SOILLESS CULTIVATION, ITS VARIOUS TYPES AND APPLICATIONS IN AGRICULTURAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR
Khushwant Singh, Gunjan Gupta and Rajesh Ghangal*
ABSTRACT
Soil a natural resource, has been facing the burnt of human civilization.
Due to rapid explosion of human population, the agricultural land has
shrank and the per capita land availability for agricultural purposes
have decreased. Less rainfall due to change in climatic conditions and
over utilization of under-ground water has further escalated this
problem. Soil also poses serious limitations in plant growth as many
nematodes, disease causing organisms, poor drainage and degradation
due to erosion reduces the crop productivity. Therefore, soilless
cultivation of plants seems to be a good alternative to overcome these
challenges. To meet the demands of growing population, soilless
cultivation is being considered to be the major thrust area in agriculture
sciences. Growing of medicinal plants in soilless culture system will
allow growers to market very high quality products (high purity and
bioactivity), year around, in a pesticide free environment thereby
paving the way for pharmaceutical industry. Looking at the initial cost for setting up soilless
culture system, under developed countries are not able to harness the benefits of this
technique. Moreover the skilled manpower is also lacking due to poor dissemination of
knowledge. There is a lot of scope to project soilless culture system at world level by
conducting workshops, seminars and training to the farmers and gardeners.
Keywords: Soilless culture system, Hydroponics, Aeroponics, Agriculture, Floriculture, Medicinal plants.
[Full Text Article]