Housing Development Corporation (HDC)’s Community Urban Farming Project has officially been inaugurated in Hulhumale’ after handing over the land plots to the selected candidates who applied for this project.
This project was officially inaugurated by the Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Resource and Agriculture, Dr. Hussain Rasheed. In addition, the Japanese Ambassador in the Maldives and UNDP’s Resident Representative to the Maldives took part in the inauguration ceremony.
Under this project, a total of 16 groups have been selected with groups of 3 people. The groups consists of 3 categories which are, groups of women/youths, people with disabilities, and other people. This project is being executed as part of the sustainable economic employment for the development of MSMC and a total of 19/877.26 square feet have been distributed into 16 plots and divided among the selected candidates that applied for the project.
The main purpose of this project is to create awareness regarding farming, familiarize more people with this concept, and bring more people to work in this industry. In addition to this, this project will also help encourage a healthy lifestyle for people living in Hulhumale’, and to use the free land space and parks more productively. Moreover, this project will provide a way to generate sustainable income for those who have suffered losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Research and Agriculture, BCC, and Agronat have conducted training and awareness programs for the participants of this project. As per this project, no rent will be taken from the 16 plots within the first 3 months and an allowance will be given to the participants to make this project more feasible.
This project is the first project like this to be carried out in the Maldives by HDC and UNDP and it has received huge praise from the public. Therefore, plans to create a PLAZA area and more land to provide the opportunity to sell and earn from agriculture are now being carried out.
According to the master plan of Hulhumale’, there are lot of open and empty lands and changes will be brought to this plan to find an efficient way to use these spaces.
