2016 –DESIGN: Together with food-insecure families living in the arid urban slums of Lima, Peru, WFP tested hydroponic methods to design an easy-to-implement solution for growing vegetables using locally-sourced materials.
2017 – FAIL: Deployment of a high-tech controlled environment Food Computer was tested for 6 months in Jordan to identify the best growth conditions for highly nutritious crops. The concept proved to be too early-stage to be a field ready.
2018 – ITERATE: Sahrawi refugees in the Algerian Sahara Desert adapted a high-tech hydroponic system to their specific context using local materials. Through multiple iterations, they created a low-tech and accessible solution that provides a sustainable food supply for livestock. This became the base for replicating the model in other contexts such as Chad.
Present – SCALE: By December 2021, the H2Grow project has since inception supported 21 countries. Recent countries in the portfolio include Burundi, Ethiopia, Libya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
In 2021, a Model Hydroponics School Garden in Lusaka, Zambia, was constructed for learning and applying best practices. Twenty-five additional greenhouses have already been built to produce fresh vegetables to enrich the Home-Grown School Meals (HGSM) Programme managed by the Ministry of Education. Watch video here
By 2021, H2Grow established a Global Community of Practice with representatives from more than 55 organizations. It supported the WFP Nigeria Country Office in building 193 new hydroponics animal feed units, which produced 40 tons of fresh animal feed.