VERTICAL farming and hydroponics are viable solutions to increase food production in the Philippines given the country's dwindling land and water resources.

Dr. William Dar, former secretary of the Department of Agriculture, is positive that vertical farming and hydroponics are viable solutions to increase food production in the Philippines. TMT PHOTO

Besides hydroponics, there are two other "ponics" — aquaponics and aeroponics.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) during the Duterte administration actively advocated the adoption of vertical farming and hydroponics under the Plant, Plant, Plant program during the pandemic, as a measure to augment the country's food supply and push for the adoption of non-traditional planting systems.

Vertical farming combined with hydroponics, aquaponics or aeroponics can also be undertaken in the urban areas to make more food available in the cities, and to reduce food miles or the distance needed to deliver food products from the farm to consumers.

Vertical farming can also be more productive compared to horizontal and traditional farming. An article posted in the website of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) titled "Vertical Farming — No Longer a Futuristic Concept" quoted Dr. James Altland, a research horticulturalist with the Application Technology Research Unit in Wooster, Ohio, as saying that besides using much less land, vertical farming can produce 10 to 20 times per acre compared to traditional horizontal farming.

He said that vertical farms can be undertaken in areas where horizontal farming using soil is impossible. "Vertical farms are being built in deserts, high-population urban areas, and other places that traditional open-field farming is not practical," Dr. Atlan said.

One of biggest advantages of vertical farming is it can be done indoors if combined with other technologies like artificial sunlight. The emergence of various technologies from the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4ID) can also help level up vertical farming, particularly through the utilization of robotics and sensors.

Furthermore, vertical farming offers the advantage of protecting crops from the weather and pests, making it possible to grow crops all year round without chemical inputs.

The most basic set up for vertical farming, which I have seen in many parts of the country, uses bamboo for the frames and recycled containers for the plants. Soil is also widely used in the most basic vertical farming setup, and irrigation of the plants can be done manually using a water hose, among others. Usually, this basic system cannot have a height beyond the average Filipino, as that will make it difficult to tend to the plants.

The most advanced vertical farming system uses metal frames and employ hydroponics, aeroponics or aquaponics, and hence do not use soil for growing plants indoors or outdoors.

According to the FAO, "hydroponics is the cultivation of plants in water without soil, while aquaponics combines it with fish production in the same water for the plants." On the other hand, aeroponics is a method of cultivating plants with their roots suspended and sprayed with water with nutrients.

Among the state universities and colleges in the Philippines, it is the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija that is active in developing and promoting vertical farming and hydroponics through its College of Engineering.

CLSU's technology demonstration system clearly shows how viable vertical farming combined with hydroponics is, as it occupies only 72 square meters and can accommodate 88 towers for growing crops. Each tower can grow 70 leafy vegetables as well as herbs, and the system costs P350,000. Based on CLSU's estimate, the 72-square meter system can generate gross revenues of P300,000 per year.

CLSU's technology is registered in the Intellectual Property Office under Industrial Design, and inquiries can be made at 0917-874 1150.

Among the agencies under the DA, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is one of those that are actively involved in developing innovative and cost-efficient aquaponics systems and have developed a model that can fit into small spaces in homes and backyards in urban communities.

The basic aquaponics setup developed by BFAR has three essential parts: a hydroponic system made from pipes with filter and pre-cut holes for holding plants; a lower tank made from fiberglass or canvass that holds the fish; and a water pump powered by both solar energy and electricity.

The system works this way: The water flows from the fish tank to a biofilter system that breaks down waste into organic nutrients to grow the vegetables. The water is then recirculated to the fish tanks to repeat the cycle. The wastes produced by the fish, usually ammonia, supplements the nutrients fed to the plants.

The aquaponics system developed by BFAR can make it possible to produce vegetables like lettuce and pechay after one month, and harvest catfish and/or tilapia after four months of culture.

Today, vertical hydroponic farms can be found in many areas in the Philippines. In Metro Manila, Planters Products Inc. and Urban Greens operate indoor vertical hydroponic farms in Makati while Future Fresh has one in Taguig.

Singapore also successfully experimented growing rice in a vertical farm within the city state, and made the first successful harvest last February. I consider this a breakthrough as most efforts to grow crops in urban vertical farms were limited to vegetables.

Aeroponics is still relatively new in the Philippines, but I will not be surprised if that technology will gain popularity in the country in the next decades.

What makes vertical farming utilizing hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics very promising is they still can be improved with technologies from the 4ID, which converges mechanical, biological and digital innovations to change production systems, including that of agriculture. Among the 4ID technologies that can be applied in vertical farming utilizing any of the "ponics" are robots, sensors, artificial intelligence and drones.

Intelligent machines or robots can be utilized to do the stacking of the rows of vertical growing systems while sensors can be used to monitor plant health and growth. Drones, in the case of outdoor vertical farms, can be used to apply organic solutions on plants if needed.

When it comes to challenges in the adoption of vertical farming and the three "ponics," the foremost, in my own view, is resistance among farmers who have gotten used to the traditional soil-based horizontal system. But the entry of more young people in the agriculture sector can facilitate the use of more efficient planting technologies in farming, including vertical farming.

In terms of cost, the most basic vertical can be made from bamboo and recycled containers using soil. There are also advanced systems that can be started small and can be scaled up as the market for the operator expands.

When it comes to how big a vertical farm can be scaled up, the United Arab Emirates boasts of Eco 1, which occupies a total of 330,000 square feet.

We can also consider the rice terraces in the Cordilleras as the largest vertical farming system in the Philippines that are thousands of years old.