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The World Wide Commercial hydroponics

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Commercial hydroponics facilities have appeared all over the world, many countries like US, Israel, Nicaragua and many others have invested a lot in commercial hydroponics because of the economical advantages soilless agriculture has. For example Israel invested so much in commercial hydroponics due to the fact that the country has a real shortage of water, so it is much easier to feed the root of the plants directly then losing a precious quantity of water directly in the soil.

What other countries use commercial hydroponics? And why?

Nicaragua is another country that has successfully adopted this type of agriculture, they imported the technologies from Israel, and now they produce more than 125 million pounds of pepper with the help of commercial hydroponics; most of the pepper goes to US as export, bringing an important revenue to Nicaragua. US has the largest commercial hydroponics facility in Willcox, Arizona where a surface of 256 acres is producing more than 125 million pounds of tomatoes, though the crops are not labeled as organic they have the very appreciated quality of being free of pesticides. The difference from organic products is that the latter require 100% natural soil. Their price is higher but many people are willing to pay it. The soil requirement for labeling a product as organic is not a must-be-mentioned element in every state, so it is very possible to find vegetables produced in a commercial hydroponics facility that are branded as organic products.

Using commercial hydroponics saves a huge amount of water, the amount of water needed will be reduced twenty times. Hence the solution was easily accepted and implemented by countries with an arid climate. Another great advantage is that in a greenhouse using commercial hydroponics methods everything is controlled at the maximum: temperature, humidity, light, pH levels, whereas with growing seasons there are a number of parameters that can be adjusted by simply clicking a button. For this very reason many companies and countries invested in this new agricultural technique, because it can produce crops where nature can’t. Lettuce is known to be one of the best crops that can be grown with the help of commercial hydroponics, farmers say that the water consume has been diminished with 90% while the production is rising.

Are commercial hydroponics a solution for the future?

Commercial hydroponics is one of the solutions that allows farmers to avoid the use of pesticides and other chemicals that diminish the benefit of green food. Thus they reduce the risk of getting health problems associated with food chemicals. Though commercial hydroponics can’t be compared with traditional agriculture when the soil is fertile, it can offer the solution of healthy crops in impossible places like Antarctica, the Spatial Station, or any other desert areas on the globe.