Growing crops without soil-hydroponics: Technology adoption and evaluation of nutritional quality in South Gondar Zone, Ethiopia

Cooperating countries: Ethiopia and Austria

Coordinating institution: Debre Tabor University, Meseret Belachew, meseret.belachew21@gmail.com

Partner institutions: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Bahir Dar University, Debre Markos University

Project duration: 1 July 2023 - 30 June 2025

Abstract:

The world population is increasing in alarming rate; and food and nutritional requirement of people are also increasing.  Land is limited and the demand of food is rising; it leads to search technology for sustaining life. Taking this issue into account an engineering problem arises: how to grow food without soil in a different environment with limited land and water-scarce areas? Hydroponics can be a viable option to grow fruits and vegetables, regardless of climate, land and soil availability. Conventional crop growing in soil becomes difficult as it requires large space, lots of labor, and a large volume of water. In Ethiopia, there is limited research conducted on growing vegetables without soil and nutritional quality of hydroponic technology.  Therefore, the main objective of this research project is to adopt hydroponic technology and evaluating the nutritional quality of crops in the highlands of Ethiopia. Hence, this project proposal is developed to adopt the new technology of growing vegetables without soil in Ethiopia. The project will be carried out on selected vegetables in Ethiopia such as tomato, cabbage, and lettuce. The technology is expected to be adopted and used to alleviate food insecurity since the technology is a climate-smart agriculture. The nutritional quality of grown vegetables and the result will be disseminated to other African countries to contribute to the SDGs. The result will be disseminated to other African countries to contribute to the SDGs. Project implementation will require 40,000 Euros for two years.