MUMBAI, 17 October 2017 : Among technologies that can potentially influence the future of agriculture and seed industry, hydroponics is one of the most exciting. The fact that hydroponics is prominently featuring in recent seed conferences in Netherlands is an indication of the potential and importance of the technology.

Hydroponics is the cultivation of plants by placing the roots in liquid nutrient solutions rather than in soil (soilless growth of plants and without conventional soil). It uses artificial means to support and nutrient solutions to provide the required nutrition to plants. (Picture shows salad greens grown by hydroponics.)ii Based on the way the solution is delivered, there are number of sub-types within the broad term of hydroponics iii . A synthesis of the pros and cons of hydroponics is summarized in the adjacent illustration Figure 1. Iv