PILI, Camarines Sur—Even urban areas in the country can now produce in commercial scale high-quality vegetables and other agricultural crops through a revolutionary approach in farming called hydroponics.
This newly introduced urban-farming system is a potential approach to revitalize agriculture by fundamentally altering the manner of how crop is produced. This included eliminating the dependence of plants on soil by completely changing their growing medium.
The concept of hydroponics proves that soil is no longer crucial for the plant to thrive when the required mineral nutrients are artificially introduced into the plant’s water supply and plant roots absorb them, said Jose Dayao, the regional executive director for Bicol of the Department of Agriculture (DA) based here.
Dayao explained that hydroponics makes use of crafty facilities, and resource-efficient and cost-effective cultures and systems to allow the effective use of land, nutrient, water and labor in a comfortable and sanitary working condition.
It also permits the grower to exercise better control of weeds, pests and diseases and in modifying the plant’s diet, resulting in the larger yield of better-quality vegetables up to 10 times the yield of geoponically cultivated crops.
While some plants grow better than others, almost any terrestrial plant will grow hydroponically, a clean and safe horticulture technique that offers economic and healthy alternative to organic gardening, Dayao said.
In organic gardening, he added, growers rely on higher yield and longer period of harvest season to offset the increased cost of maintaining the system and greenhouse structure.
In hydroponics, the use of any growing medium is possible, but raising plants in a sterile growing medium with no reserved nutrients is advantageous. However, the choice is a question of economics and availability.
Rice hull, an agricultural waste abundant in most rice-producing regions of the country; and pumice, an extruded stone plentiful in lahar areas; and coco peat, a byproduct of the coconut industry, are better choices.
A system can also be designed as a recovery system that would ensure every plant gets the precise amount of water and nutrients it needs in exact doses at prescribed intervals.
Sweeter and larger fruits can be produced using a flow rate of 1 to 3 liters per hour and an application interval of 24 x 15 minutes per day. Recovery or recirculating systems guarantee tremendous savings in water and nutrients, Dayao said.
He said recent developments in the Central Luzon State University in the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, have proven that honeydew melon can be successfully cultured hydroponically using rice hull, pumice and coco peat as growing media with nutrient solution delivered by low-head submersible pumps powered by a low-cost automatic controller.
Under tropical greenhouse conditions, good-quality melon fruits were harvested about 70 days after seeding and increased the growing season to four per year. The system has 36 percent of the harvest to break even.
Hydroponics is still in its infancy in the Philippines as it is only practiced by hobbyists, businessmen, research-oriented institutions and universities for research purposes.
“Thus, promotion of this high-technology farming system in the country requires a concerted effort from the government, businessmen and technocrats,” the DA regional chief said.
Given preferential attention and top-priority advocacy, it can become a technical reality to produce yields never before realized and provide positive future to feed millions, he said.
Hydroponics was applied to rice farming in Japan several years ago when they converted an old and dilapidated train station into a progressive hydroponics system and were able to grow rice four times a year with harvest up to five times higher than the traditional way, he said.
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