By – Rakshita sawani
Hydro-what? Hydroponic farming is a new approach towards sustainable farming where plants are grown using mineral rich nutrient solutions, in water instead of soil. A hydroponic gardener controls this growing environment of the plants by regulating the frequency of the nutrient supply. As the level of water and nutrients are monitored, the elements are supplied when required contributing to a successful rate of growth.
But what about the light source? Well, the lighting factor is surely critical and is achieved by plating in vertical multilevel structures where the lighting source is maximized while the crowding and shading are equally minimized.
As this is a vertical multilevel 3D structure instead of 2 dimensional, the yield per unit area is significantly more now with ideal growing conditions in terms of nutrients, water and light. With maximum growing area now in play, the once unutilized area in enclosed gardening environments is now being used.
But what are its benefits?
The main characteristic of a well-designed hydroponic system is less wastage of water and the nutrients as they are fed directly to the root system and recycled throughout it. This also helps in eliminating the possibility of land and water pollution. As the system uses less water and nutrients, it helps in lowering the ongoing costs of cultivation and provides economical benefits.
As the farming is happening on water medium instead of soil, the possibility of disease is reduced along with the time-consuming and labor-intensive work of tilling and cultivation of soil. Other plus point of hydroponics is the management of the plants density and controlling the humidity level of the growing environment. There is no leaf eating pests or weeding due to monitored enclosures. In short, it was greatly reduced work load and is becoming the agrarian farmer’s dream.
Importance of this in a country like India
Hydroponic produce will be slightly better than the traditionally produced produce in terms of nutritional value as well as quality. But we obviously do not live in an ideal world, and this makes the hydroponic produce way better than the soil grown produce, especially in a developing country like India.
It surely helps in reducing the toxic stuff we put into our bodies. According to studies, soil growing conditions of crops like spinach is deplorable and the water source used are dirty and unhygienic.
That’s not all. Even if farmers use borewell water to irrigate, it is still not safe due to the contaminated water table with traces of unwanted elements.
And let’s not forget the usage of pesticides. It may not be harmful if used in right quantities and at correct times, so that the residue is negligible during harvest. But does that really happen? Your guess is as good as mine. In long term, unfortunately, it has health disasters
References:
https://www.cleantechloops.com/hydroponic-farming/
https://www.citygreens.in/blogs/post/is-hydroponically-grown-food-as-nutritious-as-soil-grown
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