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  If you’re interested in starting a farm of your own but can’t find the physical space to do this, you may try hydroponic farming. This approach to farming is starting to gain traction in Nigeria. Its growing popularity is due to a number of reasons: it shrinks the size of land you need to cultivate crops and is generally less expensive to maintain than conventional farmlands.
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Perhaps you don’t know what hydroponic farming is about. We’ll explain what it is below.

What Is Hydroponic Farming?

Hydroponic farming is growing crops in a medium other than soil. It often refers to cultivating plants in a nutrient solution (liquid) or some other inert medium like sand, bark, coconut fibre, gravel, or polyurethane foam. The nutrient-rich medium in which the plants grow is situated in containers and arranged in racks of trays that extend in rows and columns. The racks may be held some distance above each other, to utilize space. This collection of trays and racks is called a hydroponic system. The solution system (liquid) is better for crops that have a shallow root; the aggregate (solid inert materials) system is preferable for plants that grow longer roots. Hydroponic farming can be done indoors or outdoors. You may want to set up the farm in a greenhouse. If you decide to cultivate the crops indoors, you will need to provide lighting for the crops. Fluorescent and LED grow lights are best suited for this purpose.

Why You Should Consider Hydroponic Farming

Here are some reasons why you should consider this approach to farming.
  • You don’t need expansive land to do this
  • Crops make efficient use of nutrients
  • It makes up to 90% more efficient use of water compared to traditional approaches
  • Crops can be grown 50% faster than in regular farming
  • It’s generally more cost-effective
  • Could be the future of farming, as arable land becomes more scarce

How To Set Up A Hydroponic Farm

If you want to start a hydroponic farm in Nigeria, here are the steps you should take.

Learn All You Can About This Approach To Farming

You can do this by reading and watching all you can about hydroponic farming. There’s a lot of information about it on the web; finding them shouldn’t be a problem. But this isn’t going to be enough. You also have to engage people who are already hydroponic farmers, and learn what it’s like to run a farm of this kind. Visit their farms, engage them extensively, and gather the information that could be useful when you’re setting up and running your own farm.
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Plan Your Next Steps

Things you need to do include drawing up a business plan and deciding what equipment you should acquire. Your business plan sets out the nature of your business, what it does, what the market looks like, possible competitors, your strategy for gaining customers, and financial projections for the business. If you have a proper business plan, you can use it as a reference against which you can judge your progress. One of the many things your business plan should contain is the expenses you’ll make on acquiring equipment. Things you’ll have to purchase include germination trays, grow lights, grow rack, plastic pots (for crops), fans, water pump, reservoir (for holding water), and greenhouse covering (if you’re using a greenhouse).

Find A Location For The Farm

The location you’ll use should be secure, with limited risk of break-ins, not too expensive to acquire and maintain, and accessible to you. You may even use your private premises if there’s enough space for cultivating crops in racks there.

Set Up The Farm

This can be fairly tedious. But it can also be an interesting exercise if you approach it purposefully. If you learnt from the online materials and established farmers as advised in step one, you will get on just fine with setting up the farm space and planting your crops. Remember to provide lighting for crops if you’re growing them indoors. Most plants in this condition may take between 12 and 14 hours of artificial lighting. As you continue with the activity, you’ll get better at it. Also, let the public know that you’re open for business. Inform your family, friends, neighbours, and other contacts, so they can buy from you or spread the word. Updates on digital channels (social media) may be helpful too.

Final Words

The signs suggest that hydroponic farming will be the future of crop cultivation. You can get a head start on tomorrow’s agriculture industry by starting a hydroponic farm. Featured Image Source: Medium
Got a suggestion? Contact us: editor@connectnigeria.com
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This article was first published on 27th May 2021

ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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