Vol. 11, Special Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Anju Jayachandran, Shikha Jain, Shikha Saini, Poonam Maurya, Subhashree Subhasmita, Kuldeep Kumar Shukla and Bhargav Kiran

Abstract:
By 2050, the world population is projected to reach 9.8 billion people, which raises serious concerns about the global food security. At the same time, farming land is expected to decline alarmingly and fertile soils will disintegrate due to urbanization, industrialization and climate change. Furthermore, the production of crops is hampered by various biotic and abiotic stresses, which result in great economic loss in conventional agriculture. Therefore, in order to overcome the current situation and to ensure the future, it becomes vital to develop novel technologies in combination with specialized production techniques. Hydroponics is one such technique that could be adopted to address the above-mentioned challenges. It not only restores the cultivated land, but recycles 85-90 percent of irrigation water, grows almost every vegetable successfully with high yield and nutritional value. Hence, it can be considered as a component to overcome the threat to global food security. The implementation of this technology can, however, be hastened by government action and research institute interest.