Hydroponics as an advanced vegetable production technique: an overview

In the recent past, population explosion across the globe has presented many challenges that include the availability of arable land diminishing per capita for traditional soil-based farming. Therefore, the development of advanced agricultural technologies and methods has become important in response to these persistent situations. Amongst these innovations, soilless crop cultivation has emerged as one of the promising solutions, leading from the forefront. This current review offers a comprehensive investigation of hydroponics as an advanced technology for vegetable production. It explains many aspects related to hydroponic systems, viz., methods used in hydroponics, its advantages, challenges as well as application in vegetable production. This paper also explores the hydroponics evolution historically, various hydroponic systems, their essential components, and nutrient solution role in plant growth facilitation. Furthermore, it highlights various advantages of farming under hydroponic culture, viz., increase in yields, efficient usage of water, optimum space utilization, and less environmental impact. Additionally, this review also sheds light on challenges related to hydroponics, like initial setup cost, technical complexity, and management of diseases. Moreover, it also enlightens about vegetables that are suitable to cultivate under hydroponic culture and provides insight into continuing research, and forthcoming projections in the area of vegetable production under hydroponic cultivation.