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Lets paint our cities green !

The term 'gardening' automatically conjures up visuals of an enclosed planned space, usually outdoors, where both ornamental and food plants are grown. But with shrinking open spaces in urban areas, people have had to become more creative in order to become more green. Terrace gardens! Not only are these green patches a visual delight but they also help provide city farmers with a healthy, organic food palette, free of pesticides.

An expert on terrace gardens, Dr Vishwanath Kadur has some simple tips to grow food on one's roof in earthen pots. Panchgavya, a concoction made up of cow dung and urine, fermented with a host of other ingredients, is another organic solution that can be prepared conveniently. Vani Murthy explains how a roof garden can be enriched through vermi composting.

A garden is possible no matter where you live. All you need to do is to flex your green thumb! Read our FAQ on terrace gardens and get answers to some basic questions that will have you get started on this exciting venture!

 

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Featured Articles
July 9, 2019
Adequate water most important for plant diversity
Study shows how rainfall and temperature affect variety of plants in major bio-geographic zones of India
Image used for representational purposes only. Image source: India Water Portal on Flickr
July 1, 2019
Women hold the key to water for food security and nutrition
Study reveals women are central to both food production and preparation, as well as to domestic water provisioning.
A woman from the Ahir tribe at Chapredi village, east of Bhuj with cotton husks. (Image: Meena Kadri, Flickr Commons, CC BY-ND 2.0
June 18, 2018
Green toilet in my backyard
Ecological sanitation toilets are the best option to deal with mounting sewage burden in India.
Chicu with a pan used in ecosan toilet. (Photo courtesy: Chicu Lokgariwar)
February 17, 2016
Floating gardens for the landless
Flood affected areas in coastal Odisha have adopted new ways of farming. Called floating gardens, these have the scope to reduce the food insecurities of the landless poor.
Women working on a floating garden (Source: RCDC)
November 22, 2015
Sunny balconies and hanging gardens in Goa
Terrace kitchen gardens are slowly making their mark in the tourist hotspot. A couple helps those interested in organic farming either find good farmers or become one themselves!
Karan and Yogita at a workshop on organic container kitchen gardening
April 28, 2015
Delhi Govt bans use of groundwater in city parks
Policy matters this week
The Nakshatra Garden
The man behind introducing guava cultivation in Paroo, Bihar
Need for better convergence with government schemes
Phooldeo Patel
Posted on 20 Sep, 2022 08:25 PM

Successful experiments in farming have benefited the farmers across the world. Harinath Shah, a resident of Dharphari village in Paroo block in Muzaffarpur district in Bihar, has done one such experiment by introducing the cultivation of guava on sandy sand in his village.
Harinath found a new way of self-reliance by cultivating guava on sand
Horticulture pile-up, yet farmers stare at losses in Kachchh
Robust arid region horticulture in the water-scarce arid region of Kachchh, but without improved value-addition for increased shelf-life, farmers faced with a crisis.
Praharsh M Patel
Prayaas
Posted on 10 May, 2020 04:05 PM

Kachchh: A desert oasis under peril
Date palm plantation in Kachchh (Image: Prayaas: The Movement of Grassroot Changes)
Self sufficiency in the times of Covid-19
Utthan promotes self-sufficient food production areas with internal dependencies, as the pandemic causes disruptions from food to fork.
Nafisa Barot
Pallavi Sobti Rajpal
Utthan
Posted on 02 May, 2020 11:26 AM

Reshamben, Manguben and Naseemben, strong women leaders of Vanita Shakti Mahila Sangathan and Ekta Mahila Sangathan, have always argued that government ration shops under the public distribution system should purchase all essential foodgrains from the local area, to the extent possible.
A ‘people to people’ social solidarity enterprise in the times of Covid-19 (Image: Utthan)
Adequate water most important for plant diversity
Study shows how rainfall and temperature affect variety of plants in major bio-geographic zones of India
Monika Kundu Srivastava
India Science Wire
Posted on 09 Jul, 2019 03:58 PM

New Delhi, July 9 (India Science Wire): India has a total geographical area of nearly 329 million hectares. The climate varies from the north to the south and east to west. However, in spite of this diversity, little is known about how climate affects the diversity of plants that grow in a particular area.
Image used for representational purposes only. Image source: India Water Portal on Flickr
Women hold the key to water for food security and nutrition
Study reveals women are central to both food production and preparation, as well as to domestic water provisioning.
Amit Mitra
Nitya Rao
Posted on 01 Jul, 2019 12:34 PM

The water sector remains male dominated at different scales, from engineers and technocrats responsible for designing irrigation systems, to upper caste and upper class men who decide on the location of canals, borewells, tanks, and other water systems at the grassroots level.
A woman from the Ahir tribe at Chapredi village, east of Bhuj with cotton husks. (Image: Meena Kadri, Flickr Commons, CC BY-ND 2.0
Dumping waste effectively
Three environment-friendly ways of disposing of human waste have proven effective in various districts of Chhattisgarh.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 16 Mar, 2019 03:51 PM

According to the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) website, access to toilets has improved in India and 28 out of 36 states and Union Territories are now open defecation free (ODF). While that’s good news, managing faecal sludge in ODF states in an eco-friendly way continues to be a big challenge. 
Evapotranspiration community toilet at Shankarnagar, Kumhari (Source: India Water Portal)
Green toilet in my backyard
Ecological sanitation toilets are the best option to deal with mounting sewage burden in India.
Chicu Lokgariwar
Posted on 18 Jun, 2018 03:39 PM

Untreated sewage is the biggest source of water pollution in India with around 70 percent of the raw sewage generated in urban areas entering lakes, rivers, seas and underground aquifers.
Chicu with a pan used in ecosan toilet. (Photo courtesy: Chicu Lokgariwar)
Sewage to blame, Dal turns dull
Years of indiscriminate dumping of sewage turns Kashmir’s beautiful Dal Lake into an eyesore.
Nusrath Sidiq
Posted on 17 May, 2018 01:09 PM

Srinagar's prime tourist attraction, Dal Lake, is no more the scenic beauty it used to be. It's turning into an eyesore, thanks to sewage discharge and weed growth.
A Kashmiri boy on a boat among lotus leaves on Dal Lake. (Pic courtesy: Safeena Wani/101Reporters)
Saving Jhabua’s children from fluorosis
INREM Foundation’s work helped develop protocols on designing proactive action on safe water and nutrition to help mitigate fluorosis in Jhabua.
Fluoride Knowledge and Action Network
Posted on 13 Apr, 2018 09:03 PM

In 2010, nine-year-old Kailash from Miyati village, Jhabua developed symptoms of skeletal fluorosis. Fluorosis, which affects millions of people in India, is a health issue caused due to high fluoride content in drinking water. Skeletal fluorosis is marked by deformed bones.
Nutrition garden developed in Jhabua for sustainable nutrition and resistance from fluorosis among villagers.
India Industry Water Conclave on Nov 28, 2017 at FICCI, New Delhi
The third edition of India Industry Water Conclave and fifth edition of FICCI Water Awards on Theme : ‘Water Use Efficiency- An Imperative for India’
Posted on 07 Nov, 2017 10:12 AM

The theme for the Conclave this year is “Water Use Efficiency: An Imperative for India” to highlight the imperative of water use efficiency in the industry, agriculture and urban contexts. 
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