Tech hub threatens to gobble up Bangalore's food basket

BANGALORE: A new massive tech hub in India's IT city may eat into its food basket. The Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) coming up in Devanahalli, which supplies to Bangalore its daily supply of vegetables and fruits, is proving to be a big deterrent for agricultural activities in the area.
Here's how. The National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSSLUP) says Devanahalli's soil is the best in Karnataka and most suited for the cultivation of gourds, leafy vegetables and grapes.The proposed ITIR though is forcing farmers from Devanahalli to shift their agricultural activities further to Chikkaballapur and Bagepalli. NBSSLUP says while the Chikkaballapur soil is fertile, the marginal or infertile soil of Bagepalli is unfit for agriculture.
"The pressure on Chikkaballapur is increasing and it will get worse with this urban sprawl. Chikkaballapur is popular for its potatoes but now they are extracting more than what the soil can support. Groundwater table is also depleting in this region. Bagepalli on the other hand, has soil structure absolutely unfit for agriculture. It also gets scanty annual rainfall," LGK Naidu, head of the regional centre of NBSSLUP in Bangalore, said.
Soil which is more than one metre deep and has clay in bulk is considered an agricultural prime land as it is capable of holding water and nutrients required for crop production. Shallow soil with no ability to withstand water and nutrients is termed marginal soil.
Veggies to be pricey
With the food basket moving further away from the city, veggies are likely to be costly soon. First, the agriculturally unfit soil has to be made arable by irrigating the land, which entails a cost. Secondly, transportation charges for vegetables will go up because of the increased distance.
"The farmer markets (raitha bazaar) where farmers used to sell their produce directly to buyers will vanish over time. The concept of farm-fresh vegetables will no longer be there and city buyers will have to depend entirely on wholesellers and retailers. The obvious consequence then will be less nutritional food at a higher price," explained V Ramamurthy, principal scientist at NBSSLUP.
About 100-150 tonnes of vegetables and fruit arrive in the city from Devanahalli on a daily basis. Most of the city's vegetable and fruit requirements are met by Devanahalli, while Hoskote shares a marginal burden.
ITIR will need 10k acres of land
The ITIR first found mention in the Congress government's report card for its first year in office, bearing testimony to the significance of this project.
Over 2,000 acres of farmland have already been acquired by the state government in Devanahalli in the vicinity of Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).
Last June, the state government obtained formal approval from the Centre to set up the country's first greenfield Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR). Spread over 40 sq km, it is proposed to be located in Devanahalli and Doddaballapur taluks. In all 10,500 acres of farmland will be lost to the project, which will cater to IT/ITeS and hardware manufacturing units.
The ITIR is expected to generate 1.2 million direct jobs and 2.8 million indirect jobs and attract over Rs 1 lakh crore worth of investment.
It will include special economic zones, industrial parks, export oriented units, free trade and warehousing zones. It would be a combination of production units, public utilities, logistics, environmental protection mechanisms, residential areas and administrative services. The internal infrastructure will be managed by developers but the linkages to the city will be provided by both the state and central government.
IT giants TCS, Infosys, Wipro, CTS and IBM among others have registered for space at ITIR in its first phase of development.