For more than two decades, retired government official Tajul Islam of Indira Road in the capital has kept himself involved in rooftop farming. Seeking peace of mind and to meet family needs, he has made his farm more dreamlike day after day.

He began in the early 1990s, when rooftop farming was purely a hobby and a mark of refinement. Creating a patch of farmland in the city satisfied him greatly. Neither a busy career nor changes to the building could stop his farming, and he now spends most of his retirement on the roof of the six-storey building.

He said he planned the house around rooftop farming from the start, working with the engineer to design it that way. His son, Dr Faizul Islam, said that thanks to modern structures installed on the roof, the farm puts no load on the roof itself; it all rests on the building's beams.

He has drawn other family members into farming, and new ideas keep being added. Much of the family's vegetable needs are met from the roof. His wife, Rowshan Ara, said toxin-free vegetables grow there: bottle gourd, radish and capsicum.

Tajul Islam believes anyone can become a model rooftop farmer with the right support and inputs. But correct seedlings are hard to get from nurseries now, he said: once he was told a seedling was capsicum, and it turned out to be green chilli. Growers must educate themselves.

He is one of those who took up rooftop gardening long ago as cities filled with people, and their successors now also want to fill roofs with green.

Source: Shykh Seraj, Chhad Krishi. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.