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Aeroponics farming offers new promises

By M Saravanan | Express News Service | Published: 18th February 2017 01:05 AM |
Last Updated: 18th February 2017 06:09 AM | A+ A A- |

Aeroponics farming model at Sengodampalayam near Coimbatore | Express

COIMBATORE: Driven by the dire need for food and an all around drought-like situation in several
places with failing rains and a depleting water table, researchers have been trying various
methods of farming to increase crop yield with minimum investment and water requirement.

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A Coimbatore-based agri-engineering graduate K Prabhu Sankar, with the support of the Tamil
Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and a city-based agricultural technology developer, has
brought Aeroponics farming system for commercial crops, after a trial period of two years. They
claimed that after the US and European countries, this commercial type of Aeroponics farming is
the first initiative in the country.

Every day, 900 kg of vegetables of 18 varieties which include tomato, brinjal, ladies finger, beans,
carrot and potato, are produced using 30,000 sq ft space under the Aeroponics farming system
located at Sengodampalayam near here.

Aeroponics is a process of growing plants in an air and mist environment, without the use of soil.
The set-up would be housed inside a green house structure, with a state-of-the art refrigeration
system. A completely closed greenhouse with 40 per cent sunlight penetration, 60 per cent
sunlight diffusion, covered ground with mounted, automated pulse irrigation and automated
climate management are salient features.

Sankar had developed the Aeroponics system in 2013. After a study to standardise the farming
method for the climatic condition, he formulated procedural calculation in 12 parameters such as
room temperature, relative humidity, carbon-dioxide level, sunlight intensity, shadow effect, water
temperature, water nutrient and PH value in water.

“Around 6,000 litres of water would be enough to cultivate 900 kg of vegetables a day. Water
would be sprayed intermittently at the root of the crops the whole day. The crops absorb only
2,000 litres as a top up, and the remaining water would be recycled,” he said.

The net result is a 10-time higher yield from one unit area, which justifies the capital investment. “Though this
type of farming already exists in developed countries, we could not adopt them in our agricultural system
directly because of the variation in climatic conditions. It has taken almost two years for making the unit
functional,” he said.

He said the trial and error identification and mitigation of the same over the past two years in a big
commercial set-up has made the plan stronger. He also thanked the staff of the Agri Business
Development Cell of the TNAU for their support in rendering technological and funding assistance
in setting up the system at `55 lakh.

R Murugesan, Director of Agri Business Development of TNAU, said, “We have been giving
promotional support to them. Recently, we organised a conference with 35 business heads.”
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