Hydroponics

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel, or mineral wool. There are both advantages and disadvantages of Hydroponics. The two chief merits of the soilless cultivation of plants are, first, much higher crop yields, and secondly, the fact that hydroponics can be used in places where ordinary agriculture or gardening is impossible. Thus not only is it a profitable undertaking, but one which has proved of great benefit to humanity. People living in crowded city streets, without gardens, can grow fresh vegetables and fruits in window- boxes or on house tops. By means of hydroponics all such places can be made to yield a regular and abundant supply of clean, health-giving greens. Not only town dwellers, but also country residents have cause to be thankful to soiless culture. Deserts, rocky and stony land in mountainous districts or barren and sterile areas can be made productive at relatively low cost. By hydroponics, crops will have a faster growth combined with reletive freedom from soil diseases and very consistent crops, the quality of produce being excellent. Singapore has always faced problems with farming like the lack of land and the absence of seasons. Singapore is very suitable for this kind of farming method as there is a considerable reduction in growing area, weeds are practically non-existent and automatic operations mean less labour, less cost, and no hard manual work. Some plants can be raised, out of season, better control of crops naturally results in addition to no dirt and no smells. However, the hydroponic conditions (presence of fertilizer and high humidity) create an environment that stimulates salmonella growth. Another disadvantage is pathogens attacks including damp-off due to Verticillium wilt caused by the high moisture levels associated with hydroponics and overwatering of soil based plants.

Aeroponics
Aeroponics is a system where roots are continuously or discontinuously kept in an environment saturated with fine drops (a mist or aerosol) of nutrient solution. The method
requires no substrate and entails growing plants with their roots suspended in a deep air or growth chamber with the roots periodically wetted with a fine mist of atomized nutrients. Excellent aeration is the main advantage of aeroponics. Aeroponics techniques have proved to be commercially successful for propagation, seed germination, seed potato production, tomato production, leaf crops and micro-greens. The limitation of hydroponics is the fact that 1 kg of water can only hold 8 mg of air, no matter if aerators are utilized or not. Another distinct advantage of aeroponics over hydroponics is that any species of plants can be grown in a true aeroponic system because the micro environment of an aeroponic can be finely controlled.

In the past, people used rice fields and paddy to grow their crops and the different kinds of food. However, there are seasons where the crops will grow. Some crops cannot grow in weather conditions where there is no rain and some must only be grown in cold weather or some in hot weathers. Due to these conditions, the crops that are produced will not be constant and the amount of crops produced will be lesser. The amount of land also affects the amount of crops produced by the different farmers in a year. When using traditional farming, the soil is fertile. After a period of planting and growing crops, the nutrients would all be used up by the crops and hence, turning into a piece of infertile land. This piece of land has to be abandoned and the farmers will have to find another piece of land to plant their crops. After 7 years or so, the soil will then gain back its nutrients and the farmers would be able to come back to grow crops. That is the reason why farmers have to move from place to place. This is very troublesome as the farmers has many farming tools and crops to carry along with them wherever they go.

Something bad about the traditional farming is the constraint of land used for farming and housing. As farming takes up lots of land, often calculated in Hectares(H), many people are not able to find a suitable spot for them to plant their crops because there are too many farmers using up the land. In a small farm, a farmer practices intensive farming where a farmer uses a lot of inputs per unit area. In a larger farm, a farmers practices extensive farming where the farmer uses fewer input per unit area. There are also two types of farming. They are low-tech farming and high-tech farming. Low-tech farming is a form of farming used by people living on remote hill slopes. The people use farming tools to help them with their farming. One example is shifting cultivation. High-tech farming is a form of farming used by modern countries in the 21st century. The people use advanced machinery and computer technology to help them grow the crops. The crops produced by this type of farming is of good quality and first grade.

To keep up with the 21st century, Singapore has decided to adopt the use of high-tech farming to reduce the use of land while keeping the the traditional farming going. Singapore has adopted two types of high-tech farming. They are Hydroponics and Aeroponics. These two types of farming are intensively used by Singapore. The agrotechnological parks produce high-quality fruits, vegetables, plants and flowers. There are a few benefits after Singapore adopted high-tech farming. In the past, traditional farming takes up huge lands. Today, the farms have been replaced by housing estates and MRT lines. The total area of farmland has decreased rapidly. Secondly, by using high-tech farming, farmers in Singapore have been able to produce good quality products at a reasonable price for the consumers to purchase them. Thirdly, Singapore government aims to have 20 percent of the crops eaten by the locals to be grown locally. This can increase the self sufficiency and decrease the amount of crops imported from other countries.

To conclude, Singapore can just rely on high-tech farming to be self-sufficient. To increase the possibility of this, Singapore can employ more people to learn the skills of high-tech farming so that more crops could be produced with more people doing the job. Singapore can also build more agrotechnological farms so that more crops can be produced to feed Singapore's population.