Rooftop gardening to improve food security in Dhaka city: A review of the present practices

Abstract

In recent years, the trend of growing vegetables on green roofs has gained momentum as a way of promoting agricultural sustainability in Dhaka City. Rooftop gardens become an important part of urban agriculture's recent rejuvenation and offer alternative spaces for urban markets to grow vegetable products. Green roofs create spaces for vegetable crop production, thereby creating opportunities for agricultural incorporation into urban communities. At present, however, vegetable production activities on rooftops are limited due to multiple challenges that need to be addressed before widespread implementation takes place. Rooftop agriculture can improve various ecosystem services, enhance the biodiversity of urban areas and reduce food insecurity. Food production from green roofs will help support and sustain food for urban communities and provide a rare opportunity to grow food efficiently in typically unused spaces. As human populations become more urbanized and urban consumers become more interested in local food for their families, the use of alternative agricultural production systems, such as green roof technologies, will increase in importance. While cultivating food on buildings is a key component of making cities more sustainable and habitable, green roofs are not the total solution for providing cities with food security. They should be viewed more as a supplement to other sources of food production in urban areas.

Stakeholder Perception and Institutional Approach to Rooftop Gardening (RTG) of Urban Areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh

“…Different studies have also pointed out these limitations and argued that harvesting the massive potential of greening and food crop production through rooftop agriculture should be incorporated into urban agriculture (Islam et al, 2019b;Safayet et al, 2017b). According to these authors, the government should initiate training and awareness-building programs for rooftop farming on a large scale in Dhaka city and the urban areas across the country; the government's largest extension service provider agency Department of Agricultural Extension, should work more to spread rooftop gardening and related technology through the support from NGO's, community organizations and development partners (Chowdhury et al, 2020)…”

Green Infrastructure Development for a Sustainable Urban Environment in Chittagong city, Bangladesh

“…Fresh and safe local food can be produced from rooftop gardens (Safayet et al, 2017). Rooftop gardening is an important element in making cities more sustainable and livable, although it is not the overall solution for cities with food security issues (Chowdhury et al, 2020). Urban rooftop gardening is a practical way of sustainable urban planning in Chittagong that integrates the environment and urbanity into sustainable urban development (Islam et al, 2020).…”

Developing Mechanisms of State Regulation of Development of Rural Territories in Ukraine

“…It is high time that Dhaka should be reconstructed in such a way to allow for it to become a green city (The Institution of Engineers Bangladesh Dhaka Centre [Producer], 2020). Further, the government can authorize provisions about rooftops gardening in building codes like the Bangladesh National Building Code (Chowdhury et al, 2020).…”