A comprehensive, practical text which covers a diverse range of hydroponic and protected cropping techniques, systems, greenhouse types and environments. It also details the use of indoor plant factories, vertical systems, organic hydroponics and aquaponics. Worldwide hydroponic cropping operations can vary from large, corporate producers running many hectares of greenhouse systems particularly for crops such as tomato, cucumber, capsicum and lettuce, to smaller-scale growers growing fresh produce for local markets.

Protected cropping shelters crops from extreme climatic conditions by modifying the internal growing conditions in their favor. The technology has widely been used for vegetable crops in different climates such as temperate, tropical, subtropical, arid, and semi-arid regions. As climate change is projected to become more severe in the near future, the resulting adverse weather conditions such as higher temperatures, more frequent heatwaves, more variable rainfall patterns, and cyclones will affect vegetable production, in turn affecting crop growth, yield, produce quality, and economic return of growers. The demand for protected cultivation will increase to ensure sustainable production and a stable supply of fresh horticultural produce.

Protected cultivation - the safeguarding of crops from the harmful effects of climate change, environmentally toxic agricultural chemicals, and crop pests and diseases - is necessary for improving crop growth conditions. This new volume addresses this need by presenting valuable research on the components of protected cultivation, including climate control, modeling, automation, and economics. The volume offers comprehensive coverage of the many aspects of protected crop cultivation, including: selecting site-specific appropriate protected structures design, construction, and suitability of structures improved crop cultivation techniques (shifting from conventional to modern soil-less cultivation approaches) cropping sequence of vegetable crops irrigation and fertigation automation climate monitoring and management insect pests and diseases and their management greenhouse micro-climate/environments economic analysis of protected cultivation and more. The important information presented in this volume will be valuable for farming professionals, faculty and students in agricultural science, agricultural researchers and engineers, as well as for those involved in horticulture and floriculture.

The book Potassium - Improvement of Quality in Fruits and Vegetables Through Hydroponic Nutrient Management provides useful information regarding potassium nutrition management in hydroponic cultivation, which will help in producing quality horticultural crops. The first few chapters describe the role of potassium nutrition in plants, its interaction with other nutrients, its source fertilizers, the role in postharvest produce qualities, and human nutrition. Potassium fertilizer management, its metabolism in plants, and cultivation techniques of fruits and leafy vegetables are also included in the middle section. The final chapter illustrates the software development for the calculation of hydroponic nutrients including potassium for easy management of cultural solution. As a whole, this book covers several major aspects on the topic for making it a complete and useful resource.

History; Covering materials; Greenhouses; Growing systems in greenhouses; Floriculture crops; Water supply, water quality and mineral nutrition; Drip irrigation; Disease and insect control; Propagation and cultivar selection; Economics of protecred agriculture; Marketing and distribution; Technology transfer between nations; Development constraints, research needs and the future of protected agriculture.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a political and economic union of Arab states, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Unites Arab Emirates. The GCC was formed in 1981 to strengthen the members’ economic, social and political ties by harmonizing regulations in various fields including economy, finance, trade and customs. The region extends over a territory of 2 673 108 km2 and is home to about 50 million people. The common denominators of the GCC countries are limited natural fertile land, scarce water resources and harsh climate. Depending on the country, the agriculture sector may use as much as 75 percent of the national available water resources. This has enormous environmental costs and significantly affects the sustainability of overall development in the Arabian Peninsula.According to Al-Rashed and Sherif (2000), the lack of renewable water resources is one of the critical constraints to sustainable development in the GCC countries. Rainfall in the Arabian Peninsula is scarce and infrequent. Over-exploitation of fossil groundwater resources, mostly to meet irrigation demands and create greenery lands, has already affected the productivity of aquifers, both quantitatively and qualitatively, despite the fact that much of the freshwater demand in the GCC countries is already covered using desalinated water. Reducing water consumption and increasing water efficiency are essential to enhancing agriculture and moving towards increased self-sufficiency with the production of high-quality, safe and diversified foods in the GCC countries. Exploiting the full potential of protected agriculture should save significant amounts of water, which can be used not only for agriculture but for other needs as well.

This book provides a broad overview of solute transport in plants. It first determines what solutes are present in plants and what roles they play. The physical bases of ion and water movement are considered. The volume then discusses the ways in which solutes are moved across individual membranes, within and between cells, and around the plant. Having dealt with the role of plant solutes in ‘normal’ conditions, the volume proceeds to examine how the use of solutes has been adapted to more extreme environments such as hot, dry deserts, freezing mountains and saline marshes. A crucial stage in the life cycle of most plants, the internally-controlled dehydration concomitant with seed formation, is also addressed. Throughout the volume the authors link our increasing understanding of the cellular and molecular bases of solute movement with the roles that these fulfil in the whole plant under both ideal and stressful conditions, showing how these are dictated by the physical laws that govern solute and water movement. The book is directed at postgraduates, researchers and professionals in plant physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology.

Interestingly, some relief from today's woes may come from ancient human practices. While current agri-food production models rely on abundant supplies of water, energy, and arable land and generate significant greenhouse gas emissions in addition to forest and biodiversity loss, past practices point toward more affordable and sustainable paths. Different forms of insect farming and soilless crop farming, or hydroponics, have existed for centuries. In this report the authors make a persuasive case that frontier agriculture, particularly insect and hydroponic farming, can complement conventional agriculture. Both technologies reuse society's agricultural and organic industrial waste to produce nutritious food and animal feed without continuing to deplete the planet's land and water resources, thereby converting the world's wasteful linear food economy into a sustainable, circular food economy. As the report shows, insect and hydroponic farming can create jobs, diversify livelihoods, improve nutrition, and provide many other benefits in African and fragile, conflict-affected countries. Together with other investments in climate-smart agriculture, such as trees on farms, alternate wetting and drying rice systems, conservation agriculture, and sustainable livestock, these technologies are part of a promising menu of solutions that can help countries move their land, food, water, and agriculture systems toward greater sustainability and reduced emissions. This is a key consideration as the World Bank renews its commitment to support countries' climate action plans. This book is the Bank's first attempt to look at insect and hydroponic farming as possible solutions to the world's climate and food and nutrition security crisis and may represent a new chapter in the Bank's evolving efforts to help feed and sustain the planet.