Can anyone guess what this resource is?
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So far as we know, out of the 200 billion stars in the milky ways galaxy, only the Solar System has a planet orbiting it that supports life. The basis for this life (on land) is soil which teems with microorganisms and is fortified with nutrients and minerals to support the growth of plants.
There was a time when plant life flourished on this planet in extensive forests and grasslands, supporting in turn a huge number of different life forms.
.. and then tragedy struck. A species of monkeys who till then had confined themselves to the arboreal environment, decided to become intelligent – unfortunately there intelligence was of a selective kind, very intelligent in some ways, and hugely dumb in other ways.
This species of monkeys (who call themselves ‘humans’), over a period of just a hundred years, got rid of most of the forests and converted a lot of the land into huge cities; cement and concrete, which on their own cannot support the growth of plants ….
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I am referring to the roof over our heads. When I tried to calculate the total roof area in India, I got a shock. If we assume that there are 100,000,000 homes in India – or home equivalent like offices, shops, etc – each covering a plinth area of 50 sq m. (500 sq ft) Then:
The total roof area in India = 100,000,000 x 50 = 5000,000,000 sq m = 5000 sq Km !! This is unique real estate, which directly receives the elixir of life, sunshine, and we are doing practically nothing with it.
What is this real estate good for?
1. If one tenth of this area is covered with solar panels, we can generate 500,000,000/10 = 50,000 Megawatts of energy for four hours every day, assuming solar cell efficiency of 10%.
2. We can grow practically all our vegetables on roof tops. That too organic and free from pesticides.
3. A shelter on the rooftop will ensure that you and your family can have a leafy environment on your rooftop, closer to nature. You will ensure that you and your family do not suffer from vitamin D deficiency.
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/
4. We can wipe out nutrition deficiencies in children in one stroke. Beans grow very well on rooftops. Even a poor family having a house of 10ft x 10 ft can grow their vegetable requirements on their roof tops.
5. Growing vegetables on rooftops and installing solar panels will provide massive employment opportunities.
6. Green cover will reduce global warming.
A CALL FOR ACTION:
1. Change building rules, so that vegetable gardens are incorporated in the design of buildings.
2. Focus R/D, so as to make it possible to generate clean organic fertiliser from household and human waste. (For my rooftop garden I use just vegetable waste. I had to learn by trial and error how to compost it. Originally I used to bury the waste under soil in pots – this resulted at times in generating a lot of worms which crawled all over the roof. Now I bury the waste in soil, in raised beds, where I grow the vegetables – with larger amount of soil, bugs seem to remain put. Soil cover over waste snuffs out all smell.)
3. Civil engineers to provide directions on how to design vegetable beds, so that the safe load on roofs is not exceeded. (Prima facie there seems to be enough margin of safety in the design of concrete roofs).
4. Civil engineers to provide guidance on proper drainage to protect roofs from moisture.
5. Encourage the formation of vegetable garden clubs in all localities. (A lot of time is wasted in growing seedlings; ready availability of seedlings will reduce the unproductive period. Vegetable growing clubs will also encourage information sharing. It has taken me more than a year to figure out how to grow tomatoes in a reliable way here in Trivandrum. I have been able to grow vegetable cucumbers very successfully and so also beans. My next focus will be ladies finger, with which I am having some problems.)
6. Engineers to work out how to segregate waste water generated in the household, so that some of it can be safely used to water plants.
7. Provide incentives, so that people are tempted to install solar power in their houses. Make it possible for them to feed excess power generated to the grid.
Note: The GDP of India can be increased by tens of thousands of crores by making use of this priceless resource. While rooftop solar arrays will require major investments, rooftop gardening can be initiated with minimum additional resource. Do we need a ministry for rooftop affairs : - )
Selvaraj
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I left out one thing: this is also a place where you can do solar cooking.
ReplyDeleteMy roof top activities (total area around 1000 sq ft):
1. Presently have three raised beds of dimension 6 feet x 1.5 feet (with 9 inches soil). Total 27 sq feet. Out of this (because of wrong layout) there is excessive shading in half the portion; I use this area for composting. Plan to bring total raised bed area to 100 sq ft shortly.
2. Just last week I covered around 350 sq ft with a roof for a sit out. Total cost Rs 34,000.
3. Rainwater from the sit out roof is brought to two 500 litre tanks - for rainwater harvesting. I am hoping to cut my water bill in half. In Trivandrum it rains for around 7 to 8 months in a year.
4. Plan to install a solar cooker with 1.2 m x 1.2 m parabolic reflector. The solar cooker was just delivered - yet to be opened and assembled.
5. Ample place for solar panels over the sit out roof.
Selvaraj
On 14 November 2011 22:08, xxx wrote:
ReplyDeleteAccording to internet sources, area of India is 3287263 Km^2 and 43% is used for agriculture, giving approx 1.4E6 Km^ of agricultural land. Would increasing this by .3% increase GDP by "tens of thousands of crores" ?
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Well, my 'tens of thousands of crores' was somewhat rhetorical. However, since you have posed the question let us calculate and see what figures we obtain.
1. Solar power on 10% of available roof top area:
- Total area available 500 sq Km. On this we can produce 50,000 Mw of power for four hours every day.
- No of units produced in an hour = 50,000,000
- At the rate of Rs 5/unit (I am cheating a little here :-), the value of electricity generated = Rs 250,000,000 = Rs 25 crores/hour
- For a day the income will be Rs 100 crores
- In a year Rs 36,500 crores.
2. Vegetable cultivation on 20% of available roof top area:
Lets keep in mind that the rooftop will be considerably more productive than an average farmer's field due to better drainage and less pathogens. Since 'farming' is done is less area it will also be economical to use high tech techniques like drip irrigation, green house etc. My estimate is that it should be easily possible to harvest one kg of vegetables per day from 200 sq ft of raised bed cultivation on a rooftop (In India).
- Total area available 1000 sq Km.
- One Kg of vegetables produced on 20 sq m / day
- Vegetables produced from an area of 1000 sq km = 1000,000,000/20 = 50,000,000 Kg / day
- At the rate of Rs 20/kg (we seem to be paying about this much in Trivandrum) this works out to 1000,000,000 Rs
- Or Rs 100 crores / day
- In a year this works out to Rs 36,500 crores.
* Using 30% of the roof area we have already reached Rs 73,000 crores!
Please note, the value of using rooftops goes beyond GDP figures.
1. We are going to face serious problems in the availability of fertilizers in future; Its cost is already zooming. In the home environment, fertilizer will be available from recycled waste.
2. Fresh vegetables, from which nutrients have not been sapped out.
3. Poor people need not spend on common vegetables.
4. Decentralization will lead to more sharing of wealth.
Regards,
Selvaraj