Rooftops of buildings are usually large areas overcrowded with junk and useless objects. With a little effort and money, these rooftops can be transformed to mini-gardens that produce vegetables and fruits, free from hormones and pesticides.

Recently, Egypt has embarked on a project to increase the amount of greenery on rooftops. This provided a good opportunity for housewives and youth to use their time fruitfully and increase oxygen production in a choking environment.

Due to the rapid expansion of the Egyptian population, and building on cultivated land, there are limited resources for many families living in the major cities. This situation has a negative impact on the general well-being of the families living in poor urban or suburban neighborhoods. Similar conditions can be found in much of the developing world. A solution to a small part of this problem could be providing these families with an easy source of income and healthy nutrition.

Increasing awareness of this problem has encouraged the Egyptian government to take certain measures, although only on a small scale. A project has been developed by the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Laboratory of Agricultural Climate (CLAC) in Egypt to increase the availability of fresh and high quality vegetables, encourage a more efficient use of water and possibly create a source of income for housewives. It depends principally on planting fruits and vegetables without wasting excess water or using soil.

Although the idea of planting rooftops isn't new, it has only been carried out in Egypt recently. Dr. Ayman Farid Abu Hadid, director of CLAC, says the idea began 15 years ago at the Agricultural Unit in Egypt’s Ain Shams University. The Egyptian scientists at Ain Shams University had been designing new methods of agriculture to suit Egypt's densely populated cities for exhibitional purposes. Then, two years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) adopted the idea and carried it out in many developing countries such as, Kenya, Senegal and Columbia and suggested it be applied in Egypt.

This technique aims at using water efficiently in a “closed-system” using simple substrates. A “closed-system” as opposed to traditional open field production and conventional irrigation, collects the water for irrigation in plastic buckets where it can later be reused. As for the substrates, they are easy to find and readily available. Examples include rice husks, sand and peat moss. More importantly, the use of pesticides is avoided, ensuring the production of healthier vegetables. Another advantage is that the produce is closer to the consumer (on rooftops) thus saving transportation, packaging and storage costs.

For people interested in starting one of these projects on their roofs, CLAC helps them to choose the correct type of alternative soil. Two alternative types of soil are peat moss (a form of algae) or perlite, a type of volcanic eruption that is treated at a temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius to form granules suitable for use in agriculture. Jordan and Greece are the two largest producers of perlite. Peat moss, perlite, sand and rice husks have the advantage that they don't get infected with the diseases that plague normal soil; thus, there is no need for pesticides.

Expenses vary depending on the system used. The manual system consists of wooden containers (barrels) with plastic sheets filled with peat moss or perlite used as substrates. The drainage is driven through small plastic hoses to a bucket. This system is suitable for leafy crops such as parsley, radish, and carrots. A square meter using this method would cost around 130 Egyptian pounds (LE) ($US20.5). The manual system is not used to generate a source of income. It is mainly for domestic consumption of produce. The main element here is exposure to sunlight; no extra care is required.

If the project is established for the purpose of business, then wall gardens are a good choice. Wall gardens consist of plastic tubes or bags hung on the roof's walls to hold the plants; irrigation and drainage are done automatically. This way a larger area of the roof is used in contrast to the wooden containers used in the manual system. This method is similar in cost to that of the manual system. A square meter will cost 150 to 170 LE (approximately $US 26).

The beauty of this project is that it is easy to maintain, it is inexpensive, and requires only enough hours of sunlight to get the project underway. Usually the produce from these crops is reaped earlier than when grown under normal conditions. Dr. Baheiri says, “We gathered the lettuce in two months as opposed to three months when grown in regular soil.”

Another advantage to this method of agriculture is that it allows diversity; meaning you can grow vegetables, fruits and other types of plants in the same area. Ain Shams University researchers found that the plants grown on the rooftops contain from three - seven times the amount of active ingredients (natural chemical components found in plants and have nutritional value) than those grown the traditional way. A logical reason behind this would be that no pesticides are used in the closed-system method, thus no decrease occurs in its nutritional content.

Mohamed Sa'ad, one of the researchers on the project, comments on its success: “The duration of the project is consistent with the time set by FAO to carry out the project, and in two years we have encouraged 96 families in Cairo and Alexandria to carry out the program. We chose families from all social levels after we changed the objective of the project, which was previously to work only with low-income families. A field study revealed that the temperature on the planted rooftops was seven degrees Celsius lower than that of rooftops that were not planted. The objective of the project became more environmentally-oriented. Thus, all levels of the community were considered.

This could have a serious impact on the environment if encouraged on a wider scale, especially in Cairo. By increasing the number of planted roofs, not only does it contribute oxygen to the atmosphere, it also helps decrease the temperature over buildings. Considering the sizzling hot summers in Cairo, this is a welcomed or ‘cool’ project. In Cairo, summertime temperatures average a searing 35 degrees Celsius, if not more.

Hazim Younis is a journalist with Egypt’s daily Al-Akhbar newspaper. Your emails will be forwarded to him by contacting the editor at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net. 

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