Pod#154 - Ayesha Shahid - Why did an urban planner become a farmer??

TPR Pod

This week we have Ayesha Shahid, a smart person I know off Twitter, on the show! Ayesha's studied Urban Planning and works with the World Bank in Pakistan in the developmental sectors. What lead to my wanting to have her on the show was her very curious decision to start farming! Like proper acquire a bit of land, plant crops, work towards harvest etc.

We start off by talking about her life, move to Karachi at an early age, KGS, studying in the US and then working with the Benazir Income Support Program. Learning about the spatial aspects that contribute towards poverty pushes her towards the urban planning route, and on her return she talks about how the farming project began and how its been going.

Things discussed in this episode:

00:00 Intro

03:31 How/why she got into studying City Planning

07:46 Army kids moves to Karachi for the first time, and goes to KGS!

15:00 Wait, how old is Ayesha really??

18:47 What was it like going from APS to KGS?

26:00 Going to the US for university, living abroad, choosing Political Sciences

30:03 Working at the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) helped her understand the spatial aspects to poverty and poverty alleviation

36:41 Why does BISP not address the spatial issues that contribute to poverty? Who does, if not them?

42:04 How she decided to get a Masters in City Planning, and her job after she returned

45:18 Why did she decide to start her farming project? What is the question she wants to answer?

54:13 How looking at the utilisation of land can help answer much larger questions about the future of the country and its people

The farming project’s timeline:

57:38 Finding her way to regenerative farming practices and getting a model to start with

1:04:22 How she got land, initial budgeting, the goat problem

1:10:15 Experimenting with what to plant. Challenges with technique, finding labor, depletion of local knowledge and expertise

1:20:32 The downward trend over the past couple years; challenges with mulch & rain, trying to adapt techniques to local conditions

1:31:25 Reaching out to experts in the Agricultural Department, other farmers, considering course corrections in technique

1:35:50 What’s her timeline of success? How long can they keep pouring money into this if there are no returns? What would success even look like?

1:38:57 Abrupt ending to the chat, plans for the future of our collabs with Ayesha, climate change doom and gloom discussion

1:43:57 Outro

LINKS:

Ayesha's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ayesharshahid

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