Answer: A better way to grow nutrient rich food.
A simple and easy way to understand would be, Hydroponics is a way of farming wherein soil is substituted with a different material to support the roots of the plant, and the nutrient provided by soil is being replaced with nutrient-rich water.
To explain it more elaborately, Controlled environment agriculture which is also known as weather and climate-proof farming, or indoor vertical farming, is nothing else but the production of plants in an indoor environment. Even though indoor farming is not a new introduced method of farming, the more recent innovation of hydroponic farming system eliminates all unnecessary components of traditional farming. As we are aware that the important elements for a plant to grow are energy, nutrients, water and carbon dioxide. In order to grow plants indoor, controlled environment agriculture systems keep these necessary elements in check and eliminates all the other unnecessary elements that have become a part of the traditional agricultural systems for instance, soil, fertilizers and pesticides. In this process, the standard elements of traditional farming are substituted with artificial ones. Therefore, in case of indoor farming plants receive energy through LED lights according to the energy needs of the plants rather than from the sun. Instead of the usage of soil, seeds are planted in material such as coconut husk in order to provide support to the roots of the plants.
By using soil-free material such as coconut husk, the risk of weeds and bugs would be eliminated from the growth environment of the plant. When the seedlings are placed into growth trays and stacked vertically, then that method of growing plants is known as vertical indoor farming. With the vertical farming system, even in limited spaces it is possible to get more output in terms of yield. It makes easy for farmers to optimize the total space usage and reduce their land use, with no compromise in the productivity and yield results. Nutrient in the vertical farming system are provided to plants hydroponically through nutrient rich water by checking the necessary PH level needed by the plants in their growth phase.
Shown below are the pictures for step-by-step hydroponic farming procedure:
Hydroponic farms offer a pathway towards a more sustainable food while prioritizing the nutrient level and health of our food without heavy usage of chemicals. Hydroponic farming is far from being a pipe-dream, as it is already being successfully and rapidly used into our current farming systems.