Numerous overhead costs like the construction of thegreenhouse, a viable model or tray systems or buckets to name a few. These maybe a disadvantage; however, the literature shows that the larger-scale hydroponicsystems tend to be more cost-effective than small-scale land-based farms. Thecost analysis of using the hydroponic grower as compared to traditional farmingis shown in Table 1. As it is presented, the payback period starts in the thirdyear. On the other hand, the traditional method allows the payback period withinone year. The harvest under a traditional method may be affected by weathercondition and other causes extraneous to the traditional farmer. Table 1 showsthe cost analysis of vertical farming using hydroponics and its comparison totraditional land-based farms.
As presented in Table 1, on the second year, the total remaining balance inVertical Hydroponic Farming method will be $59954.94. The remainingloan balance is $48,000 which could be paid in full. And the remaining balancewill be $11954.94 less the total operational expenditure of $8010.47. On the thirdyear, the initial investment will be $3944.47. Therefore, the Return On Investment will be in the second year. Moreover, the remaining area of land could be utilized for planting other crops. For the traditional farmingmethod, although the loan was paid immediately, it is shown that the remainingbalance on the second cropping is smaller than that of the VHF method. However,in the traditional method, third cropping is not possible because the landmust recoup from the exhaustion of nutrients due to the two cropping seasonsand the weather condition during the third cropping is volatile and inappropriatefor onion production. More so, using the traditional method, the entire10,000 m2 farmland area was used while in VHF system, the remaining lot space could be used for other agricultural and live stocks production. The VHF is alsofree from unfavorable weather condition as the onion grows under an artificialenvironment and controlled physical surroundings.
In many studies, the plant’s growth rate is higher in Vertical farming using hydroponicstechnology. Using the system will provide the farmer control of thefarm allowing more significant results. With hydroponics, the farmer will have full control over the farm together with more optimal results. The growth ofonion is shown in Tables 2-4 below. Hydroponic onion did as well if not evenbetter than the plants grown in soil. Notwithstanding the higher cost of initialcapital, increase crop yields would compensate the investment . The systemcan also serve as an alternative to land-based farming in areas where the landsoil is poor in quality. When the technology is applied correctly, the growth ofthe plants is observable hence could provide earlier harvest resulting in threecropping seasons per year. Table 2 shows the data yielded by the experiments.The Table 2 presents the growth of onion planted in a vertical grower applyingthe hydroponic system of providing nutrients to the onion. It is observedthat there is a 2.5 cm average bulb diameter yielded within a 30 day period. Fromthe 2 cm initial bulb development, it grew to 3.1 on the 30th day of the experiment.On the next scheduled experiment in May 2017, the initial bulb diameter onthe first day developed to 4.1 cm on the 30th experimental day.
This goes toshow that compared to the first experimental phase the bulb development ofonion in the second experiment is relatively bigger. The result is attributed toextraneous variables which the researchers were not able to control in the firstphase of the experiment. On the average, the onion bulb development in thesecond experiment yielded an average growth of 3 cm in a 30-day period.The results of the final and last phase of the experiment are shown in Table 4.As it is depicted in the table. There was a 0.02 cm increased in the developmentof bulb diameter compared to Table 3 Phase 2 experiment yielding only a 4.1 cmgrowth of onion bulb smaller than the result of July 2017 3rd and last phase ofthe experiment.The three phases of laboratory experiments scheduled in three different crop seasons clearly showed that the technology is adaptable to onion growing. Theresults of the experiments are similar to that found out by the researchers of theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration.The present study affirmsthe result of the NASA researches where onion, like any other vegetables,can be grown using artificial simulated environment.The Figure 5 shows theactual observation of the study.The Figure 5 showed the hydroponic technology as applied by the scientistshaving the vision to bring the technology in outer space where there is no landor soil where plant or vegetables could be transplanted to sustain their food.The NASA researchers are checking hydroponic onions with Bibb lettuceto his left and radishes to the right.