Takeaways Author: Porpla Khuan-arch Comments
Thailand: Chiang Rai

From 3rd to 5th August 2016, Hari Krishna Nibanupudi, the winner of the 2016 ACCCRN Blog Competition, and Srishti Singh, the People’s Choice Winner, visited Chiang Rai, Thailand, to attend the workshop on Building Urban Agriculture Collaboration between Chiang Rai and Hat Yai.

The one and a half day workshop included presentations from related agencies in cities of Chiang Rai and Hat Yai, such as the Chiang Rai Agricultural Extension Agency, Chiang Rai Municipality, Songkhal Community Foundation and the Golden Jubilee Museum of Agriculture Agency.

Both winners had an opportunity to present and share their experiences on urban climate resilience and urban agriculture issues.

Nibanupudi gave a presentation on the case of urban agriculture in Hyderabad, India.

Nibanupudi talked about that the urban agriculture is the new culture. The key challenge is lack of space. A majority of households in the city have no space for drying clothes, therefore they forget about gardening or kitchen farming.

Many of those who have space consider it below their dignity to cultivate vegetables for consumption or sale, and tenants are not allowed to grow any trees or vegetables.

What can be done in the city is strong advocacy of awareness programs on the potential benefits of urban agriculture, capacity building and dissemination of good practices that demonstrate the benefits of urban agriculture.

Signh gave a presentation on introducing “climate vulnerability” to vulnerable communities under the global resilience partnership program to empower their own resilience plan.

There are four barriers identified by this program: the information barrier, institutional barrier, technology barrier and financial barrier. Their approach includes participatory activity, building awareness, innovative two-way communication, training from experts, building partnerships, and so on.

“It (ACCCRN Blog Competition) gave me a platform to share my experiences in the field of climate change and urban resilience,” said Srishti.

Nibanupudi mentioned that the workshop in Chiang Rai was a wonderful learning experience.

“It was so wonderful to see how the ACCCRN initiative is investing in good partnerships and local actions that contribute to enhancing community and institutional resilience,” said Nibanupudi.

At the end of the workshop they visited an organic farm at Dusit Island Resort in Chiang Rai to learn about urban agriculture and organic gardening.

Please visit more pictures on their activities in Chiang Rai.


0 comment(s)

Please Register or Login as ACCCRN member first to write comment