Kathmandu Rooftop Farming Programme (KMC / ENPHO / RUAF)
Kathmandu, Nepal · Operator: ENPHO (Environment and Public Health Organisation) with Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC); technical support from RUAF Foundation and UN-Habitat
Overview
A citizen-focused rooftop farming program led by ENPHO and Kathmandu Metropolitan City (with RUAF and UN-Habitat technical support), launched in 2013. Households are trained to grow vegetables on their roofs using vermicompost, waste segregation, nursery management and rainwater harvesting, framed as a climate-adaptation and urban food-security strategy. Its demonstration gardens and training manual helped spread rooftop farming across the Kathmandu Valley.
Citizen participation
City Environment Management experts train households in cohorts, and participants maintain their own rooftop gardens. The training integrates solid-waste and wastewater management with rooftop vegetable gardening.
Operating model
Funded by municipal budget plus NGO and UN program support (KMC budget plus UN-Habitat/RUAF). Training and inputs are provided free to households and the program is non-commercial.
Impact
Trained hundreds of households and built demonstration rooftop gardens. It integrated urban agriculture into the city's climate plans and is widely credited with seeding the Valley's later surge in rooftop farming, while reducing organic waste via vermicomposting and improving household vegetable access.
Crops
- vegetables
- leafy greens
- herbs
Scale
150 households trained in the 2013 cohort; KMC trained 500+ households over 2013–14; household-rooftop scale
Sources（2）
This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.
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