Hydroponics – A Smart Solution to the Problem of Limited Land!

Hydroponics is constantly gaining attention from growers all over the world, and it’s referred as the future of commercial food production. Due to improper land management and ever increasing population the availability of arable land is declining. Because of this, growers are turning to new methods and technologies that would encourage faster growth in smaller areas. Hydroponics is one easy way out to create more and more channels of plant production. Scientists predict, by 2050 Earth’s population will increase by 9.2 billion and there will be drastic decline in the availability of land for crop production. Therefore, hydroponics will be a smart replacement for traditional soil growing method.

In many countries, where land is very valuable and precious because of rising population, hydroponics is used for commercial production of crops like rice, thereby preserving land mass – a scarce natural resource. Without using soil as growing medium, rice is harvested in underground chambers. Because the growing environment is well-adjusted and controlled, growers perform four complete cycles of harvest in a year instead of single harvest done in traditional method.

Also, in many countries where there is ample land but the climate is dry and arid, hydroponic has successfully managed to provide optimum growth to growers of the region. With the help of large hydroponics systems, growing large quantities of citrus fruits, berries and bananas have been possible in such places. It’s proven, irrespective of the climate, hydroponics can easily produce yield which is 1,000 times more than any other plant-growing method. The process of growing plants is completely automated therefore making planting less stressful.

There has been a huge buzz in the scientific world for the benefits that hydroponics can offer to third world countries where the availability of water and land is very limited, e.g., Africa and Asia. However, the cost of growing plants hydroponically in such areas is the biggest barrier currently; in the future, with the help of advanced technology there will be decrease in the cost, making hydroponics more affordable.

Hydroponics is also said to be the future of space program.  NASA has been constantly exploring hydroponics to gain benefits in the long-term from colonization in moon and outer space. Hydroponics will play a vital role in future space exploration because researchers are trying to use hydroponics to grow food in space.

Now it’s time to change from the old-fashioned gardening method to something that is eco-friendly and that meets the requirement of growing food in less-available land. Try hydroponics, it works!