Rooftop gardening becomes growingly popular in the Dhaka city as the land for gardening shrinks every day

with
construction of more and more new buildings.

Urban Agriculture in Bangladesh

Nogor Krishor (Urban Farmer) Working for The Greenery of Dhaka City
By M.H.M. Borhannuddin Bhuyan
Info@nogorkrishok.org
March 22, 2011
If we look around, in our urban environment, we hardly ever find a fragment of the so-
called green belt, let alone a vegetable patch or a shrub of juicy fruits. In this concrete
jungle, of major cities sash as Dhaka and Chittagong of Bangladesh or even in the major
cities of the Western World such as Landon and New York, it is essential for healthy
living that we introduce what we lost in our villages through urbanization.

Nogor Krishok (Urban Farmer) is an agro-based organization involved in promoting

urban agriculture in the major cities of Bangladesh like Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong
through support for production of vegetables, flowers, fruits, ornamental and medicinal
plants on roof top and the barren places of the home. The institution is managed by a
team of experienced and highly skilled professionals in agriculture and senior experts.

They embarked on their innovative idea of actually using rooftops to create gardens,
where any one can grow fruits and vegetables. After all, there seems to be no space on
the ground to do this. So lets move up was their intention!

Bangladesh is one of the main victims of climate change. A country needs 25% of its land
to be occupied by forests to maintain its ecological balance, but here the percentage is
much less. In Dhaka, urban dwellers hardly seen any greenery around them, every inch
of land is occupied by concrete structures. The solution lies in planting as many trees as
possible, and the only place to do that seems to be rooftops. If people can make
vegetable, fruit, flower of ornamental gardens, this will supply fresh vegetables for them.
Fruits and vegetables purchased in the city are often mixed with chemicals, which are
hazardous for health, but a rooftop garden can be a source of fresh vegetables for city
dwellers, and also be a pleasant and unusual sight!

The entrepreneurs behind this asked themselves the following questions.

Are we conscious about our family health?
Do we know the quality of the vegetables we eat?
Are they chemical free?
Are they free from the residual effects of pesticides?
In 2008, 7438 people died from pesticide-related poisoning. Do people know that?
 Do we have space to get clean fresh air?
Will our future generation be interested in gardening?
Do we have any responsibility towards our future generations?
Do we want to go back to our green village?
Are we prepared enough for the effects of global warming?
Nogor Krishok carries out their works by following the steps below.
Surveying the roof top/balcony or unused space according to the demand of the house
dwellers.
Designing and structuring the proposed area.
Providing seeds and seedlings sequentially throughout the year.
Arranging a visit by a professional agriculturist every ten days.
Total help for producing fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers.
Train at least one person per house about basic gardening techniques.
Nogor Krishok started its pilot project in 2009 at Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The
results were credible. So the team decided to expand their endeavors, and took on twenty
projects in different parts of Dhaka city, which have all been very successful.

Nogor Krishok brings pesticide free, organic and fresh vegetable packages, fruit
packages, ornamental rooftop packages and lucrative balcony packages for city people.
They ensure that the utmost care in designing, producing, harvesting of vegetables and
processing of fertile soil with compost is provided. All the designs, seeds, soil, seedling
are properly tested before marketing. The commitment is to supply genuine high quality
service all year round. Nogor Krishok dreams of a day when every corner of city will fill
with greenery, thus providing a better and healthier future.