Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) recently finished embellishing rooftops of hundred houses in Citadel by implementing urban agricultural project and garden surfaces adopted by the municipality. The project included cleaning house surfaces besides decorative designs and cultivating them.
During the Third Urban Agriculture Forum for the year 2010 held at Al Hussein Cultural Center, Project Manager of Urban Agriculture in the municipality, Engineer Hisham Al-Omari, presented models for garden surfaces carried out at the Citadel. More over, he presented new methods adopted in garden surfaces which include wooden pallets and metal stands besides plastic basins in various shapes and suspended bags.
During the forum, Al-Omari mentioned in collaboration with various societies in Amman, GAM trained a number of local community ladies and farmers on the style of urban agriculture.
During the forum, representatives from Agriculture, Education and Irrigation Ministries in addition to a number of societies and organizations discussed next year’s plan in adopting the idea of rooftop gardens and urban agriculture in different places of Amman.
The forum discussed the strategic plan to support and train local farmers which include lands, human resources, regulations, marketing plans, offering agricultural supplies and resolving marketing problem by setting specific places for selling their urban agricultural products.
Participants agreed to increase working in cultivating garden rooftops. This will have positive impact on the overall scene of Amman surfaces and will provide citizens with homely food.
Further more, Participants recommended activating the role of technical, legal and media committees by making suggestions and conducting studies that will contribute in enhancing urban agriculture advancement in Amman and through looking for new methods to attain financial support from competent sources to sustain the project.
It is noted that urban agriculture project aims at utilizing small areas of empty land in the city through cultivating them with crops and agricultural products by families in order to attain an additional income source. Utilizing such areas will also embellish the city and sustain the role of women in the society.