Jerusalen, Bogota, Colombia
In 1985, a hydroponic project supported by the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) was established in Jerusalen, a community on the outskirts of Bogota, Columbia. Designed by Colombian mechanical engineer, Jorge Zapp, the project used hydroponic growers, made of small containers and discarded wood pallets, placed on rooftops, balconies, stairs, and any available space in the sun.
Participants in the project included 130 urban poor families, with 90% of the participants mothers and homemakers. The women earned as much as three times more than their husbands earned in semi-skilled jobs, and provided food from the families from overripe or less than perfect crops. They produced 30 types of vegetables in their hydroponic gardens.
The gardens were built of donated or recycled materials including rice bran from a mill, wooden crates from an auto parts shop and recycled polyethylene from commercial flower growers. The costs of setting up each square meter plot was less than $5.00.
Pallets were set flat on the roof and the top slats were removed. Plastic sheeting was placed inside and the rice bran was used as media. Hydroponic nutrients were supplied by the funding agency at a cost of about $9.00 per year, or about 2.4 cents a day.
Families sold surplus produce to a supermarket cooperative under a contract established by the funding agency. Once week produce was brought in, weighed, and pay was given in cash.
The Jerusalen Project used local materials inexpensive to construct and built of recycled materials. The growing media used was rice bran producing very low weight per growing area. The gardens also obtained excellent production with minimal inputs and no routine analysis of the hydroponic system.
The Jerusalen project serves as highly successful hydroponic garden for developing countries. It shows that hydroponics can be a viable solution to extreme poverty. The fact that the project appeared to fail when nutrient and sales organization was withdrawn does not make the project a failure. One only has to speculate what would happen to existing US agriculture if all funding, subsidy and marketing support were withdrawn, suddenly, with very little warning.
Cesar Marulanda, the United Nations Director who supervised the hydroponics projects explains, "The problems that there are with popular hydroponics in Colombia and in the other 15 countries where we have initiated under my direction, are not of agricultural or technical nature.
"It is that the attitude of the people who accept themselves as beneficiaries. The process should be a matter of business, with business principles taught, so the recipients see the project as a productive company rather than a donation. It is very important to give precise information on the fundamental objectives of a hydroponics company.
"In the technical part the most frequent problem is the distribution of the inorganic nutrient so that all the beneficiaries can buy it in all the places. Presently these nutrients are not sold by the traditional retailers. Also there must be constant technical consultant's office in the first phases of the project."
"Even though hydroponic culture is easy to learn, the people are often timid to make decisions and need support when the first problems appear to them that are of easy solution."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics
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