add value to their agricultural products. Madurai is at a tipping point of urbanization and its countryside is endangered. It can follow other Indian cities that are experiencing haphazard urban sprawl challenging their resources and infrastructure, or it can leapfrog towards a different model of synergic growth between agriculture and urbanization, and maintain its unique culture.

To deal with this dilemma, we propose a new model of development for the periphery of Madurai corporation:, “Rur-banizing” the farmlands through a food hub-and-spokes network. This includes three strategies: a close-loop water system, a food hub, and farming clusters. The programs proposed are to be implemented in three phases, and first be tested on the pilot site in Paravai, a site selected for a food hub by the Municipal Corporation. We hope that through “Rur-banizing”, the fragmented farmland with uncertain future could be effectively organized to reintroduce an ecological farming system, to foster economic development in the rural area, and to increase resiliency of the entire region.

The food hub-and-spoke prototype is proposed to initiate the process outlined above. The hub will stimulate the development of its surrounding areas through spokes. This prototype will include much needed agricultural facilities including an information center to enable small farmers to stay competitive, a distribution systems, and model farms to demonstrate closed loop water and ecological practices. The hub will be connected through telecommunications and transport to a series of farming clusters of farm cooperatives and new housing units that will form a dense ring to discourage unplanned urbanization.

The pilot site in Paravai will demonstrate ways to heal the connection between the traditional water tank systems and the Vaigai River, and to enable urban settlements and farmland to co-exist in a mutually beneficial way, while preserving Madurai’s jasmine and milk production. The three stages of this process will start with the construction of the water system

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to relieve water shortage in this area. Following that, the information center, women’s center, labs and distribution centers will be built to empower the farmers in nearby villages with information about farm inputs and prices, advanced technologies, education and social supports. In the last phase, skilled farmers from Madurai region will be invited to the farm clusters where they can build their modular housing units and continue to demonstrate the latest farm technologies with help from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and other institutions. The last phase of the proposal will also include a network of farmer markets and agrotourism..

The proposed food hub-and-spoke prototype is designed to be replicated in other sites in the Madurai region in the future, introducing the new “Rur-banizing” periphery to the rapidly growing city. This will not only act as a new and flexible iteration of the historic green belt concept, but also create productive landscape where robust development of agriculture, urbanization and economy can be realized.

Concept: Food Hub and Farming Clusters Rur-banizing 101

COUNTRYSIDE AT RISK Madurai is faced with challenges of urban encroachment, water shortage and profit loss in their agricultural products. During our visit there, we saw farmers selling paddy fields to developers, in which way they could get more money. On top of that, farmers in Tamil Nadu committed suicide there because they cannot get irrigating water from failed borewells. Though Madurai is so famous for its jasmine that the perfume designer from Dior visits Madurai every year, the add-value is taken by exotic merchants instead of local farmers.

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Water Close Loop

Analysis: Haphazard Consumption of Land

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A Food WaterHub Close Loop

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Farming Clusters

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OPPORTUNITIES Madurai has unique water networks with thousands of tanks connecting to dams and Vaigai River, which keep irrigating the robust farmlands. More than that, there is social infrastructure potential from the local foundations, research institutes and the government. So there are opportunities to reintroduce the ecological farming tradition with the assistance of institue-farmer cooperation.

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Stakeholder Network

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Phasing

PHASE I: INFORMATION OFFICES + WATER INFRASTRUCTURE + FARMLAND PARCELIZATION First, an information center will collect and share the farming news.

Based in Paravai, it can provide a price platform and seed resources to its surrounding nine villages with 6,000 people. To keep updated information, it will frequently contact with Meenakshi flower market in the city center, Amul Diary the main milk buyout company, and Rameswaram where the jasmine shoots are cultivated.

On top of that, a comprehensive water infrastructure will be constructed to obtain water from Katchirairuppu Lake, filtering and transporting it to distributed water towers for future settlement use.

The farmland will be parcelized and remedied according to organic farm standards, which require two years’ soil remediation and symbiotic cultivation with more human labor caring than pesticides.

Based on this, the farmland is divided into seven minimumsize organic farming units of approximately ten acres for future cultivation.

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PHASE II: LABS + WOMEN CENTER + TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS + DEMONSTRATION CLUSTER MODULARIZATION

PHASE III: ECOLOGICAL FARMING CLUSTER DEMONSTRATION

Building on the information network, a series of small-unit labs, a women’s center and transportation networks will strengthen links in the product chains, bringing both economic and social benefit to surrounding farmers. The labs will be sponsored by relevant institutes, from the raw material collection, cold storage, to package processing, covering services for the whole production.

This association of “glocal labs” could also organize lab tours, reaching out to their potential networks. To help with the women farmer majority, the women’s center will provide services like job opportunities, training program, healthcare, entertainment and safe warranty, such as free raw material pick-up, to improve their quality of life. The complete transportation network will build the connection to central markets and distribution centers such as bus terminals, train stations and the airport.

Once the network is established, the farming demonstration clusters will be constructed in a flexible way. For these newly-planed clusters, its scale and residents are carefully estimated accommodate 70 to 100 family units in seven dispersed clusters, resulting in 10 to 12 units each cluster. These people is consisted of skilled farmers from nearby villages, unemployed local people, and also technicians from relevant institutions, who can conduct product plantation. To construct the housing units, a standard frame and raw materials is prepared for each family. After being trained by experts, they can make the materials into building materials, self-decide the layouts and self-construct their houses within the frame.

Besides the service support, the settlement modularization will also be conducted farming cluster demonstration. It is a series of standard housing-scale frames with daily and farming service facilities in each cluster, defining the edge of human construction in order to protect the farmland. In the future, a series of clusters will be created as village growing prototypes to demonstrate an ecological settlement mode with the local farming system.

For farmland in this village, a symbiotic agricultural system and waste management are emphasized. In product selection, we treat jasmine and cows as our featured products according to its physical condition. On top of that, we propose a symbiotic system including coconuts, bananas, chicken and fish to enhance the biological diversity. The 10 family units in each cluster, directed by agricultural experts, could self-organized to coordinate with each other to balance the species in appropriate ratio. This rotation planting system will also warrant all-year round profit for farmers.

In this stage, our stakeholders will also join into different programs to give all-around support. The stakeholder group consists of all levels of government, agricultural and engineering institutions, social organizations such as Dhan Foundation, and local celebrities who are involved in related fields.

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Information Center Distribution Labs Water Treatment Women’s Center Farmers Market Farming Cluster Natural Filtration

Closed Loop Water System

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FOOD HUB An information center will collect and share the farming news. A series of small-unit labs, a women’s center and transportation networks will strengthen links in the product chains, bringing both economic and social benefit to surrounding farmers.

FARMING CLUSTERS For these newly-planned clusters, its scale and residents are carefully estimated accommodate 70 to 100 family units in seven dispersed clusters, resulting in 10 to 12 units each cluster. For farmland in this village, a symbiotic agricultural system and waste management are emphasized.

FARMERS MARKET

Food Hub: Before

In the last phase, we have agro-tourism and farmers and tourists can meet and transect in the market. The canopy and pavement define the area in between the clusters, and people can gather and have various activities here..

Farmers Clusters: Before

Farmers Market: Before

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Food Hub: After

Farmers Clusters: After

Farmers Market: After

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Farmers Clusters: After

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FOOD HUB In the food hub, we have trucks to rickshaw transit for each distribution center, which guarantees convenient commutes within the food hub and spoke networks. With our programs, the processing and transaction of products will be much easier. The milk could be collected in the labs, and rickshaws or trucks will come to pick up and deliver it directly. The women’s center, labs and distribution center not only bring economic benefits, but also provide organic techniques, knowledge and social supports for the local farmers. In this region, the majority is women farmers, who are faced with more farming work and social inequality. In our proposal, they could request a rickshaw through the info app, and when they are farming in the cluster, she could ask experts and merchants for help on the info platform.

FARMING CUSTERS Rotation farming is encouraged. In this system, jasmine, cows, bananas, fish and coconuts could form a symbiotic farming system and provide robust products as well as farmlands. The new housing units define the edge of settlements. The water system is incorporated within the shades, and the water could flow along the channels. We can see how the rickshaw, housing, water system and farmland work together to provide a more convenient and sustainable life for the farmers.

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Food Hub

Farming Clusters

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