EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION IN FARMING -NATURAL FARMING, ORGANIC FARMING & CONVENTIONAL FARMING , HYDROPONICS, AQUAPONICS , AEROPONICS, MARSPONICS,PLUTOPONICS Etc.,
Primitive period ( Paleolithic era ) – nomadic people collected fruits , roots, tubers and seeds from natural vegetation which grows in natural set up without human intervention
Human being settled in one location ( Neolithic era ) – Learned the art of cultivation – collected seeds from natural vegetation , cleared forest around his settlement , sown seeds and reaped farm produce.As years passed , he noticed decline of yield . So he left the land and moved to new forest, cleared and cultivated – Shifting cultivation
Indus civilization – Human being learned the art of cultivation of food crops like paddy and wheat near by river course …The fertility of the land was recouped when the silt was deposited over the land during flood and inundation …
Sedentary cultivation (Rig vedic period )– When he domesticated animals , mainly cows , he tried cow dung and kitchen ashes to fertilize his field – Still called natural farming since he adjusted and sided with nature to produce his food without disturbing natural environment …
Human being started settling in one location – human settlement came up – population size started increasing-Forest land was cleared – cultivated – once when the fertility of the soil declined , human being started looking for ways to improve soil fertility by way of using green leaves collected from forest and nearby location , supplemented with cow dung , kitchen ashes to improve soil fertility and generally left the field fallow for certain period to regain soil health…Here human intervention started and yet he undertook farming without much disturbance to natural ecosystem …Also he used natural seeds and naturally available manures …
Then human population exploded like anything …Nature could not support food needs of alarmingly increasing population. Drought, flood ,hunger and low production and productivity caused much gap between demand and supply of food …
Need of the hour to feed the growing needs of people for food …Local plants were giving low yield per unit area …Innovation in producing hybrid plants / seeds came . New hybrid plants that have got extraordinary potential to produce more yield needed heavy nutrients / inputs . Because hybrid plants were growing fast and producing more …This also led to monoculture that again invited specific pest to damage the crop . Again needed to invent chemical pesticide to destroy insect pest
But population kept growing – Man land ratio declined – commercial farming and intensive cultivation came into practice to manage the hunger due to poverty and natural calamity …
Availability of total Agriculture land shrunk due to urbanization and industrialization . Added to the burden , desertification and deforestation caused loss of cultivation land …
Mean time Israel invented micro irrigation like drip and sprinkler irrigation to irrigate the crop field .Because Israel is in Mediterranean region cursed with draught and low water …
Land were full of pebbles and stones …hard to find good cultivable land . They drew water from sea which is salty …So desalinized the sea water and invented new technology like hydroponics that does not need soil …Survival of the fittest …
Then that technology came out of Israel and was carried to other countries…Where ever field constraints existed they started following hydroponics …
But Mass urbanization and huge demand for food crops necessitated production of more farm produce …So the hydroponics took new shape and the plants were started to be growing vertically into the sky …acquired new name Aeroponics …When fish component was added to the aeroponics it got new name Aquaponics …When the cultivation is shifted to the planet like mars it will acquire a novel name of MARSPONICS , and further develop into Jupiterponics , Neptuneponics and also Plutoponics …
Plants need certain nutrients to complete its life cycle …Such nutrients are taken by plants root in the form of ions in case of major nutrients and chelate form in case of micronutrients …whether you apply chemical fertilizers or organic /natural manures …the plant will not uptake nutrients as such as supplied by us to the soil . First it get converted into ionic form and through soil colloid it gets exchanged to plant root hairs , from where it moves into the plant …The thing to note here is when organic manure or organic matter content is enough in soil , the soil colloidal solution will reach near neutral PH where most of the plant nutrients are available to the plants …The organic matter produce carbonic acid in soil which act as buffering agent and bring the PH back to normal neutral state when imbalance is created …The organic matter is also acting as food for microbes…
This is the concept which is applied to hydroponics production system…The hydroponics used distil water ( pure water ) the PH of which is near neutral …Because when the distill water is kept open for longer period it also absorb atmospheric Co2 and make the water slightly acidic which again cause problem in plants growth and development …when you use ordinary well or river water the contaminants present in the water disturb the normal PH and the plant nutrients will not be made available to the plants …So when you do not exercise due diligence there is also chances of failing hydroponics crop production …When excess or deficient nutrients prevail in the hydroponics it will reflect on crop performance …
So when we practice any new technology ,first we should learn fundamental …Then only we will be in a position to make correction in the system and can grow good crops …
The Americans still debate over the subject of whether the crops grown in hydroponics or aquaponics are nutritious and complete food as that produced in soil …Hydroponic can supply only those plant nutrients that are supplied to the system by human being …So it is controlled …
Where as the plants growing in natural environment uptake not just nutrients and also other substances like organic acids, aminoacids , vitamins produced by countless microbes living in soil …The plants takes all these through various mechanism operating in the plants like selective permeability , Mass flow , chelation , Pressure gradients inside plant parts( from leaves to roots ) … The plants can pick and choose what it requires for its growth and development …where as under controlled condition like hydroponics or aeroponics the artificial system could not meet the complete requirement of plants…So technology will evolve and improve to next best stage over the years in future …