Meet the innovators-in-the-making

Mysuru: Young budding students have set a benchmark beyond their age with their displays of innovative and creative science models at the ongoing State-level 25th National Children’s Science Congress. One such innovative display is from two girls belonging to Seventh Day Adventist English High School Mysuru. Safa and Brinda of Ninth Standard have made a model ‘Aqua Vertical Farming’. Explaining their model, Safa and Brinda said aqua vertical farming technique is an efficient means of farming that improves production and quality of crops. In this technique, plants are grown in vertical layers. The bottom layer consists of a pond or a water body where fish is reared which is known as the aqua layer or aqua culture. The waste released by fish contains ammonia. This ammonia, when mixed with water, is passed to the plant layers above with the help of a pump and a pipe. The soil used in the plant layers contains nitrifying bacteria and when ammonia is converted to nitrates, it acts as a form of fertilizer to the crops. To add, the excess water is again filtered and collected in another layer and sent back to the aqua layer or aquarium culture. This form of farming is 80% more efficient and also saves land and as it is vertical, more number of crops can be accommodated, they said. Safa said, “This type of farming is seen in Japan and  China, whereas it is yet to be implemented in our very own country where agriculture is very prominent. With science reaching its heights, implementation of such techniques should be put into practice for the betterment and development of   our country.”