URBAN FARMING: SOLAR NUTRIENT FILM TECHNIQUE SYSTEM

Abstract

Farming in urban areas is recognized as a sustainable approach towards the provision of food, and it has increased in Malaysia over recent years. Urban farming has emerged as one approach to contribute to local food security by increasing the availability and accessibility of fresh and healthy produce. Solar Nutrient Film Technique System is a product that can overcome challenges for agriculture sector at urban area. This product objective are to reduce the cost of living, to improvement of food self-sufficiency, to minimize water usage, to create environmentally friendly product and to provide space for agriculture activities for urban area. The novelty and uniqueness of NFT are it can be grown outdoors, indoors even in small space. Furthermore, the NFT is the cultivation of plants without using soil. Vegetables are planted in inert growing media and supplied with nutrient-rich solutions, oxygen, and water by using the electric pump. The application of solar pump also can reduce the cost of electricity and save the environment. Due to challenges of life in an urban environment where the time and space for gardening are limited, the innovation idea of hydroponics system will help the people to plant their fresh produce even though in the city. It creates commercialization potential to individual or company to start on agriculture production. Hydroponic agriculture using the Solar NFT System could be an option for meeting the world's growing food demand. One of the aspects to consider is the nutritional needs of the hydroponic plant. The NFT hydroponic nutrient controlling system is designed to help farmers manage the proper amount of nourishment for their plants. To manage the amount of nutrients, this system use the linear regression method. The precision gained from the controlling system experiment is 87.84%.