Abstract:
There is a rising attraction in hydroponics because it can be used in nonconventional locations like inside warehouses, marginal lands and water scarce areas.
The water use of hydroponic production has been collated with of geoponic
production with the example of tomato production in the northern part of
Pakistan.The geoponic data are obtained from the field adjacent to the hydroponic
farm house Abbottabad.The geoponic data has been equated with hydroponic data of
tomato production obtainedby adopting the engineering equations and compared with
literature values. Yields of tomato in a greenhouse unit with size of (2950 ± 100sqm)
having 7500 plants of 12.5 ± 0.5 kg/sqm/crop have water demands of 5.41 ± 0.55
L/kg/crop (±S.D). When compared with geoponic production,the yieldobserved1.04 ±
0.06 kg/sqm/cropfor water demands of 449.48 ± 89.89 L/kg/y. Hydroponics offered
83.08 ± 8.25 L/Kg/crop times less water requirement with 11.80 ± 0.26 kg/sqm/crop
times higher yields compared to geoponically produced tomato. To the authors’
apprehension, it is the first quantifiable comparison of geoponic and hydroponic
production with the example of tomato grown in northern Pakistan. The construction
of hydroponicsheds system requires hard work, and care and initial investments.It is
recommended that this system can be selected as a step to produce the food crops to
meet the exhaustive demands and to handle the water scarcity particularly in attractive
regions for hydroponic farming.
