Adopting a technologically advanced farming system looks promising to ensure food security in the coming years.
Globally, the numbers of population is expected to increase to over 9 billion by 2050 and an estimated 70% will be residents in urban areas.
Traditional farming won’t be enough to supply food to this expected number of people in the next decades. Challenges like climate change, to which agriculture is a major contributor when you consider how the search for fertile land causes deforestation. Also, our planet’s resources are strained to support and maintain the food supply chain. Changes in weather patterns induce drought, affecting productivity in agriculture.
Getting innovative with vertical farming in a controlled environment is a progressive idea to address the common challenges of farming in the open. Vertical farming converts whatever available space in urban areas to grow grains, fruits, and veggies in controlled indoor spaces.
With a resourceful use of space, urban centres and buildings within towns and cities are utilized to grow crops. This is possible with advanced growing systems like hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics.
Hydroponic vertical farming systems are advanced and proven to be a solution to improve food security. It’s a space-saving farming technique generally practised in urban areas to grow plants in a controlled environment.
Hydroponics is a space-efficient farming method that is more advanced than traditional farming.
What Is Vertical Hydroponic Farming?
Vertical hydroponic farming is a type of vertical farming that involves growing plants in nutrient-rich water. It’s a soilless farming technique that uses the principles of greenhouse production.
Vertical hydroponic farming is a space-saving advanced farming method suited for urban areas generally with limited space. Hydroponic farming is artificially controlled to create the perfect growing conditions for plants.
Hydroponic farming is part of vertical farming which was first developed over 2,000 years ago. An example of vertical farming can be traced back to 600 BC, with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which is considered one of the Philon’s Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.1
In hydroponic farming, the growing system uses a variety of materials such as peat moss, perlite, coconut fibre, and vermiculite to hold the root of the plant. The plant’s roots are immersed in the nutrient solution, which will usually contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to boost plant growth.2
In hydroponic vertical farming, an aquarium-type pump supplies oxygen to the nutrient-rich water. The plant roots immersed in the water will then pick up oxygen to flourish.3
Types of Hydroponic Systems
The different types of hydroponic farming systems include the wick system, water culture, ebb and flow, drip, and N.F.T (Nutrient Film Technique).
Learn more: How to Start Vertical Farming at Home
Wick System
The wick system is considered the most basic hydroponic technique as it does not use electricity. The process used in the wick system involves placing plants carefully in positions where they can get enough supply of nutrients and water.
This is achieved by placing a wick made of materials like cotton and nylon into a substance such as perlite or vermiculite. While one end of the wick is suspended in the nutrient-rich water, the other end is connected to the plant.
The wick system is affordable to install and maintain. This system is best suited for smaller herb plants. For larger plants, they will require more nutrients, and the wick may be unable to provide sufficient nutrients.
Water Culture
This is a hydroponic farming system that is more of an advanced version of the wick system. The water culture system is simpler because it requires no connecting wick.
It’s a simple system that involves placing the plant roots into the nutrient solution, allowing the plant to absorb the needed nutrients. In this soilless system, the plants are positioned upright and secured firmly with net pots.
Plants can also be kept in an upright position using a floating raft-like structure. A diffuser or air stone is used to control the oxygen supply to the plant. While the plant root may rot as a result of being suspended in a nutrient solution, the water culture system remains a reliable system for growing a variety of plants.
The issue of plant roots being suspended for too long in a water solution can be taken care of with proper hygiene maintenance.
Ebb and Flow (Food and Drain)
Here you have a more advanced system that does not involve the plant getting directly suspended in the nutrient solution. In this system, plants are grown in a roomy grow bed filled with rock wool or perlite as a substitute for soil.
The grow bed is supplied with the nutrient-rich solution once the plants are planted and the flow of this nutrient solution is controlled by a pump. To avoid an overflow of liquid water, farmers are getting creative by installing timers. However, if there were to be an overflow, liquid water will be sucked by the pump.
Being a more advanced system, this hydroponic farming system can be used for a variety of plants. It’s unlikely for root rot to occur in this system.
Drip Systems
The drip system is a hydroponic farming system that grows plants in a soil replacement material. The plants are held upright and the nutrient solution is absorbed through the plant’s root.
This system uses traditional water-efficient irrigation methods to supply plants with nutrient solutions using drip irrigation.
The drip system ensures that plants receive moisture and nutrients based on specific types and requirements. Generally, there are two types of drip system hydroponics, which include the recovery system and the non-recovery system.
- Recovery System: The recovery system is an efficient one. In this system, the drip supplies the nutrient, and the excess solution is circulated back and reused. The recovery system needs to be monitored more often because the pH sometimes gets disturbed as a result of plants absorbing nutrients at different rates.
- Non-Recovery System: This is quite different from the recovery system. In this system, excess solution is not circulated back or reused. Therefore, precise timers are required for this system, so that watering circles can be adjusted efficiently to help plants get the nutrient solution they need and the excess solution runoff is kept at a barest minimum.4
N.F.T (Nutrient Film Technique)
In this nutrient film technique, plants are well-positioned on a floating surface that hangs in a slightly tilted trough.5
The plants are positioned upright with the plant root hanging alongside the upper section of the root system that is exposed to air. The bottom part of the root is immersed in the nutrient-rich water solution.
This system works by pumping the nutrient-rich water solution into the trough at the upper end, which then flows past the other root systems and then back into the reservoir.
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How Does Vertical Hydroponics Work?
Vertical hydroponic farming system is a space-saving technique that utilizes multiple layers of growing trays arranged orderly in stacks to grow food in urban areas.
Hydroponic is a growing system in vertical farming that involves growing plants in a soilless nutrient solution. The plant roots immersed in the nutrient solution are often monitored to ensure the right chemical composition is maintained.6
In a hydroponic vertical system, plants arranged in layers are supplied with enough nutrient-rich solution through a scheduled feeding routine. The system supplies fresh water to plants which comes from a reservoir tank. The fresh water gets pumped into a Fertigation machine to allow it mix with other fertilizers before it’s supplied into the feed solution.
With the help of the pump, the nutrient water solution is evenly distributed to every plant in the hydroponic system. The plants will receive enough nutrients by absorbing the nutrient solution in the water supply.
The nutrient solution in the water supply boosts plant growth for fresh farm produce. To boost crop health, adequate irrigation and feed formulas must be prioritized.
A vertical farm with a single crop type will only have one crop in the vertical farm with a nutrient recipe.
However, in a situation where there are several plants and different requirements, different zones will be required. Every zone will be specifically connected to a separate water line and feed formula.
Each solution in the system will be allocated to feed the specific plant to boost productivity. The plants will be arranged in netted pots and slightly tilted to allow water to seep in through plant roots.
The Importance of Hydroponic Farming
Vertical hydroponic is an advanced farming technique of growing plants by only using a water-based nutrient solution instead of soil. It’s a crop production system commonly found in urban areas and used by small farmers and commercial enterprises.7
As the world’s population is expected to rise to over 9 billion by 2050, food production must also increase to at least 70% to feed the growing population.
Traditional agriculture may not be sufficient to provide the required food supply to feed future generations. A major drawback of traditional agriculture is the excessive use of resources.
There is an issue with climate change as more farmlands are hit with drought. Efforts made to genetically and chemically improve crop production have already been pushed to the limit.
There is also a concern regarding the increased number of fertilizers and synthetic pesticides used to prevent the destruction of crops by pests. The search for fertile land and increased demand for food is creating more deforested areas.
Vertical farming offers a solution to minimize land use and utilize smaller spaces in urban areas to grow crops.
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Factors affecting traditional agriculture (onion production in Nueva Ecija)
Several factors are affecting traditional. The province of Nueva Ecija in the Philippines is known for its onion production which is threatened by pest infestation, importation and smuggling.
In Nueva Ecija, about 3,000 hectares of onion plants were affected by armyworms. This caused a decline in productivity. Other factors affecting the production of crops in the region include the prolonged rainy season, the emergency of insects causing a decline in harvest, and farmers losing their market share due to the influx of imported onion.8
The decline in onion production in Nueva Ecija requires an advanced system of farming. However, there aren’t enough researchers applying the new technology of to make onion production viable. Adopting vertical farming would have made the difference in solving the problem of onion production in Nueva Ecija.
Another country affected by climate change and in search of fertile land for agriculture is Mexico. Most of the Central and Northern regions of Mexico are regions where water is scarce.
This is quite concerning looking at the fact that the country’s population is expected to reach 150.8 million by 2050. Having more drought-affected areas will affect food production and an increased search for fertile land.
As more land is required for cultivation, this will lead to deforestation, changes in land use and vegetation cover, and increased pressure on the earth’s natural resources and ecosystems.9
However, Mexico has adopted hydroponic agriculture in recent years. Several medium and low-tech greenhouse growers in the country are still struggling with problems like pest presence like nematodes, and arthropods as well as diseases.
Conclusion
A hydroponic farming system is a space-saving advanced farming method suited for urban areas generally with limited space. Hydroponic farming is artificially controlled to create the perfect growing conditions for plants.
It’s a more technologically advanced farming system that uses water-based solutions to grow plants instead of soil.
Sources
- Kheir Al-Kodmany: “The Vertical Farm: A Review of Developments and Implications for the Vertical City.” 2018. ↩︎
- Gayatri Bhargava: “Future Prospects of Vertical and Hydroponic Farming.” 2022. ↩︎
- National Park Service: “Hydroponics: A Better Way to Grow Food.” ↩︎
- PowerHouse Hydroponics: Basic Hydroponic Systems and How They Work ↩︎
- ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture: “Vertical Farming.” ↩︎
- Princeton University: “THE FUTURE OF FARMING: HYDROPONICS” ↩︎
- National Agricultural Library, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE: “Hydroponics.” ↩︎
- Marilou P. Pascual et al: “Vertical Farming Using Hydroponic System: Toward a Sustainable Onion Production in Nueva Ecija, Philippines.” ↩︎
- José De Anda and Harvey Shear: “Potential of Vertical Hydroponic Agriculture in Mexico.” 2017. ↩︎