Developed by Dr V P Sethi, head of the division of mechanical engineering at Punjab Agricultural College, the Hybrid Hydroponics Know-how combines each two varieties hydroponics techniques to considerably scale back water wastage.
The Punjab Agricultural College (PAU) was just lately within the information for growing and patenting the primary indigenous Hybrid Hydroponic Know-how (HHT) developed by Dr V P Sethi, the pinnacle of the division of mechanical engineering of the faculty. He says this know-how might scale back water wastage by 90%.
In a chat with The Higher India, Dr Sethi defined the advantages of the know-how, its applicability in real-time, and why there’s a want for such know-how sooner or later.
With the altering setting and world warming, the agricultural wants of an ever-growing inhabitants shall be onerous to fulfill with our present know-how. Scientists and agriculturalists from throughout the globe have been researching sustainable methods of accelerating meals manufacturing.
“A know-how like HHT is required for a lot of causes. I’ve travelled throughout nations just like the US, Canada, Japan and seen scientists working onerous to develop applied sciences for agricultural developments at dwelling. Nevertheless, India didn’t have [an indigenous] hydroponics know-how. Whereas there are startups which might be utilizing hydroponics, they’re largely exported by Israel or Japan,” he notes.
Growing the meals productiveness of India
A former scholar and a college college member, Dr Sethi has devoted almost three many years of his life to researching and growing sustainable applied sciences.
“After spending 5 years on analysis and growth with a really small staff of students and scientists from the Division of Botany, Chemistry, Soil and Vegetable Sciences, I used to be in a position to crack the code. Utilizing HHT helps in improved water and nutrient perforation and re-circulation techniques for pot-based substrate hydroponics,” he notes.
Born in 1968 in Ludhiana, Punjab, Dr Sethi did his bachelor’s in Agriculture Engineering and his grasp’s in Mechanical Engineering. It was throughout his postdoctoral fellowship within the US that Dr Sethi met with a Korean professor Dr Chiwong Lee, who labored within the area of growing hydroponics.
“He was engaged on the varied substrates that can be utilized in hydroponics and located it very intriguing. I made a decision to come back again to India and develop our personal hydroponics system. I returned to the college and advised them about my thought of growing a Hybrid Hydroponics system,” he says.
It took Dr Sethi almost 5 years to totally develop the HHT system and develop greens utilizing it, and one other 5 to get the patent rights, which he and PAU obtained in November 2021.
What’s HHT and the way does it work?
There are two sorts of hydroponics — water-based and substrate-based. Dr Sethi’s hybrid know-how merges the 2 to make use of the perfect of each applied sciences.
“With seed cash of Rs 5,00,000 from the college, I began my analysis on growing the know-how. We developed a small greenhouse with a capability of 250 vegetation. It took me almost two years to totally develop the know-how and I examined it for an additional three years earlier than making use of for a patent proper,” he says.
The know-how took just a few hits and misses to grow to be what it’s as we speak, notes Dr Sethi. Whereas the idea of soil-less farming shouldn’t be unknown to us, what he seen was that the know-how makes use of water from reservoirs and passes it to the pots.
“The water that was not taken by the vegetation would go to waste.”
“In Hybrid Hydroponics Know-how, we save this water by utilizing the strategy of recirculation. We developed a porous plate between the pots. The decrease a part of the pot accommodates the shallow water pond and the higher a part of the pot carries the substrate. The plate between the 2 is the innovation because it carries equal strain at each the higher and decrease finish of the pot.”
This enables the roots to breathe and develop, and from the highest, they’d get ample oxygen.
“Within the recirculation mode, we might save about 90% water as we don’t enable even a drop to go to waste,” he informs.
Dr Sethi additionally sprays the required minerals and vitamins on the vegetation to make sure that the fruit is the perfect in high quality. “The newly-developed know-how underwent a rigorous two-year testing section by cultivating cucumber, tomato, and capsicum crops. By this experimentation, it was established that the know-how accelerated development and yielded larger produce in comparison with prevalent pot-based techniques just like the bato bucket (impressed by Dutch know-how) and develop bag-based techniques (non-recirculation sort, impressed by Israeli know-how) within the realm of soilless cultivation,” he provides.
“The strategy shouldn’t be labour intensive like conventional farming as it’s absolutely automated. We now have timers which might be set upfront that present and sprinkle required vitamins in line with the plant’s necessities.”
Making it accessible for native farmers
There have been just a few arguments that Dr Sethi introduced on the necessity for such a know-how in India.
“A very powerful cause is that there’s a lot of barren land in India that can be utilized for this function. Apart from, this know-how permits farmers and gardeners to develop meals anyplace — from a closed room to a small terrace,” he explains.
“This can even generate employment within the nation. Proper from a homemaker with a spare room in her home to an unemployed youth, anybody can simply use the know-how to develop vegetation with a bit of coaching. They will devour it and promote the surplus out there,” he says.
One more reason why Dr Sethi thinks the know-how is necessary is that it saves water. “Within the recirculation mode, with using HHT, we are able to save about 60 to 90% water relying on the plant,” he says.
As for making it accessible to the native farmers, he says that there are plans underway.
“There are lots of industries of hydroponics in India, however most of them import it from both Israel or China. This will increase the fee. What we’ve got created saves the fee by 3 times. If the fee is much less, the know-how mechanically turns into extra accessible. We’re additionally within the course of of constructing a handbook for farmers and different customers, and are additionally open to promoting its business rights to the trade to make it extra accessible,” he provides.
“I’ve travelled internationally and have seen farmers utilizing totally different modern applied sciences to develop meals. However this know-how of merging substrate and water-based shouldn’t be out there anyplace on the earth. I really feel very proud that I used to be in a position to develop it and we name it swadeshi (made in India).”
“India is a rustic of small land holdings and the know-how is particularly designed to accommodate small-scale farmers. Our motto is to concentrate on “sabka vikas” (growth for all) and this know-how does the identical.”
(Edited by Padmashree Pande)
