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Chennai Resilience Centre signs an MoU with the Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company
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Chennai Resilience Centre – 2024-2025 Year End Report

The Chennai Resilience Centre (CRC) has made significant advancements in 2024-2025 across its core programmes.

The Chennai Urban Farming Initiative (CUFI) expanded its urban gardens to 168 locations, including 10 new schools/Anganwadis, demonstrating substantial urban cooling (2-3°C cooler on average, up to 7°C maximum difference). This initiative also provided green livelihood skills to 245 women, with 16 women collectively earning approximately INR 60,000.

The Urban Ocean Programme’s “We Segregate” project in Kasturba Nagar notably improved waste segregation behaviour, reducing “not segregating” buildings from 48% to 31% and increasing “segregating well” from 37% to 54%. This diverted 5920 kg of organic waste and 364 kg of food packaging plastic from landfills, and Chennai successfully hosted the first in-person Urban Ocean Summit in June 2024.

The Water as Leverage (WaL) Water Balance Pilot Project at Little Flower Convent, operational since August 2023, successfully treats 27,000 litres of grey and black water daily, eliminating sewage back-flow and improving water quality well above discharge standards. CRC also conducted capacity-building for 29 Greater Chennai Corporation Storm Water Drain Engineers and signed an MoU with the Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company to further these flagship programmes.

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CRC 2023-2024 Year End Report
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Chennai Resilience Centre – 2023-2024 Year End Report

In 2023-2024, the Chennai Urban Farming Initiative (CUFI) established 169 new farms across Chennai and trained 951 people in urban gardening, including 245 women from Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to become professional gardeners (Madras Malis).

These efforts significantly improved access to nutritious food and medicinal plants for vulnerable communities, created livelihood opportunities for women, and contributed to urban cooling, with rooms below gardens being 2-3°C cooler on average, up to 7°C.

The initiative also fostered sustainable behaviours like composting, producing 780 kg of compost, and is now focusing on building self-reliant gardens, expanding community engagement, and scaling the Madras Mali program into a social enterprise.

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Focus Group Discussions - Chennai Urban Farming Initiative_2023
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Stories from the Field: CUFI Focus Group Discussions Report

The Chennai Urban Farming Initiative (CUFI) aims to improve access to nutritious food, provide gardening training, and increase urban green spaces through distributed garden kits and support. The project has successfully enhanced access to organic produce and medicinal plants, fostering communal learning spaces and sustainable practices like composting. While facing challenges with garden maintenance and pests, future iterations focus on self-reliance and building a community network.

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Assessing the Impact of Terrace Gardens in Mitigating HeatChennai Resilience Centre
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Assessing the Impact of Terrace Gardens in Mitigating Heat

This study assesses the heat-mitigating impact of a 1000 sq ft terrace garden at the Anbagam homeless shelter in Chennai, utilising temperature and humidity sensors over an 11-week period. Findings indicate that such gardens significantly lower internal building temperatures, by up to 11°C in current setups and potentially 14°C in ideal scenarios, compared to fully exposed roofs

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MVGK at ICDS centre in ChennaiChennai Resilience Centre
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The Future of Food Security and Livelihoods for the Urban Poor

A brief presentation on the Chennai Urban Farming Initiative’s Mobile Vegetable Garden Kit Program and its current status.

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Skills Training for Integrated Child Development Service Centres (ICDS) Teachers and CoordinatorsChennai Resilience Centre
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Skills Training Report for Integrated Child Development Service Centres (ICDS)

In collaboration with Sempulam Sustainable Solutions, Chennai Resilience Centre (CRC) distributed kitchen garden kits to homeless shelters and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) centres within the jurisdiction of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), as a part of the Chennai Urban Farming Initiative (CUFI). A skill-based training session was organised for 66 Anganwadi workers and 15 ICDS block coordinators at the Anbagam shelter for mentally challenged on 9th March 2022 and the Madras Seva Sadan on 10th March 2022 and 11th March 2022, and between 2 pm and 5 pm.

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MVGK_MandE_Shelters and ICDSChennai Resilience Centre
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Mobile Vegetable Garden Kit – Monitoring & Evaluation Report for Shelters & ICDS (2021)

Organic Mobile Vegetable Garden Kits were distributed in three batches (March, April and August 2021) to 151 ICDS centres. All the centres initially received 5 kits and some well-performing centres were provided with additional kits later. In Jann 2022, 75 newly identified ICDS centres will receive 5 kits each. Similarly, 55 homeless shelters were initially provided with 5 kits each beteen April 2021 and August 2021 following which some well performing shelters received additional kits.

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Skills Training for Homeless Shelter Coordinators at Sempulam Farms, Sukkankollai, Kanchipuram DistrictChennai Resilience Centre
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Skills Training Report for Homeless Shelter Coordinators (2021)

A skills training cum exposure visit was organised by CRC for shelter coordinators from the homeless shelters administered by GCC and Assistant Coordinators of the SUH initiative on Aug 30th, 2021 and Sept 5th, 2021. Participants were taken to an organic farm, owned and maintained by Sempulam Sustainable Solutions, at Sukkankollai, Kancheepuram district.

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Perumbakkam Feasibility Report - Urban FarmingChennai Resilience Centre
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Exploring the Potential of an Urban Horticulture Initiative for Vulnerable Communities (Perumbakkam Case Study)

This scoping study is undertaken to understand the viability of introducing an urban horticulture initiative in Perumbakkam, one of Chennai’s largest resettlement colonies located in neighboring Chengalpattu District. Learnings from the Perumbakkam case can be useful in assessing some of the common limitations as well as opportunities that other low-income neighbourhoods in Chennai are likely to present.

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Green Livelihoods
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Green Livelihoods Program – Draft Project Framework

As Chennai Resilience Centre enters into the implementation phase of the city’s Resilience Strategy, it recognizes the immense potential of fostering a Green Livelihoods Program centred around urban horticulture/farming that will allow Chennai to directly address multiple Sustainable Development Goals.

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