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Role Of Technology In Agriculture
Literature of hydroponics
The role of technology in agriculture
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Introduction
Traditional farming
Agriculture has been essential for sustaining life and we are constantly improving technology to increase food production. There have been agricultural technology with concerning issues but the invention of new technology is not necessarily a threat to the environment. Modern agriculture has made a significant impact on environmental enhancement. The demand for food has been increasing throughout the world in direct correlation to the population increasing. Technological advances in food production have been abundant all over the world to minimize this matter. Different methods of farming have strayed from the traditional system of soil based farming. New techniques of farming have been developed through a controlled environment. This particular method is hydroponics, which eliminates from the pest and disease infested soil-based cultivation. This optimal approach for plant production is providing a controlled environment for plants to be maintained in a carefully managed system.
History
Hydroponics is not a new concept. This agricultural technique has revolutionized from before the pyramids. The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt enjoyed fruits and vegetables grown hydroponically. In 600 B.C., one of the Seven Wonders of the World, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, was in fact a hydroponic garden.1 King Nebuchadnezzar II built gardens that grew on the roofs and terraces of the royal palace.
This [hydroponics] method of plant cultivation dates back to the 1600s when an Englishman named John Woodward grew spearmint in several kinds of water.2 Woodward discovered plants grew better in water that contained small amounts of soil or suspended solids.
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... and Agriculture. Rome, 2001.
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Haile, Ramon Lynn. The Economics of Hydroponic Vegetable Production in an Environmentally Controlled System, vol 39. Tarzana: AAS Publications, 1976.
Jensen, Merle H. Controlled Environment Agriculture in Deserts, Tropics, and Temperature Regions – A World Review. University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center. Tucson: 26 March 2001.
http://ag.arizona.edu/ceac/research/archive/ceawr_pe.htm#abs
Johnson, Hunter Jr. Soilless Culture of Greenhouse Vegetables. Davis: Vegetable Research and Information Center. http://vric.ucdavis.edu/veginfo/topics/ hydroponics/hydroponics.pdf
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. Springfield: G & C Merriam Company, 2003.
Resh, Howard M. Hydroponic Food Production. 5th ed. Santa Barbara: Woodbridge Press
Publishing Company, 1997.
As Jensen points out, farming and industry accounts for the vast majority of total water usage in the world (477). The increasingly scarce resource is a necessary ingredient when growing food. Technology continuously improves to make it easier for farmers to grow crops while using less water. Scientists at the University of Georgia utilize what they term “variable rate irrigation” to let farmers automate the current systems of irrigation to water only the crops that need it (Gies). This is an example of retrofitting current farms, but there is a new way of farming coming to cities that reuses practically all of its water and stakes claim much less acreage in the process. The future of agriculture belongs to vertical and urban farming. These types of farms reduce the use of water, chemicals (such as pesticides, herbicides and fungicides), soil and space (The Economist). These farms are so cutting edge that they are mostly in the experimental stages. Firms like Famgro farms are testing “stackable” farming systems that can scale with demand, even further reducing waste. Famgro’s stackable farms are ideal for cityscapes where land is at a premium; furthermore, reaping the added benefit of being in close proximity to the customers that they serve. Customers will enjoy high quality, fresh produce at only a slightly
Smith, Kitty. "Harmony Between Agriculture and the Environment". Economic Research Division, USDA. Available online at http://www.ers.usda.gov. Accessed November 9, 2003.
In 1978, Lawrence Brooke founded General Hydroponics. What was Brooke’s inspiration for his first hydroponic system? Simply, it was a mountain stream and the thriving plants beside it that encouraged him to build his first prototype.
Long before it was known as aquaponics, the system itself was practiced by the Aztec Indians dating back as far as 1000 A.D. They achieved this by raising plants on rafts on the surfaces of lakes. However, in modern times, aquaponics emerged from the aquaculture industry because fish farmers started experimenting
By implementing new farming techniques provided with the new technological advances in machines we can see abundant harvest in even the poorest third world countries. For example, the Green Revolution has already showed admirable progress in the northern part of India ever since it took start in 1950. By 1997, northern India increased its grain production by 37 percent. This has proven that traditional farming methods are being rendered obsolete. And because by the year 2000, there will be half the land per person in developing countries as there was in 1970, we need to apply ultra-efficient methods to sustain the growing need. Not only does the Green Revolution enhances food output, it also preserves the environment.
Although there may be various disadvantages such as diseases, time consummation and many more, with the proper care the results of hydroponic farming may be propitious. For example, in a report from “Fresh Plaza” entitled “New report on Hydroponic Crop Farming in the U.S” states, “During the five years to 2013, revenue for the Hydroponic Crop Farming industry has maintained positive growth, indicating that the recession had a minimal effect on industry operators. Over the five-year period, a growing number of individuals shifted to healthy eating and consuming organic produce, resulting in high demand. In addition, extreme weather conditions damaged many crops for fresh field farmers, so grocery stores and farmers markets quickly turned to hydroponic farmers to meet their demand.” (IBIS). How can hydroponics revolutionize the future of the world? Hydroponics has been a lifestyle for many, it has changed the way people have farmed. For example, Hydroponic farming has already started booming in Japan in an article of NewsWeek “TO FEED HUMANKIND, WE NEED THE FARMS OF THE FUTURE TODAY” it states, “Aeroponics, a companion technology to hydroponics, has taken off in Japan and is helping high-tech greenhouses produce
Growing food with Aquaponics is more efficient than growing food the traditional soil garden way. In a typical soil garden, growers end up spending hours of their time doing back breaking work on their garden, but not anymore, with Aquaponics the need for any tilling, digging, or weeding is eliminated. Aquaponics combines Aquaculture (Raising fish in tanks), and Hydroponics (Growing plants without soil). The outcome is a working system that provides plants with all the nutrients they need, while using a minimum of space, effort, water, fertilizers, and pesticides. Aquaponics allows farmers to use up to 90% less water than normal farming would use, so instead of watering your soil and having the majority of your water either lost by run off or evaporated by the sun, the water is recycled repeatedly through the system saving farmers hundreds of dollars on their monthly water bills. Also when growing with Aquaponics, much more food can be produced in a smaller space, in some cases growers have produced around twenty times the amount of produce in the same area a soil garden would. In addition, with the closed, controlled environment of the system, the need for the use of any pesticides a basically eliminated. Finally, Aquaponics enables growers to grow bigger, better and more quality produce.
Aquaponics is the combination of both aquaculture, which is fish farming, and hydroponics, which is farming without the use of soil. In aquaponics, plants form a symbiotic relationship with fish allowing for fish to get nutrients from plants, and plants get a supply clean water from the fish. With aquaponics, the plants and fish can grow faster than average due to naturally fortified water from the fish, and nutrient-rich water from the plants. Aquaponics also allows for two types of farming happening at the same time, fish and plants, if the system the fish are in is large enough. Furthermore, aquaponics allows for plants to grow anywhere, without arable land. Many countries are not able to meet the demand for food because of the climate or
Since aquaponics reuses the water in the framework, we can develop in dry seasons and regions with little water.
As the global population continues to rise, the amount of food needed to feed the people will increase as well. Two types of agriculture systems have been the backbone for crop production for decades if not centuries: conventional and organic agriculture— both methods could not be any more different. Conventional agriculture, a method that uses synthetic chemical pesticides, technologies or additives, and practices that are unsustainable is the leading producer for our food. On the other side of spectrum, organic agriculture generally, performed in a much smaller scale, does not use synthetic chemicals and utilize methods that are environmentally sound. Most conventional
14. T.L. Thompson et al., “Subsurface Drip Irrigation and Fertigation of Broccoli,” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., vol. 66, pp 178-185, Jan, 2002.
Improvements in the socio-economic patterns in India, China, Brazil and few other developing countries have opened new channels & opportunities for precision agriculture in these countries (Mondal, P. and Basu, M., 2009)”. India is a land of agriculture with large numbers of crops cultivated and the major pulses like wheat, pulses, rice, cotton, maize within top 10 in the world. However, when you take into consideration the ranking on quality wise it does not reach high. Although crops are being grown in India, The ratio of fertilizers used per area and the nutrition needs of the plants are not met. It is almost 3-5 times lesser to what is used in developed countries. With PA, you can achieve this needs of the plants, but studying the crop, soil and terrains. With the recent advancement in ISRO (Indian Satellite Research Organization) launching GPS and the IT revolution has changed the Indian environment making inroads for new scopes in farm sectors. There is also a misinterpretation that these technologies cannot be used in small scale farms. There are few technologies like chlorophyll meter (SPAD) and leaf colour chart (LCC) hand held portable devices to determine the timing of crop and the nutrient content. Government has been supportive in encouraging growers in small community to use GIS systems, and internet to understand the
Agriculture is one of the most ancient forms of art and science that ties human development and well-being to natural resources and ecosystems. (Fritz J. Häni, 2007) Sustainable Agriculture is the production of food, fibre, plant and animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities and animal welfare. (Sustainable Agriculture - The Basics, 2015) Sustainable agriculture is an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site – specific application that over the long term will:
The first people that started to depend on farming for food were in Israel and Jordan in about 80000 B.C.. Farming became popular because people no longer had to rely on just searching for food to get their food. In about 3000 B.C. Countries such as Egypt and Mesopotamia started to develop large scale irrigation systems and oxen drawn plows. In about 500 B.C. the Romans started to realize that the soil needed certain nutrients in order to bare plants. They also realized that if they left the soil for a year with no plants, these important nutrients would replenish. So they started to leave half of a field fallow (unplanted). They then discovered that they could use legumes, or pulses to restore these vital nutrients, such as nitrogen, to the soil and this started the process known as rotating crops. They would plant half the field one year with a legume...
Hydroponics, literally meaning “water working”, is the method of growing plants in solution comprised of water with all the essential nutrients required by the plants to grow and thrive.(Resh) Due to the very nature of the system, soil cannot be used, the fine particles that it contains clog up the system too easily and the trace minerals in it can upset the carefully managed nutrient and pH levels. The practice of growing plants hydroponically has been done for many years, one of the earliest instances of hydroponically grown plants was during World War II. Small islands in the Pacific that were used as fuel stop for planes making the long journey sometimes grew vegetables in mineral water to supplement their rations. (Donaldson) Interest in hydroponics continued somewhat after the war but never on a large scale because of the large and expensive concrete structures that were required at the time. The real jump in hydroponic interest came about with the new advances in plastics.Now the materials that previously had to be made of glass or metal could now be made quickly for a much smaller price. Because of this, greenhouses began springing up all across the country and with some of them even sporting a hydroponic system. Since then, a large percentage of greenhouse grown vegetables are being grown hydroponically.