Priya V.
Abstract
Hydroponic cultivation is gaining popularity all over the world because of efficient resource management and quality food production. Intensive traditional agriculture is leading to loss of fertility of land, soil erosion, and excessive pesticide and fertilizer content in soil. Hydroponics is a modern agricultural practice that tackles this problem, involving cultivation of crops in water rather than using soil as a growing medium. Required nutrients are supplied entirely through the water. Closed loop hydroponics system allows growing food with approximately 80% less water and fertilizers. Nutrients that are not absorbed at the plant roots are retrieved at the reservoir and pumped back into the system. Domestic sewage typically consists of organic and inorganic compounds, many of which can serve as macro and micronutrients for crops (typically nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium as macronutrients, and also trace quantities of iron, zinc, manganese, copper, etc as micronutrients). The scope of this project is to extract these nutrients from the wastewater after the application of necessary treatment processes and utilize the same for the cultivation of crops. This project aims to provide a comparative study on the yield quality and quantity of the crop when grown in wastewater nutrient solution versus a regular hydroponic solution.