Smart Agriculture for Smart City

There is no denying the fact that agriculture is the lifeline of all human development. From its inception by domestication of crops and animals some 12,000 years ago, agriculture has been one of the major fuels if not the most important, in advancing the never-ending engine of human civilization. From 16th to 19th century, development of modern agricultural practices like enclosure, crop rotation to maintain soil nutrient, mechanization and selective breeding help spark the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain which ultimately benefitted agriculture sector around the world by transforming farming from subsistence to commercial. Some major breakthroughs in 20th century like gasoline-powered agro-machineries, Haber-Bosch method for synthesizing ammonium nitrate, gene manipulation, hydroponics and automation are the base on which the ‘ultra-modern’ agriculture of future stands on. But can agriculture sustain the unmanaged urbanization?

Rainwater harvesting is gaining popularity in the urban areas with chronic shortage of water and so is the demand of fresh and organic food. Not to forget, land is limited or almost unavailable for farming. What if I want to grow crops especially vegetables commercially in a limited space I live in? Hydroponics! Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solution in a water solvent. Terrestrial plants may be grown with only their roots exposed to the mineral solution, or the roots may be supported by an inert medium, such as perlite or gravel. The advantage of hydroponics over traditional farming practice is the yield increases in hydroponics and harvesting period is effectively lowered resulting in more production in short duration of time.

In last few years, the trend of hydroponics especially as a way of urban farming has increased not just globally but even in Nepal too. Despite a significant initial investment required, the running cost of hydroponics system is low compared to other traditional farming methods attracting a wave of ‘urban farmers’. Growing crops in water, sci-fi it may sound and smart it may look, this farming method is not truly smart yet.

There is still a long way to travel before hydroponics system gets truly automated and the automated system reaches within the hands of a common farmer. As someone who is researching about hydroponics fodder in my college lab, I have faced many challenges to automate the complete system. The temperature and humidity of lab can be regulated, so can be the water flowing in the system. The pH of solution can be logged in automatically. The ratio of nutrient solution to be mixed with water in the tank of the system could be programmed too considering the nutrient consumption capacity of crop. And that’s it!

Automatic detection and calculation of the amount of nutrients (usually nutrients used are N, P, K, Ca and Mg) left in the mineral solution is still not possible, so is the automatic harvesting of crops grown in hydroponics system. Lack of these two much-required automations has resulted in the system requiring a regular human input which has hindered the system on being truly ‘smart’.

Hydroponics and Cuniculture

Cuniculture is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising domestic rabbits as livestock, usually for their meat, fur or wool. Even though it is a new kind agricultural practice for Nepal, but commercial rabbit farms have been established in many districts. The expanding interest of farmers on Cuniculture in Nepal is largely because of high value of rabbit meat in the market (over Rs. 800 per kg). Also rabbit meat has significant health benefits compared to meat of other animals.

The advantage of Cuniculture over other forms of animal husbandry is convenience and economic benefit. Rabbits are slightly larger than Layers chicken and less noisy too. They require less attention compared to poultry and other commercially-raised animals and feed largely on forage crops. They are raised in cages that can be kept in spare rooms or attic. And not to forget, the economic benefit of Cuniculture is huge. The supply of rabbit meat is not able to match the rising demand of it in Nepalese market.

As I mentioned, rabbits feed largely on forage crops which can be grown efficiently and economically in hydroponics system. A cycle of forage crop from plantation to harvesting period in hydroponics is usually 8 days which is significantly lower than in soil. A win-win situation!

Integration of hydroponics in Cuniculture could fuel an entire new generation of agro entrepreneurs!