CityAdapt inner-city school and community gardens, Kingston (Jamaica)

A project fitting inner-city schools and community sites in Kingston with gardens backed by rainwater harvesting and drip irrigation. It responds to the fact that the city's once-reliable rains have faltered with climate change, making it hard to grow without infrastructure that stores water and releases it slowly. More than JM$14 million (about US$90,000) went into four high schools, the Abilities Foundation and the Greenwich Town community, providing rainwater tanks, hydroponic greenhouses, container gardens and water-purification systems. Since starting in 2018, CityAdapt reports benefiting more than 130,000 people across Jamaica, El Salvador and Mexico.

Students at Tivoli Gardens High, St Andrew Technical, Kingston Technical and Camperdown High, together with trainees at the Abilities Foundation — a vocational training institution for people with disabilities — grow food in container gardens and greenhouses. In Greenwich Town, 50 people received beekeeping and entrepreneurship training and 250 bee colonies were distributed in the community.

Part of CityAdapt, a climate-adaptation initiative led by UNEP and financed by the Global Environment Facility, with Jamaica 4-H Clubs implementing on the ground. Rainwater harvesting tanks, climate-controlled hydroponic greenhouses, container gardens and water-purification systems were installed at each site. The Abilities Foundation uses income from its garden to fund vocational training for students with special needs.

A case that answers not "how do you grow where there is no land" but "how do you keep growing when the rain stops coming." Combining container growing — in pots, boxes, barrels and other vessels rather than in the ground — with stored water and drip irrigation lets paved school grounds keep producing. It is also notable for using garden income to fund vocational training for people with disabilities, and for building beekeeping and colony distribution into the community as a source of income. The work is aligned with the agriculture ministry's 'FACE of Food' campaign.

School and institution grounds, equipped through an internationally funded programme.

Web articles and features that cover this case.

• ArticleAs rains falter, Jamaica's urban farmers race to adapt — UNEP ↗unep.org

This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.

• OfficialUNEP CityAdapt Project Invests over JM$14M in Kingston Inner-city Schools and Greenwich Town — CityAdapt（2023-10-20） ↗cityadapt.com