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History Of Hydroponics Farming Has Seen No Rapid Developments Since Its Beginning
Looking at the history of hydroponics farming, one would find that its development has not seen any rapid increase and interest in this form of farming grew in the United States around the year 1925. Because of certain difficulties with replacing greenhouse soils at very close intervals and their high maintenance needs, there began to be conducted research to look for nutrient solutions as a good replacement for natural soil and this led to scientists coming up with aerated nutrient solutions and thus began the history of hydroponics farming.
Large Scale Production Of Crops
The next ten years saw a lot of development of this method so that it could be used in large scale production of crops. And, following the Second World War, there was a flowering of interest in the US southwest though without much success. When the advent of plastics took place some twenty years later, there was a renewed interest and the history of hydroponics farming took one more step forward. Plastics had a number of uses that made them very suitable to hydroponics farming and their importance was very evident when oil prices began to shoot up in the early seventies.
The next episode in the history of hydroponics farming took another twenty years in arriving with another renewed interest being shown in hydroponics farming, especially in those parts where there were environmental concerns regarding controlling groundwater pollution because of soil sterilants as well as nutrient waste.
As is evident from the history of hydroponics farming, it is yet a relatively nascent technology though it is progressing at a fair pace since its beginnings some seventy years ago. What began as academic research has later gone on to find use in industry as well as government, and today there are many applications related to hydroponics farming. The technology used in hydroponics is versatile and is equally applicable to developed, developing and under-developed countries.
There is hope yet that the history of hydroponics farming will go on to generate more efficient crop growing techniques even from barren sandy areas and also in desalinated ocean waters. It can be used in the mountains where slopes are so steep that farming is not otherwise possible, and it can also be used on a rooftop in the city and even on schoolyards made from concrete.
Thus, today the history of hydroponics farming has shown that it as now a reality that we have to contend with in which production systems can be used to produce horticultural crops, and with its own peculiar means of growing crops in a controlled environment, the history of hydroponics farming still has a long way to go. |
