The Visakha Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (VSPCA) proposes that food-smart animal sanctuaries are an exemplary model for environmental and social justice, building food security and climate resilience across rural communities in tropical India. These designs, workflows and principles of these sanctuaries would be important to city planning.

The plan for Kindness Farms demonstrates successful, nature-positive outcomes that represent imaginative linking between the city and rural communities via animals that are being forced out of human-dominated spaces and food systems. These spaces are often contemplated for access to fresh food, management of rural migrants and informal workers, and biodiversity losses. By creating healthy, opportunistic living spaces in rural regions through innovative practices, such as the Kindness Farm, we can provide occupations for village residents, and reduce rural migration to cities.

The Kindness Farm is an experiment that perseveres in demonstrating how humans can make homes for various species and live effectively with nature. It brings animal and human cultures together in such a way that empowers both humans and nonhumans to live peaceful lives while sustaining larger ecosystems with greater biodiversity.

Background - The World to India to Visakhapatnam

A recent report from the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Discloses (TNFD) found that over half the world’s economic output is sustained through nature’s biodiversity. TNFD reported that humanity has wiped out 83% of all wild mammals and 50% of the world’s plants. This has contributed significantly to the climate crisis and inflicts food insecurity on more than a billion people.

Farmers in India are increasingly desperate due to food insectary and disruptions in the supply chains of the agricultural sector. These factors have disproportionately affected rural communities and large numbers of informal sector workers. Continuing waves of COVID-19 in India will push rural communities into transient poverty with a potential impact of plunging upwards off 4 million informal sector workers into poverty.

Why is this Project Necessary?

With such a huge loss of biodiversity and nature there is an opportunity to resurrect nature-positive outcomes by pursuing sustainable ecosystems that also involve locals and rescued animals while ensuring biodiversity retention. In rural Visakhapatnam, a food-smart animal haven is expanding possibility for health and well-being of all. This is the VSPCA’s Kindness Farm.

The farm is an evolving self-sustainable, ecosystem device-based, long-term, adaptive, replicable infrastructure. the Farm suffers drought and flooding, and has been seen to mirror the story of Noah’s Ark. As soon as plants and animals began thriving in the environment, the next steps for climate resiliency and adaptive capacity were created in rural Andhra Pradesh, beginning construction on the Rain Water Harvesting Project.

The Kindness Farm is a model “food-smart food-shed” and demonstrates the following strategies:

• Natural and Organic Farming combined with Agroforestry regenerating soil health with native plants and trees, utilising rescued-animal waste efficiently and building self-sustaining practices throughout the region

• Rain Water Harvesting and Watershed Management ensuring water availability all year-round, in this drought-prone region

• Interspecies Co-existence is about inviting the region’s biodiversity back and to revitalise natural ecosystem services provided freely by Mother Nature.

• Awareness and Education Campaigns in Adjacent with Neighbouring Villages and Townships is the tactic for system and multiplication and/or scaling

• Establishing the Relevant Concerned Network of village panchayats, region’s farmers, market channels, relevant NGOs for scientific knowledge around seed and crop, animal rescue co-ops and universities. These all contribute to socio-economic growth of regions, continued scientific needs & research, strategic & tactical planning, and change management

Resources

Kisslay Anand & Roshni Sekhar. 2020. “Food Security and PDS in Andhra Pradesh”. Available at http://www.swaniti.com/wp- content/uploads/2020/06/Food- Security-and-PDS-Final.pdf.

Tallam, P., & Nath, P. K. (2021). VSPCA’s Kindness Farm: A Food Smart Animal Sanctuary. Biophilic Cities Journal, 4(2).

VSPCA. https://vspca.org.