Floating Hydroponic and Drip-irrigated Soil Growing Methods: A Comparative Study of Sustainability

We are headed for global food security crisis in the coming years. Increasing population and the level of consumption on one hand, and the overarching effects of climate change on the other are leading the system towards unsustainability in food production. Adoption of unsustainable agricultural practices to produce more and more food for a rising world population are degrading land, water, and biodiversity on a global scale. The situation is worst in Middle East. Food had been the Achilles’ heel of many earlier civilizations and the same would apply to our time unless we adapt our practices accordingly. Shortage of suitable land and the insufficiency of renewable water resources, make it inevitable to shift towards climate-smart growing methods and technologies. To effectively address the region’s unique challenges, technical changes should be accompanied by favorable economic and political reforms. In Iran, the combination of technocratic populism, hostile external policy and unstable national economic policies, have impeded potentials, both at the government and farmer levels, to invest in sustainable agricultural practices. Within this context, floating hydroponic and drip-irrigated soil growing methods were investigated and compared against a set of economic and environmental criteria to suggest the system that can provide a more suitable balanced mixture of economic and environmental benefits. The economic evaluation entailed plant growth, yield, plant survival, and production cost, while the environmental assessment focused on water consumption, electricity consumption, and fertilizer consumption. Drip-irrigated soil method proved to be the better alternative, supported by its lower production cost and its ability to achieve higher environmental efficiency in terms of total water consumption (3.8 times lower), as well as electricity and fertilizer consumption.