In India nearly 33% of the Total geographical area ( TGA ) is affected by soil degradation. This means we are losing our fertile farming land. Nearly 109 million hectares of land is facing declining soil quality. The focus of agricultural scientists nutritionists engineers and environmental experts has been to help farmers adopt sustainable farming practices. Sustainable farming aims to produce food that is healthy for humans with minimum negative impact on the environment. The term hydroponics is derived from the Greek words hydro that is water, and ponos that is labour or toul. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants in a nutrient rich water solution instead of soil (figures 1.1 and 1.2 ) . Plants in a hydroponics unit receive nutrients directly from the water solution allowing the farmer to ensure that they receive the precise amount. Therefore it is also referred to as a precision farming technique. You can have multistorey ( vertical ) farming in hydroponics to utilise vertical space and produce more food in less space. Similarly recirculating ( reusing ) water and fertilisers controlling climatic parameters like temperature humidity and light for photosynthesis and maximizing plant growth is possible in hydroponics for example, the hydroponics unit could be placed in a polygouse hydroponics is also used for growing crops in cities which is known as urban farming.
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