Hydroponics and Climate Change – Currently, cities all over the world cover only the area covering of Earth’s is 3%, but contribute for 60 to 80% usage of energy, carbon pollution 75%, and 56% of population (World Bank, 2018). Population growth is likely to be concentrated in cities, with an increase of 2.5 billion in urban dwellers by 2050 compared to a more modest increase of 2.1 billion for the globe as a whole (United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects, 2018). Natural growth, migration to urban areas from rural areas, and re-classification, the spatial expansion of the urban areas at the cost of rural entities through transformation and annexation, are all major contributors to urban population growth (United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects, 2018).
Agriculture is being put in a difficult position due to migration and reclassification because it must compete with thriving urban areas for water, soil, and human resources in order to not only increase food production while decreasing labor and land, but also to combat change in climate on all fronts, including the preservation of habitats, the protection of endangered species, and the maintenance of biodiversity. Actually, the strain on agriculture as the main element of the supply food chain is extremely substantial. Nonetheless, agriculture in open-field is still widely employed all around the world, although the thousands of acres condensed, unsuitable for farming because of water scarcity, soil degradation, and climate change by chemical fertilizers and pesticides (Zárate, 2014).
Due this condition the result is driven by a increasing food demand in lockstep with expansion of population, agriculture wants to make significant and drastic strides towards sustainability and efficiency, by the use of technology not merely for the sake of innovation, but to better and answer the genuine consumer needs (De Clercq et al., 2018). Since development in urban areas looks to be unabated, it makes sense to contain peri-urban and urban regions as the part of the efforts of 2050 to feed the globe with affordable, sustainably and good quality food products.
Producing livestock and crops goods to supply the local areas population, comprising around the cities peri-urban agricultural areas, is what is known as urban agriculture, which is integrated into the ecological system and urban economics in the urban settlements areas where limited space and use of vegetative land are difficult to sustain (Lin et al., 2015). Urban agriculture (UA) systems have the potential to improve environmental and social outcomes for urban areas, such as reduced environmental impact and increased food security (Armanda et al., 2019).
This method of farming has the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing the use of water and fertilizer and by increasing crop yield in areas affected by drought and extreme temperatures.
To keep up with the rising demand for nutritious, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible food, farmers in areas where water and arable land are in short supply are adopting intensive, high-yield farming technologies and methods such as hydroponics. By 2028 (GVR, 2021) it is predicted that Europe and Asia Pacific will be the locations where the most tomatoes will be grown using hydroponics. Hydroponics, in comparison to conventional farming, can increase yield by making use of the vertical space above the growing medium as well as the horizontal space below it. This effectively increases the number of plants/unit area, and this trend toward vertical farming is motivated by the need to satisfy the daily consumer demand for healthy, freshly grown food in and around highly populated regions.
Moreover, hydroponics make it feasible to harvest numerous crop plant all over the year, without disorderly release of either fertilizers or pesticides to surrounding environment, and utilizing less water and space than conventional open-field agriculture. In fact, hydroponics improves the chemicals and water use to get rid of potentially harmful residuals and waste (van Delden et al., 2021) by employing equipped smart greenhouses with multiple technologies to regulate important parameters for proper physiology of plant. Various sensors, software, mobile applications and web platforms allow for climate, lighting, and irrigation to be precisely managed in commercial hydroponics facilities of today.
Due to these technical improvements, hydroponics’ industry is predicted to increase rapidly from 2021-2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.7% from 2021 to 2028 (GVR, 2021). Hydroponics can offer partial resolution to the limitations of conventional open-field system of agriculture, which include significant assistance to the release of CO2 and the decline of cultivable-land because of antiquated, un-ecological practices. Nevertheless, feeding the population of world’s by the landmark year 2050 is not the only concern of issue.
The 1st step towards achieving 2050 human-food requirements is to hold sustainability in the all vital activities of human, agriculture is one of them. Goal 11 of 2030 Agenda the United Nations’ for Sustainable Development focuses on creating sustainable cities and communities, and hydroponic stands out as a suitable, sustainable alternative to modern open-field agriculture. The protracted hydroponics practice is crucial for UA, and the game-changer in the food business supply chain, the betterment of the environment and society welfare; yet, to reach its full potential, it needs to grow into the domain of small- and medium scale production.
To meet the demands of local consumers or self-consumption, it is necessary for both technicians and producers to have a firm grasp of hydroponics’ fundamentals in order to design and implement effective solutions. However, agriculture’s impact on human society and population growth has been dramatic from the time it was first developed over 10,000 years ago to the present day (Kremer, 1993). Despite changes in plant physiology, agricultural processes have remained fundamentally same, embracing incremental advances in technological, machinery and fertilizers, equipment, insecticides, and various other chemicals to boost output (Dimitri and Effland, 2020). Due to catastrophic soil degradation and low yields, new and sustainable food production methods are urgently needed. In this century, academia and industry have collaborated to identify the most pressing issues facing the agro-industrial sector, and to devise innovative solutions that will aid in the advancement of agriculture toward efficiency and sustainability by fostering greater communication and cooperation among the relevant scientific disciplines.
The preceding research concludes that hydroponic farming has the potential to mitigate climate change in a number of different ways. As a first advantage, it conserves water by reusing it within the system rather than letting it evaporate. Secondly, it avoids the need for artificial fertilizers and pesticides, which can contaminate the surrounding soil and water. Finally, hydroponic farming reduces both carbon emissions and deforestation because it does not necessitate the clearing of land. Since hydroponic farming requires far less water and no chemical fertilizers or pesticides, it can help mitigate climate change.
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