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Jordan: Rooftop farms in Jordan help Gazans reconnect with lost land

Islam Abu Said and her twin sister, Salam, display bumper crops at their rooftop hydroponic farm earlier this year at their refugee camp in Jerash, Jordan.

The experience of growing a crop binds you to the land. So even if rooftop hydroponics are a far cry from tilled fields, the act of farming can still speak to the soul of a displaced people.

By Taylor Luck
Christian Science Monitor
Oct 27, 2020

Excerpt:

He was alerted by another camp resident, an agricultural engineer, that hydroponic farming – growing crops in water containers without the need for land, large amounts of soil, or constant irrigation – could offer a solution.

“The only breathing space people have here is their rooftops,” Mr. Siyam says, gesturing to a seemingly endless wave of concrete rooftops behind him. “It was an untapped resource we could maximize.”

The average home in the “Gaza Camp” has some 535 to 800 square feet of rooftop area to use as garden space, enough room for a hydroponic system that can raise from 800 to 1,200 shoots of crops.

Alerted to the idea, UNICEF supported Mr. Siyam by launching a pilot project this past February.

Agricultural engineer Ahmed Abu Elewah takes a PH reading at his specially-designed hydroponic garden in Jerash camp, northern Jordan, Oct. 21, 2020.

Mr. Siyam and his team planned gardens that would impose the lowest possible costs on residents.

The farms are built to grow multiple cycles of crops with the same water, which is cycled through a closed system of pipes. A timed system pumps water at intervals, keeping electricity bills to the bare minimum.

Read the complete article here.