In pics: Egypt’s ‘Sheikh Oun’ turns from poor village to sustainable model thanks to rooftop farming

CAIRO – 2 November 2021: On the outskirts of the Beheira govenorate lies the small village of “Sheikh Oun,” which has beaten poor conditions with home farming and rooftop cultivation.

For nearly seven years, the small village suffered from low living conditions, but now, once you set your foot in the village, the first thing your eyes capture is the green color filling the roofs of all houses, a project the residents started to feed themselves and their children.

Khaled Gweida, one of the residents, said that six years ago, they asked an agricultural engineer to teach them planting rooftops, which they started in one unit that cost them then L.E. 1,500. They planted beans, lettuce, peppers, eggplant, capuchi, tomatoes, radishes and strawberries.

The project was then expanded from one unit to multiple units on every rooftop of the village’s houses, becoming a big project on every house, and generating money for the residents.

“The cultivation inside the pipes is inexpensive; however, it is profitable and it saves a lot of water. It has a closed circuit that irrigates the entire plant and then returns to the piped tank again,” Gweida said.

He further said that they do not dispose their food leftovers or any remaining waste from the kitchens, like: onion peel, potatoes or tomatoes, but instead, they re-use it to produce fertilizers by putting it in the soil in which we will plant, this mixture is very useful for planting.