Novel Coronavirus and the pandemic has locked us inside our homes and rarely do we step out until and unless it’s some essentials such as vegetables and fruits. How about growing these essentials at home that too healthier and in a more eco-friendly way. An expert in Aquaponics and hydroponics Moumita Mukherjee of Pune has made getting essentials like vegetables and fruits easier by growing them without any chemicals at home.
Mukherjee is a passionate nature lover who believes in eco-living and preventive health care, as a way of life. With the degree of ‘Masters in zoology,’ she started growing veggies in her balconies and on her terrace.
Moumita Mukherjee is the founder of ‘GreenAqua‘ is an organisation that is working on Aquaponics and Hydroponics technique of farming. Aquaponics mainly concentrates on growing vegetables in water from fish tank along with fish waste with least soil. While hydroponics is a type of Horticulture and a subset of hydroculture, which is a method of growing plants without soil, by using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent.
“Aquaponics is basically using fish waste and water from the fish tank to grow plants which are based on growing veggies using additional nutrients,” added Mukherjee
Moumita Mukherjee initiated these home veggies growing after a very heartbreaking incident as she lost her father with cancer. She said, “I lost my father to cancer and the biggest contribution in this was having such harmful food” she realized that most of these diseases occur when we have food with not enough nutrients and which harm more than healing. She said, “Due to the use of pesticides and chemical-based fertilizers, the vegetables and fruits are laden with more chemicals causing harm to health than nutrients.”
These techniques are eco-friendly as it also saves water and the vegetable can also be grown in the most compact designed homes. Mukherjee said, “We can grow vegetables like coriander, spinach, tomatoes, ladyfingers, etc. and also some rare vegetables like lettuce, parsley leafy vegetables can easily be grown through aquaponics and hydroponics. This kind of gardening can also be done at places like vertical spaces and also window sealing and kitchen windows etc. “People learn these techniques and grow vegetables for themselves, people say it taste better because we have grown it ourselves.
She further said, “GreenAqua is educating many people to grow their food. The best part of these vegetables is they don’t lose their inner minerals as there is no use of pesticides. Natural nutrients like fish waste which contains appropriate bacteria’s to grow plant play a vital role in aquaponics and hydroponic.”
These methods are also helping the urban farmers as it is affordable with less water. She said, “Even at places with scarce water resources one can grow vegetables, these techniques are becoming commercial day by day as people are getting aware and are toiling to make fresh vegetables. In an unprecedented situation like the current scenario, we do not need to worry about vegetables and fruit because we have such techniques that we can grow our food on our own.”
Written by: Selvi Pareek
It’s the need of hour. Keep up the good work.