Observation:
The earth is covered only with 1/4 th of land, while the remaining 3/4th is purely water. Arable land is an even smaller percentage of the total land available. There is indeed scarcity of land for both habitation, and cultivation. With population growing by leaps and bounds, there are bound to be issues arising from using agricultural land for habitation purpose. Consequently, the agricultural produce is hardly sufficient for all in this world.
Suggestion:
Oceans receive ample amount of rainfall (fresh water) which largely goes untapped. Also, the sunlight received in may parts of the ocean is in abundance and also suitable for growth of plants. The problem: there is no land there to tap the rainfall and sunlight
The idea here is to make small floating platforms, about 2 feet deep (since most vegetables do not really require depth more than that) appropriate material. These farms can be self sufficient making use of the solar/wind energy for power requirements. These small blocks can be then joined together to make a large farm / garden which can be positioned in the oceans that receive good rainfall and sunlight. During some change of weather, these platforms can be relocated to a different part of the world. These can even be brought to the shores from time to time, the produce harvested, and a new crop planted again.
This same technique can be used for creating huge gardens of flowers, vegetables, pulses, corn , poultry farms to rear chickens and pigs etc. This methodology would specially be useful for countries that are suffering from serious shortage of food, or those which do not have enough land for cultivation.
Similar projects have been implemented by countries such as Japan for making "Floating Airports". Although, the platforms here are not quite floating in this case, and cannot be relocated, but these definitely solve the problem of not having enough land.
An elementary research shows that people have already come up with this kind of an idea, there are even books on this , and if I am not wrong, there are a few places where "Floating Fish Farms" have been implemented as well. However, I still feel that not many people are aware of this and this methodology to increase agricultural produce is still largely untapped. If implemented, millions of people would benefit from it!!
The earth is covered only with 1/4 th of land, while the remaining 3/4th is purely water. Arable land is an even smaller percentage of the total land available. There is indeed scarcity of land for both habitation, and cultivation. With population growing by leaps and bounds, there are bound to be issues arising from using agricultural land for habitation purpose. Consequently, the agricultural produce is hardly sufficient for all in this world.
Suggestion:
Oceans receive ample amount of rainfall (fresh water) which largely goes untapped. Also, the sunlight received in may parts of the ocean is in abundance and also suitable for growth of plants. The problem: there is no land there to tap the rainfall and sunlight
The idea here is to make small floating platforms, about 2 feet deep (since most vegetables do not really require depth more than that) appropriate material. These farms can be self sufficient making use of the solar/wind energy for power requirements. These small blocks can be then joined together to make a large farm / garden which can be positioned in the oceans that receive good rainfall and sunlight. During some change of weather, these platforms can be relocated to a different part of the world. These can even be brought to the shores from time to time, the produce harvested, and a new crop planted again.
This same technique can be used for creating huge gardens of flowers, vegetables, pulses, corn , poultry farms to rear chickens and pigs etc. This methodology would specially be useful for countries that are suffering from serious shortage of food, or those which do not have enough land for cultivation.
Similar projects have been implemented by countries such as Japan for making "Floating Airports". Although, the platforms here are not quite floating in this case, and cannot be relocated, but these definitely solve the problem of not having enough land.
An elementary research shows that people have already come up with this kind of an idea, there are even books on this , and if I am not wrong, there are a few places where "Floating Fish Farms" have been implemented as well. However, I still feel that not many people are aware of this and this methodology to increase agricultural produce is still largely untapped. If implemented, millions of people would benefit from it!!
8 comments:
It definitely looks like a good idea.
On a casual serach on wikipedia i found that agricultural land of the world is 38% and arable land is 11%. U mite wanna look at it. But i am doubtful how much of area on water needs to be covered to actually make a significant contribution to production of vegetables and other stuffs. I mean would it be economically viable ?
But overall i think its a good step towards bringing forward innovative ideas focussing on areas largely ignored.
I also saw an interesting comment on a site with an idea similar to this one, wherein one said "why not better shift the population to such places and use the precious land for agriculture".
Infact there is similar idea floating if you search using "floating farms" on google images.
:-)
Oh yes!! I think it would be economically viable. Once the platforms are made, they can be used multiple times just as land is.
If people are shifted to these farms, the cost incurred would be exceedingly high in order to make a platform that is stable, and which can take the load of cars / buildings / basic amenities etc. To top it all, do people really want to be shifted from one ocean to another only to enjoy good weather at sea?
As I said in the blog, people have already thought of this before. But am not sure how much has been done to implement this, especially to tackle the issue of food scarcity. Hence, the post :)
By the way, thanks for the compliment :) It is a much needed encouragement.
it was indeed enlightening to know that such a technology could be used in the field of agriculture also. I'm currently working on a project in L&T in which we are engineering a floating vessel called an FPSO ment to extract oil from a well in the ocean's crust.once a given well dries up the FPSO moves to another oil field.hope the analogy dose'nt sound specious!!!! :-)
Not sure if it is the same technology being used here. Perhaps, the manner of usage is the same. Anyhow, was quite surprised to see you here.
Thanks for dropping by..
Its a very good idea and also witnessed some but obviously not in an ocean.The Dal lake in Srinagar has these small floating farm lands.
http://www.asiagrace.com/kashmir/floating-gardens.php
Its really awesome.
Eliminates the need for irrigation.But not sure how this can be done in saline water of the oceans.Water rises in the plants through the process of osmosis in which water flows in the direction of low salinity to high salinity to establish equilibrium.Plants roots absorb the salts from the soil.But what happens when the water is saline is that it drains out water from the plant into the ocean which has higher concentration of salt thus making it unfavorable.
Desalination is there but still very costly.But yes fresh water still possess as a good solution.Indian farmers should be educated on this and government should take steps to establish such floating grounds.
To end on a note from the "Ancient Mariner".It applies even to plants.
"Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink."
Thanks Anand! The link that you have mentioned is indeed lovely. I was really mesmerised by the photographs of the Kashmir valley and its people :)
Salinity would definitely cause problems if plants are brought in contact with Ocean water. Hence, what I thought of was a floating vessel (like that of a ship) which acts as a barrier and does not let the saline ocean water to get in touch with the plants. Positioning these floating vessels in the path of the rain could provide the water needed for growth, rather than the plants picking up water from the ocean....
It was just a thought since 70% of the earth's surface is covered with water, and we are not utilizing that surface area....
Thanks for the comment once again! It is really motivating when someone reads a post and takes out time to write a comment. I really appreciate it. Thanks!
Read an article about vertical farming http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/opinion/24Despommier.html?th&emc=th and was reminded of this post so thought of leaving a message :)
Thanks Nandini, that was a nice link. Vertical structures is definitely another angle that can be looked into :)
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