Some more food for thought
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Terrace gardens are an ideal way to utilise available space to the best possible level
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In Mumbai too, over the last few years, there are people who have started taking important steps in this direction. Their efforts have yielded some good examples, which if replicated even at a suburban scale can create some effective results. They vary right from a small rooftop to a large rooftop to community sized urban farms. Take for instance Cecilia Godin. She has a row house apartment in Chembur. There are terraces on two levels. She uses the upper terrace to grow fruits like chikoo and guava in recycled plastic containers. There is a compost bin in one corner of this terrace, where she recycles all her organic kitchen waste. On the lower terrace, she has planted sweet lime, tomatoes and okra. The backyard which faces the kitchen grows her daily fresh herb requirements like basil, coriander and fenugreek, with spinach occupying her kitchen window sill. All her immediate fresh herb and sweet lime requirements are entirely met by her small farm. Last year, when she had a huge tomato crop, she preserved it by way of some delicious homemade tomato sauce. Needlessly to add, since last year, she hasn’t required buying any tomato sauce from the market for her sandwiches. This was space, which according to her was earlier going to waste and required a lot of maintenance. Ever since she’s been growing food, it anyway gets taken care of and more importantly is contributing by way of money-savings each month. What’s more, her family, especially the kids eat a lot more fresh food. A good example of an apartment size rooftop farm is created by model turned urban farmer Smita Shirodkar. The striking feature about this farm is that it is on a terrace of a pre-independence two-storied structure at Dadar and is producing a variety of food including radish, aubergines, bitter gourd and white marrows. The plants are grown in containers, which include recycled materials like mango crates lined with used tarpaulin sheets. These are then mounted on raised beds consisting of bricks resting on the rooftop slab. These raised beds help in minimising water seepage onto the slab. Waterproofing of the terrace is managed by way of cementing the entire usable area. Again as the plants are grown in small units like crates, they are easy to manage and crop failure is restricted to only that particular unit, thereby increasing crop yield. Moreover, Smita is doing her bit in promoting the concept by conducting training classes and has even held workshops for school children, noting that their enthusiasm has to be seen to be believed. She believes that it is these children and teens, who are the citizens of the future, and the ones who really need to be exposed to such planet saving disciplines like water harvesting, food growing and composting at the earliest. Urban farming, according to her is an important step towards mitigating climate change. Another individual, who is doing a good job in taking Urban Farming in Mumbai to the next level, is Adrienne Thadani. She, along with her team at Fresh and Local not only train people how to grow food, but are also in the process of creating a large scale rooftop Farm in South Mumbai. They have named it the ‘Flyover Project.’ Once completed, this project of approximately 5000 sq ft will produce enough food to supplement the vegetable requirements of the entire apartment on which it is grown. She firmly believes that as far as possible perishable food like vegetables and leafy greens like spinach and herbs should be grown locally. This will ensure not only lesser food wastage but also better food quality as food consumed immediately after plucking is much more nutritious. Also, this way, one doesn’t burn any fossil fuel, since the food doesn’t travel that distance from farms to tables. Indoor farming is another avenue that can be explored. A lot of people already grow ornamentals like money plants, etc. They could also grow certain herbs, like mint, which are less light intensive. Fresh herbs taste better and have a higher nutritive value than dried ones. According to her, as more and more people adopt this practice, it would leave that many more farmlands to grow grains like wheat and rice nearer to the city. Since these grains do not demand intense preservation, there is lesser food loss in transit. Hence these can then be the only food commodity besides exotic fruits and dried items which could use transportation. Another way forward, according to her would be indoor farming under grow lights, which still has some way to go before it really can pick steam as there is that extra energy input required by way of electricity. But then, there are common areas like lobbies, especially in apartment complexes, hotels and malls, which anyways need a lot of lighting. Lights here could be designed for serving a dual purpose of lighting and growing food. Some plants like bell peppers could be grown as not only they produce food, but are aesthetically pleasing as well. Finally, people, who face a shortage in terms of space, can grow food on their balconies and window sills. Urban farming is still in its nascent stages in Mumbai and far from providing self sufficiency in terms of meeting the city’s overall food requirements. But, it definitely holds a lot of promise with the immediate gains of a much more nutritive produce. On a larger scale, when carried out widely throughout the city, the overall food production will be of a considerable proportion to definitely make a solid impact. Finally, it is a practice that each one of us can get involved in. Mistry is a Mumbai-based architect |
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