Hydroponic Vegetable Production in Times of Rapid Urbanization

• Nov 01
• Admin
• 3

Vegetables are required in every household on daily basis, their availability in times of rapid urbanization and shrinking of arable land around the cities has posed a challenge with respect to their sustained availability. Hydroponic or soilless production system therefore addresses most of the issues related to assured supply of vegetables in the urban areas. Fortunately, performance of vegetables under hydroponic system is excellent and many batches of produce can be raised in short duration of time due very fast growth of vegetables in the hydroponic set ups. This is essentially so because most vegetables especially leafy vegetables are short duration, annual and small rooted suiting very well for growing in pure nutrient solution or in inert media, where nutrient solution may be recirculated. Furthermore, hydroponic a progressive technique is well adapted to vertical farming thus unleashing the scope for utilizing vertical space in urban locale. Besides leafy vegetables, tomato and pepper grown under hydroponic system are most in demand in the urban areas, this is especially so for coloured capsicums and various types of tomatoes. However, fruit vegetables are relatively long duration and tall growing with bigger root system compared to leafy vegetables, therefore, a non-recirculating type of hydroponic system with the use of inert substate may be more suitable for production of fruit vegetables hydroponically. School of Hydroponics of the Institute of Horticulture Technology provides end to end trainings and demonstrations at its state-of-the-art hydroponic facilities on production of hydroponic vegetables leading to establishment and operationalization of successful hydroponic vegetable production systems by the entrepreneurs and beginners.