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Farmers put a lot of effort into growing healthy food in the shortest period. But as the world population grows, the demand for food also increases. More and more land is needed to meet this demand—thislandistakenfromforests,leadingtodeforestation. Deforestation leads to the loss of biodiversity and contributes to climate change. Another challenge is that, as the same land is used over the years to grow plants, it loses its nutrients, which is known as soil degradation. Heavy use of fertilisers to compensate for the loss of nutrients further degrades the soil quality due to the chemical component of most fertilisers. Besides loss of nutrients, erosion caused by wind and rain, water pollution due to industrial drainage, land degradation due to mining activities and even excessive water for irrigation, all contribute to the reduction of the land available for farming and the quality of produce. The Government of India is encouraging farmers to use hydroponics through the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Technologies like hydroponics, and aeroponics in which plants are not in direct contact with soil, are being promoted under this mission. In India, nearly 33% of the Total Geographical Area (TGA) is affected by soil degradation. This means we are losing our fertile farming land. Nearly 109 million hectares of land is facing declining soil quality. The focus of agricultural scientists, nutritionists, engineers and environmental experts has been to help farmers adopt sustainable farming practices. Sustainable farming aims to produce food that is healthy for humans with minimum negative impact on the environment. ThetermhydroponicsisderivedfromtheGreekwords‘hydro’, that is, water, and ‘ponos’, that is, labour or toil. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants in a nutrient- rich water solution instead of soil (Figures 1.1 and 1.2). Plants in a hydroponic unit receive nutrients directly from the water 4 Kaushal Bodh — Grade 8 Reprint 2026-27