One fine morning, I came across an article that said someone in a metro city in India is operating his farm using his mobile sitting 40kms away. It made me wonder if I am lagging behind or has the tech-world taken the sixth gear overnight. It made me curious. It was then that I learned about a method where plants grow in water without the need of soil. It’s called hydroponics. Exactly the way money plants grow in bottles inside our houses.
Having grown up seeing plants and trees rooted in mother earth it was fascinating to learn about this revolutionary technique that solves multiple purposes. One, it is a sustainable practice; there is hardly any use of chemicals and almost no residue. Two, though it grows in water but consumes up to 90% less water. Three, it can grow fresh fruits and vegetables where soil conditions are not suitable for conventional farming. Which makes fresh supply possible round the year!
To my surprise, it is not a new invention. Rather, an age-old technology! This time-tested technology triggered me to an extent that on present day I have my own little hydroponic farm in the city of Coimbatore, India, where we grow such flavourful green leafy vegetables that taste so much better than the ones we get in the market. Well, it may seem that I am trying to sell my products to you, but that is not the case. Growing in a water based nutrient-rich mixture, these leaves indeed taste a lot different.
Anyway, coming back to where we started from; how do we work remotely? One among the different systems of hydroponic agriculture is using the NFT channels in which the plants grow on pipe-like structures in a controlled and protected environment. There are various parameters such as pH, EC, TDS, temperature etc that need to be at a desired level for the proper functioning of this system.
Now, a programmed app can be designed to monitor these parameters on a real-time basis. Administrating the same is the primary function at a green-house farm like such. This is how the Gentleman in the article was operating his farm using his smartphone sitting 40km!
Well, this way hydroponically grown plants get a healthier environment and grow to up to be highly nutritious, tasteful, aromatic and all things wonderful! This talk has led me to drool and feel hungry. I will go grab some tasty salad from our farm and come back with more soon, stay tuned!
