India and hydroponicsFiled Under: gardening
Hydroponics did not reach India until 1946. In the summer of that year the first research studies were commenced at the Government of Bengal`s Experimental Farm at Kalimpong in the Darjeeling District. At the very beginning a number of problems peculiar to this sub-continent had to be faced. Even a cursory study of the various methods which were being practised in Britain and in America revealed how unsuited they were for general adoption by the public of India. Various physiological and practical reasons, in particular the elaborate expensive apparatus required, were sufficient to prohibit them.
A novel system, of which practicability and simplicity must be the keynotes would have to be introduced if hydroponics was to succeed in Bengal, or in fact ever to prove of widespread value to the people of this part of Asia. Careful appraisal of salient problems during 1946-1947 resulted in the development of the Bengal System of hydroponics, which represented an effort to meet Indian requirements.
One object guided all the experiments carried out; to strip hydroponics of it`s complicated devices and to present it to the people of India and the world as a cheap, easy way of growing vegetables without soil. Now in India, thousands of householders raise essential vegetables in simple hydroponic units on rooftops or in backyards, the Bengal System has far more than proved itself, as being useful in the most adverse conditions.
Why use hydroponics when we have plenty of land if we would only develop, and by means of better cultural practices, including manuring, improve it? And then the cry: But hydroponic yields are after all no better than those which could be obtained under ideal soil conditions!
Tags: hydroponics, hydroponics plant food, Plant Food, plant foods, plant nourishments, plant nutrition
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- HydroG
- 15 Jun 2010 10:55 PM
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