ARiSE

Agroecology for Resilience, Sustainability and Entrepreneurship or ARiSE is a platform to bring together stakeholders, innovators and communities to foster sustainable development and climate resilience through agroecology. The project’s objectives focus on the establishment of an urban / peri-urban food council and developing a food strategy for the Chennai metropolitan region through a network of stakeholders across sectors of academia, praxis, civil society, entrepreneurs and government.

The latest ARiSE workshop organized in November 2025 opened to a full house of diverse stakeholders—including local government, civil society, farmers, and academic experts in Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) along with team ARiSE from @chennairesiliencecentre, @okapiresearch, @aram_thinai , @iitmadrasofficial , and Peri-Urban Initiative.

In 2025, the workshop explored
– possibilities of mainstreaming UPA practices
– multiple potentials of UPA in areas of food security, livelihoods, climate, and environment
– international experiences with reference to Food Policy Councils
– implications for creating a Regional Food Council in Chennai

The event unfolded with an introductory remark from @krishnamohanramachandran (@chennairesiliencecentre), and context-setting by Prof. Sudhir Chella Rajan (@iitmadrasofficial /Peri-Urban Initiative) and keynote address by Dr. M. Umanath, Madras Institute of Development Studies, that highlighted the potential of a UPA to transform cities from centers of consumption into hubs of production, equity, and ecological balance. This was followed by a series of presentations from :
– Ramchandran Arumugam (@chennairesiliencecentre / @okapiresearch) on the importance of integrating Agriculture into Chennai’s Urban Resilience Agenda
– @karthikgunasekar from Aram Thinai, sharing Chennai’s Peri-Urban Farmer’s Point of View
– Akshaya from @chennairesiliencecentre / @okapiresearch presenting evidence from a heat study conducted to learn the potential of edible rooftop gardens to mitigate heat
– Joel Kumar from @arise.agroecology on the role of Food Policy Council

More information on project ARiSE can be found here : https://arise.website or by signing up for the ARiSE Social platform here : https://arise.social/