Green Startup Offers Kitchen Gardening Through Hydroponic Technology

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th May, 2024) A green startup by a university student offered kitchen gardening idea by installing of hydroponic farming technology at homes where there is no or very less space for growing of essential vegetables.

“Through installation of hydroponic technology and with little guidance people can do kitchen gardening and can get higher yields than traditional soil based growing systems,” explains Marfaa Naseem, leader of team that proposed green startup of hydroponic farming at homes for kitchen gardening.

The startup was granted to university students under the Green Urban Development Program (GUD), a two-year initiative by Institute of Urbanism (IoU) & school of Leadership Foundation (SoLF), with the support of the US Embassy.

The Green Urban Development Programme has been launched for fostering a collaborative environment aimed at reshaping the urban landscape for a greener and more sustainable future.

Talking to APP, Marfaa Naseem said that through utilization of new procedure of farming (hydroponic) people who have no space for cultivation in their homes, can grow vegetable of their choice by utilization of very little space.

“Hydroponics is a type of soilless gardening that can be done either indoors or outdoors. It’s a great option for people with little or no gardening space, or who want to grow herbs and vegetables,” Marfaa told APP.

Hydroponic gardening, she continued, is space-efficient and takes less water than gardening in soil. Growing in water also means no weeds. With artificial lighting, you can grow hydroponically all year long, she added.

About the installation expenditure, she said presently its minimum cost is around Rs. 25 to 30 thousands through which people can grow 32 different plants in their homes and even offices.

Marfaa added that she is also working over preparing smaller model of hydroponic farming with reduction in price so that people can easily get it installed at their home and gain benefit from this modern and sustainable way of farming.

Hydroponic can also be utilized for large scale farming and in some parts of the country people have opted for growing different vegetable by setting up big farms, she informed.

Marfaa said she is planning to get a firm registered from Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to start production of hydroponic farming plants for sale.

The response to the green startup idea is very encouraging and people are placing orders for supply of small scale hydroponic farms.

Marfaa said while keeping in view gravity of climate change and damage to farming community due to erratic rains, hail storm, heatwave etc, hydropic is a very safe mode of farming to reduce the chances of damage to the yield because of climate induced disasters.