Essay On Hydroponics

With the advent of civilization, open field/soil-based agriculture is facing some major challenges; most importantly decrease in per capita land availability. In 1960 with 3 billion population over the World, per capita land was 0.5 ha but presently, with 6 billion people it is only 0.25 ha and by 2050, it will reach at 0.16 ha. Due to rapid urbanization and industrialization as well as melting of icebergs (as an obvious impact of global warming), arable land under cultivation is further going to decrease. Again, soil fertility status has attained a saturation level, and productivity is not increasing further with increased level of fertilizer application. Besides, poor soil fertility in some of the cultivable areas, less chance of natural soil fertility build-up by microbes due to continuous cultivation, frequent drought conditions and unpredictability of climate and weather patterns, rise in temperature, river pollution, poor water management and wastage of huge amount of water, decline in ground water level,

W.F. Gericke in 1936 to describe the cultivation of edible and ornamental plants grown in a solution of water and dissolved nutrients. It literally means working water; 'hydro' meaning 'water' and 'ponos' meaning 'labour'. For example, the hanging gardens of Babylon and the floating gardens of the Aztecs of Mexico and those of the Chinese. The first commercial hydroponic unit in the USA developed by Gericke in 1930. American forces employed this system in the Pacific to produce vegetables during World War II. In 1842 a list of nine elements believed to be essential to plant growth had been made out, based on the discoveries of the German botanists, Julius von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop. Solution culture is now considered a type of hydroponics where there is no inert medium. Today, it is a well know fact that in some parts of the world, plant life does not grow in the available soil. One reason behind the drive to