This couple does not own any kitchen garden but their roof is enough to produce significant amount of vegetable which has reduced the extra cost as well as helped them to become busy. [break]This has only been possible with an idea to cultivate the productive greenery at the rooftop and terrace of the three storey building.
Their roof seems like a vegetable field where pumpkin, chilli, lady´s finger, brinjal, tomato, bean, guard, lentil, onion leaf could be seen growing. Anyone gets fascinated and curios to know their skills to practice such farming which is a kind of new practice in the country especially in urban area. Not only vegetables but many kind of fruits are also growing which seems a beautiful orchard. Pear, mango, orange, aegle, grapes, guava, pomegranate, lemon also bear fruit at their roof top.
Shrestha has not invested much to prepare this roof top field but has applied his own idea to use the roof the good cause. Around two feet of parallel bricks bar has been erected at the edge of the roof where dozens of species of vegetable and hybrid fruits are planted.
The family members thought to construct a garden at the rooftop to keep their parents engaged and that worked very well. “They are very happy and this idea to grow vegetable and fruits has become successful ,”said Shrestha´s relative Pritam Sagar Karmacharya.
With happiness they have also established an innovative idea that could be replicated. “We are saving around Rs250-350 that could be spent in veggies as at least 3-4 varieties are plucked from the garden every day which is sufficient to even send koseli (gift) to relatives apart from our consumption,” Dharma Lal shared.
A self dependence on vegetable production in the Valley can save millions rupees if many people initiate to adopt slight changes in their living habit, the data shows. According to Kalimati vegetable and fruit market, around 250-350 metric tons vegetable and fruits are imported to Valley from India every day. It is 40 percent of the total demand in the Valley. Around 2.4 million population here demands 1000 metric tons of vegetables per day. This gap between the demand and supply is ensuing the heavy inflation on market price of groceries, officials say.
With the narrowing resources, the inflation graph hardly slow down so it is inevitable to adopt measures by utilizing the space wherever we find, says Rabin Man Shrestha, Environment Division Chief, Kathmandu Metropolitan City. “We have to think towards productive greenery that can ease our living,” he added.
Originally from Bhaktapur, the Shrestha couple settled in Biratnagar, Dhankuta and Sarlahi while serving in government offices and always cultivated in the pieces of land that were left unused considering infertile.
“Over the years, I have realized that to care plants is more important than where we grow them,” Dharma Lal said adding “20 varieties of fruits, vegetables and more than 150 flower basins growing on this concrete roof is the evident that plants can bear fruit anywhere if provided water and minerals on time.”
The Shrestha couple, pioneer to practice rooftop farming in the crowded and narrowing city like Kathmandu, stole a limelight only after the Solid Waste Management and Technical Resource Centre (SWMTRC) started searching to such Valley residents who were contributing their part on maintaining greenery and waste management.
Chief of the SWMTRC, Sumitra Amatya said that her office felt proud while awarding the couple on the occasion of World Environment Day on last June 5 for working as a source of inspiration to others on managing solid waste and maintaining productive greenery even at the late stage of their life.
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