Surinder Sud: A breakthrough in hydroponics

FARM VIEW

An Indian hobbyist has created a purely organic nutrient mixture for growing plants in water.

Although it is still an evolving science, hydroponic agriculture (growing plants in water solution rather than soil) is spreading fast the world over.

The nutritional requirement of the plants in this system of soilless farming is met by the nutrient mixtures, called hydroponics fertiliser mixtures, added to the water in which the plant roots are kept submerged. These mixtures are made of chemical plant nutrients.

A breakthrough has now been achieved by an Indian hydroponics hobbyist in creating a purely organic nutrient mixture for growing plants in water.

This wholly chemical-free plant growth solution has been tested successfully for growing several plants, including common vegetables like tomato and arbi and some high value medicinal plants like Brahmi, Arjun and Cineraria.

Indeed, a good deal of research is underway in this system of soilless farming in the US and Europe but not much headway has been made anywhere in organic hydroponics.

Of course, some hydroponics enthusiasts abroad have been experimenting with various kinds of organic manures and mixtures of plants, but successful and commercially viable organic hydroponics models are still not available. In fact, even globally accepted principles for certifying organic hydroponics products are also not yet available.

The success in this venture in India is claimed by a Delhi-based family headed by Vidya Shankar Singh. His daughter, Shweta Singh, a Delhi University botany student, has been assisting him in discovering and further improving the biofertiliser mixture for growing plants in ordinary water. "Though we normally call this biofertiliser an ayurvedic medicine for raising plants, we have also given it the name Shweta Anand Growth Solution", says Singh.

It costs only about Rs 30 to Rs 40 for producing one litre of this concoction, though it takes a long time of six to eight months to process it. This mixture, added to the water at the rate of just one millilitre per litre per week, takes care of the complete nutritional requirement of the plants.

Singh has also evolved another wholly plants-based mixture for spraying on the plants to boost their growth. He has named it Shweta Protonic mixture. He, however, is keeping the formula for making these mixtures a secret. Nor does he want to disclose the plants whose leaves are used in preparing them.

"I will work on it for a couple of years more before thinking of launching commercial production of this bio-fertiliser for hydroponics. However, if some government organisation, such as the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), comes forward, I am willing to cooperate with it in promoting organic hydroponics in India," he says.

The hydroponics garden that Singh is maintaining on the roof of his house near backside entrance of the Nizamudin railway station has several species of flowering plants, vegetables and medicinal plants. He believes that nearly 200 commercially important plants can be grown by hydroponics technique. But, surely, this technique cannot be applied to all plants. His attempts to grow horticultural plants like lemon and grapes have not been successful.

In India, the hydroponics system of farming was first attempted by an English scientist W J Shalto Duglas in a laboratory in Kligpong area of West Bengal in 1946. After his return to England in 1948, the scientific research work on it virtually stopped.

Globally, however, the chemical fertiliser mixture-based hydroponics is in vogue in several countries, especially in areas where either the climatic conditions or the poor soil quality prohibit normal crop cultivation. In British Columbia, the bulk of the greenhouse industry is now using hydroponics technology.

Various models of the hydroponics are in use for indoor as well as outdoor gardening and farming. Specialised cultivation techniques have also been evolved for growing vegetables in submarines to feed the crew members. It may soon also find its use in spacecrafts. The US space agency is reported to have begun experimenting growing plants in space.

In India, too, several tracts of wastelands having poor quality soil but plenty of water can be brought under hydroponics. All that will be needed is to create an impervious surface at the bottom and bunds to hold water.

The technology used for polythene lining of canals can come in handy for creating large hydroponic farms to grow food crops, vegetables and other plants.