Indo-German Collaborative Research Project Phase-II

The University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (UASB) along with the Indian partners have developed a collaborative research project entitled “The Rural-Urban Interface of Bangalore: A Space of Transitions in Agriculture, Economics, and Society” (Phase-II), which is a continuation of Phase-I started in the year 2016 with Universities of Kassel and Gottingen, Germany. The Indian research component is being funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, and the German research component is financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Government of Germany.

The partners:

Indian Partners:

University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (UASB) as the nodal and lead organization
National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP-ICAR), Bengaluru
Indian Institute of Space Technology (IIST), Trivandrum
Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru
Institute for Wood Science and Technology (IWST), Bengaluru
Ashoka Trust for Environment and Ecology (ATREE), Bengaluru
Azim Premji University (APU), Bengaluru
Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal

German Partners:

University of Kassel, Germany
George-August University, University of Gottingen-Germany

Phase-I details

Total number of Indian projects: 14
Total Number of German Projects: 12
Duration (Phase I): Three years (November 2016 to November 2019) extended up to September 2020 (2 times extension)
Total Outlay: 931.39 lakhs

Phase-II details

Total number of Indian projects: 15
Total Number of German Projects: 12
Duration (Phase II): Three years (19^th March 2021 to 18^th March 2024)
Total Outlay: 934.63 lakhs

Phase-I major outcomes

Demonstration plots in farmers’ fields: Recommendations increased yields 7 to 26% in both transects.
Bee species richness: urban > transition > rural. Much scope for conserving bees in urban areas.
Increase in livestock population 2006-2016: Crossbred cow and sheep in rural areas, goat in transition areas.
Field Margin Vegetation (FMV) is rich in transition (76 species), FMV in the context of climate change mitigation and valuation of economic and non-economic attributes have emerged as major components to be considered in future research.
Agricultural production diversity is positively influencing food security. From a policy perspective, the findings suggest that efforts are to be made to promote crop diversification to enhance food security.
Women prone to obesity: urban > transition > rural areas (37 % > 19.5 % > 16 %)

Publications: More than 60 research papers were published in Peer-reviewed Journals at the National and International levels. Along with this, more than 70 conference abstracts were published. The majority of the publications are joint publications.

Phase-II: General Hypotheses (GH) formulated in the collaborative joint proposal, and use them to derive their project-specific research questions presented in the individual proposals.

GH1: Competition for land and water lead to intensified agricultural production and increase household vulnerability to contingencies and shocks.

GH2: Conflicts between provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services increase with urbanization.

GH3: Diversity in production systems and in the exchange processes of goods and services is highest at intermediate stages of transition.

GH4: Ecological constraints and economic opportunities increase with urbanization and make decision processes and governance more complex.

Activities Carried out

Phase-II list of sub-projects