Thursday, August 6, 2009

What is High Tech Farming?

High-tech farming mainly refers to agricultural methods using the latest technology, like hydrophonics and aerophonics. That is to say growing veggies in water or in the air only, without the use of soil. And there’s also orchid farms and ornamental fish. It’s also called agrotechnoloy here. 

There are minimal physical inputs to the system, but it is capital intensive since large capital outlay is required to buy specialized equipment, maintenance, training of labour etc. It’s also a commercial farming system, farmers invest in them both for local and export markets; technical know-how is a must, for example, for hydrophonics computers are used to monitor; it is labour-intensive because of the training of lab technicians, scientists, chemists and farm-hands; it uses farming technologiy to increase yields; it has high output and market value because the so-called hygenic (usually pesticide-free) conditions appeal to all health-conscious people out there who don't mind paying more; it is dependent on research and development. Like growing temperate vegetables in a tropical climate, or genetic engineering developing disease-resistant plants with nice colours, or transgenic animals. 

It’s a knowledge-based agricultural system not determined by the kinds of output but by the process. 

So that's a basic outline.

Tay Jia Wei (30)

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