Urban Rooftop Farming – Model for Sustainable Vegetable Production and Environmental Well-being

Abstract

Background: Urban rooftop farming is a form of urban agriculture. Due to the scarcity of agricultural land in urban areas, rooftop farming is becoming popular in many countries. An experiment was conducted to grow herbs and vegetables in a small and sustainable urban rooftop farm in Nagpur city, India and the various ecological benefits of this form of urban agriculture were studied.Methods: The experiment was conducted on a 230 sq ft rooftop area from July 2019 to March 2020. Environment friendly cultivation methods employed in the study include pest management by cultural means to produce pesticide-free vegetables, conversion of household green waste into compost for augmentation of soil nutrients and the use of harvested rain water and greywater for irrigation.Result: The experiment resulted in the production of 61.7 kg of pesticide-free vegetables from an area of 230 sq ft using sustainable farming methods. Apart from this, the various ecological benefits obtained from the experiment point to the fact that sustainable urban rooftop farming can be an innovative means to promote urban agriculture without harming the environment.