Home ›› 13 Jun 2023 ›› Nation
Md Motlubur Rahman Saju, an assistant professor at Samajkallyan Vidyabithi School & College in Rangpur city is very passionate about gardening. He has developed a large garden on the roof of his three storied building.
He took an initiative to prepare the garden on 3,500 square feet space at the building during the lockdown of the Covid-19 crisis, he said.
‘’I was feeling bored and frustrated during the lockdown days and decided to start domestic farming on the roof of the building to get relief from the confinement and languor,” he also said.
He began gardening with some flower plants and fruit trees spending a little amount of money and labour.
He is now farming vegetables adopting the latest agricultural technology on the roof. He applies organic fertiliser for the growth of plants in the garden.
This correspondent found around 100 trees of 30-35 species including fruits, and vegetables in his orchard. There are plastic tubs and drums full of plants spreading over the entire roof.
The vegetables in the garden include tomatoes, aubergine, spinach, peppers, gourds, beans, chilly, eggplant and red amaranth, ladies finger, ginger, coriandrum sativum, luffa, citrus, banana, papaya, strawberry, ziziphus , prunus domestica and capsicum. The fruit trees include lemon, pomegranate, guava, and mango. There are also various medicinal plants including neem and aloe vera.
He does not need to buy vegetables and seasonal fruits, especially Harivhanga mango from markets as he gets fresh - organic vegetables and fruits from his garden. It helps him to save money amid the skyrocketing situations in the markets.
‘’I spend my leisure time nursing the plants and vegetables in the garden which keeps me refreshed and healthy. It gives me aesthetic pleasure. The plants and flowers in the orchard attract different kinds of birds and rare species of insects which help to conserve biodiversity in nature,” he said.
While visiting the garden, this correspondent met with several students led by a teacher of Robertsongonj High School and College of the city who came to see the garden as part of their project-based learning activity titled ‘’Know Nature: Local to Global project ‘’ funded through Alumni Thematic International Exchange Seminars (TIES) program supported by US Department of State.
When asked, one of the students, Jarin Tasnim Arnika, a seven grader, said the garden makes them familiar with different kinds of plants and vegetables and to harvest good yield even in a small space amid the concrete structure using the latest agricultural technology.
Rojina Safrin, a middle-aged working woman who is a newscaster and presenter on Rangpur Radio, said she was inspired to build the rooftop garden while visiting the annual tree fair at the Zilla School compound in 2018.
Rojina is a mother of two children who had already been established pursuing higher education and serving the government job. She along with her husband lives in the house. Besides her office duties and household chores, she enjoys gardening as her pastime.
“I never count my expenses for rooftop farming as it gives us fresh oxygen and keeps us healthy. We all have a social responsibility to do something good that would be beneficial for the community as well as the planet. The gardening culture contributes to maintaining ecological balance amid the ongoing global climate crisis, she emphasized’’.
When contacted Rangpur City Corporation (RCC) a concerned official of RCC, Sajjad Hossain Manik said, “We have around 5,8000 registered houses in the city that received holding numbers from City Corporation. Of the houses, at least forty per cent are concrete-made buildings ranging from one to ten floors.”
According to the Directorate of Agriculture Extension, Rangpur Metropolitan office there is around 500 rooftop gardens on the buildings of the city.
The Metropolitan Agriculture officer, Md Sharif said, the number of rooftop garden houses is very thin compared to the total number of houses in the city. Very few per cent of people turned their passion to rooftop gardening. However, their efforts to make the city greener are praiseworthy as the cultivable lands have been shrinking in the country.
The rooftop gardening culture amid the concrete structures in metropolitan and cosmopolitan life not only can contribute to creating a greenery-healthy environment but also helps to ensure food security.
Dr Tuhin Wadud, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur and an environmentalist who on June 5, 2023, got the National Environment Award- 2022 for his outstanding contributions to environmental education and Publicity category in the country said, the cities in the country are losing greenery due to rapid infrastructural development.
Our capital city Dhaka has become inhabitable for years due to a lack of greenery. The growing number of concrete infrastructural development in the capital has been shrinking greenery from nature.
Agricultural and forest lands of our country have been decreasing sharply due to river erosion, natural disasters, roads and infrastructural development; we have to act fast to ensure proper utilization of any open spaces, developing greenery with massive plantation and cropping. Roofs can be filled with greenery which can contribute to building a safer environment reducing global warming and be a source of income also. Rooftop gardens can help to preserve nature and conserve biodiversity largely, he added.
