Golam Haider's Commercial Rooftop Farm

On one side of house 349 in Palashbagh, Rampura, is a rooftop farm; on the other, a full nursery and supply of farm inputs. On the 1,250 square foot roof of the three-storey building, seedlings of 30 to 35 kinds of fruit are raised, including mango, pineapple, pomegranate, sapodilla, guava and hog plum, along with rarer lukluki, dewa, jamun, lychee, tomato, malta, peach and plum. Entrepreneur Golam Haider has been building this for fifteen years.

He started the rooftop nursery to supply good-quality seedlings to rooftop farmers, many of whom have built successful farms with his inputs and advice. He said he is now fully involved in his roof garden, with a nursery sales centre in Bashundhara and a nursery protection centre in Ashulia. He holds a master's in chemistry from Dhaka University and studied electrical engineering at IBA; farming is now his profession and passion, and he is doing well financially.

To spread the idea of a pollution-free city, he founded Bangladesh Green Roof Movement, linking about 150 rooftop farmers and sharing new information and techniques. He says members often got poor plants from nurseries, so he tries to source them himself. Of about 450,000 buildings in Dhaka, only 5 per cent have farming on the roof.

The nursery has about 15 kinds of orchid and rare cacti, and uses tissue culture for propagation, which he says is difficult in Bangladesh. There are 30 to 35 mango varieties, including Haribhanga, and local and foreign tomatoes. He is testing whether apples can fruit in a hot climate, and has set up an aquaponics demonstration with strawberries: fish live below, and their water, carrying nutrients from feed and waste, feeds the plants.

He wants rooftop farming made mandatory, noting that Tokyo requires it on 25 per cent of roofs, and says RAJUK, REHAB or the city corporations could act. Green banking now supports rooftop gardening, with loans for those who show an income source. He believes it can create jobs, even as a mobile profession. Horticulturist Kamruzzaman, known as the "plant doctor", helped solve some problems on the roof.

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