Chatham High Teen Experiments With Hydroponic Farming

Another New Jersey teen is joining the growing crowd of Morris County kids doing big things.

Chatham High junior, Indira Roy, spent this past summer doing research on a topic that could help a group of individuals change how they survive in India. Roy, a 2016 Global Youth Institute delegate, spent the summer in Hyderabad, India studying hydroponic farming techniques in order to help local subsistence farmers.

“Major environmental issues that get in the way of productive farming in and near Hyderabad include the infertile soil and frequent drought," Roy said. "Farmers thus use a lot of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides, hoping these will improve crop productivity. However, their crop yields are still low, and they get into great debt, which can lead to suicide.”

In Hyderabad, Roy designed and implemented an experiment that has helped her analyze maximum crop yields for those local farmers. Hydroponic farming, a method of raising crops in water instead of in soil, actually uses much less of the liquid gold than soil-based agriculture. This water efficiency makes it a more useful method of raising crops in areas that are prone to droughts.

Roy will present her research results at the 2016 Global Youth Institute in October in Des Moines, Iowa, which is hosted by the World Food Prize.

Image via Goldlocki, Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons.