Hydroponics is the future of crop cultivation: hydroponic systems use the power of water to grow soil-free food, a centuries-old practice of agriculture or, in some cases, traditional cultivation.
The use of hydroponic equipment in food production is more than a century old and the true potential of inland agriculture has yet to be realized. Despite these challenges, hydroponic systems offer a viable solution to the problem of food shortages in industrialized agriculture. Hydroponics grows plants outside the soil and uses nutrient-rich solutions that deliver water and minerals directly to its roots in a unique way to produce enough food for a growing population.
What Is Hydroponics?
Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants in nutrient-rich solutions that skip the ground. It is a horticultural technique used to plant without soil by using a mixture of aqueous solvents, minerals, and nutrients. The process of growing a plant without using the soil may sound counterintuitive to those unfamiliar with the concept.
The technique uses plants that can be grown under hydroponic conditions, such as salads, cucumbers, peppers, and herbs. Hydroponic systems are closed and recycle water that is not used by the plants. Wick systems are still the simplest system of hydroponics production technology used to grow crops, and they are still the most widely used.
How Does It Differ From Drip Irrigation?
Hydroponics is a nice method of food production that allows producers to grow plants outside the soil by using mineral and nutrient solutions to feed the plants without the water needed for the soil. Unlike drip systems, which are less effective and easier to use than hydroponics, these systems are able to adapt changes to different types of plants. Deepwater cultivation systems are the simplest of these systems, where plants are put directly into a nutrient solution.
Contemporary & Future Developments In Hydroponics
Hydroponic Agriculture In Areas With Food Shortage:
As hydroponics can produce food in a controlled environment with less water and higher yields, food and agricultural organizations like the United Nations are introducing hydroponic agriculture in regions of the world suffering from food shortages.
Liquid hydroponics systems are effective for faster growth and higher yields because plants have direct access to oxygen and food in form of functional minerals. Given the need for more sustainable agriculture and the rise of environmentally friendly start-ups around the world, some use hydroponics to produce large scale crops – a technique known as vertical agriculture.
Laboratory Experiments:
Vertical agricultural buildings are filled with innumerable levels of hydroponic systems and nutrient film-style planters to grow various indoor crops in a controlled temperature environment. NASA space plant physiologists have begun experimenting with hydroponics technology on the International Space Station because it requires less space and resources than conventional agriculture.
In World War II, when Pan American Airways decided to start a hydroponic farm on Wake Island, hydroponics farming was transformed into a new way of growing food from an exciting laboratory experiment.
Hydroponics Farms On Buildings:
As consumer demand for locally produced food continues to grow, hydroelectric power plants on rooftops in cities around the world will continue to grow. Vertical urban agriculture, the creation of stack hydroponics farms on buildings, including the tallest skyscrapers will solve the problem of depletion of available land by adapting agricultural crops closer to the needs of our increasingly populous cities of the future. One solution is hydroponics, a technology that represents a niche method of food production and allows producers to grow crops without soil.
The Need For Hydroponic Systems:
Complete Control Over Plant Supplements:
Hydroponic systems give food manufacturers more control over growing conditions, water consumption, pests, diseases and more. Salad is particularly suitable for hydroponic agriculture, as deep-water raft systems can produce more per square metre than vertical shelves.
Other advantages of hydroponics technology are the ability to control the nutrition of plants, visible improvements in quantity and yield, shortening the growth intervals for many plants, higher propagation success, savings in fertilizers, avoiding pesticides and herbicides, and efficient use of space.
Robust Vegetable Growth:
Vegetables grown with hydroponics are known to grow more strongly than traditional agriculture because the right nutrients are delivered to the roots of the plants. Hydroponic gardening also called vertical or urban agriculture, is more efficient than traditional soil gardens. Since the soil acts as a buffer between the plant and nutrients, hydroponic techniques can transmit food more efficiently to the plant.
Control Over Plantation Diversity:
By using a hydroponic solution, farmers can adjust the nutrients of the plants to form their ideal food and encourage plants to grow faster and faster. All requirements for indoor vegetable cultivation in hydroponics plants are met with the help of a growing lighting, ventilation and circulation system, the right nutrients and the right water. If you think about using the right system, a great variety of plants can be grown.
Controlled Environmental Agriculture:
The cultivation of crops under optimal conditions with the technology of controlled environmental agriculture (CEA) is one of the greatest advantages of hydroponic agriculture. Hydroponic technology can produce food crops in the barren desert sand, desalinated seawater, mountainous regions, steep farms, roofs of cities, concrete schoolyards, and Arctic communities. It also has the potential to provide fresh local food in areas of extreme drought and poor soil quality where access to leafy green vegetables is limited.
Minimum Wastage Of Resources:
Hydroponics systems have been able to cut energy costs by 50% and achieve yields up to 200% higher than traditional greenhouses. They develop a circular system that returns CO2 waste from hydroponic farms to humans, producing food, oxygen, and water.
Conclusion:
Hydroponic agriculture has great potential to mitigate some of the threats and problems that threaten our agricultural system. Unlike other modern agricultural techniques, the success of the hydroponic system relies on accurate data analysis that allows food producers to adjust in real-time to the growing conditions.
