Precision Hydroponics: Innovations for Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Crop Production – A Review

S Preethijohnevilin; Dinesh V; Desika G; Dhanush Kannan S; Nandhana A

Peer Reviewed Article

Vol. 2 No. 01 (2026): DSJEM

Precision Hydroponics: Innovations for Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Crop Production – A Review

S Preethijohnevilin^▸^▾
Dinesh V^▸^▾
Desika G^▸^▾
Dhanush Kannan S^▸^▾
Nandhana A^▸^▾

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Submitted: March 7, 2026
Published: June 21, 2026

Abstract

Precision hydroponics is an emerging approach in soilless agriculture that integrates advanced technologies to improve resource efficiency and ensure sustainable crop production. This review highlights recent innovations such as Internet of Things (IoT)-based sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and automated control systems that enable precise monitoring and regulation of critical growth parameters including pH, electrical conductivity, temperature, humidity, and light intensity. By utilizing closed-loop and recirculating systems, precision hydroponics significantly reduces water usage—up to 80–90% compared to conventional farming—while minimizing nutrient losses and environmental pollution. The adoption of vertical farming structures and climate-controlled environments further enhances land-use efficiency and enables year-round production, particularly in urban and peri-urban areas. Additionally, integration with renewable energy sources and smart fertigation systems contributes to lowering the carbon footprint and operational costs over time. Despite its advantages, challenges such as high initial investment, energy dependency, and the requirement for technical expertise remain barriers to widespread adoption. However, ongoing developments in low-cost sensors, data analytics, and user-friendly automation platforms are making these systems increasingly accessible to farmers. Overall, precision hydroponics presents a promising solution to address global food security concerns by optimizing input use, increasing crop yield and quality, and reducing environmental impact under changing climatic conditions.

References

H. M. Resh, Hydroponic Food Production: A Definitive Guidebook for the Advanced Home Gardener and the Commercial Hydroponic Grower, 7th ed. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2013.
J. B. Jones, Hydroponics: A Practical Guide for the Soilless Grower, 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2016.
M. Raviv and J. H. Lieth, Soilless Culture: Theory and Practice. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier, 2008.
D. R. Hoagland and D. I. Arnon, The Water-Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil. California Agricultural Experiment Station Circular 347, 1950.
D. Savvas and N. Gruda, “Application of soilless culture technologies in the modern greenhouse industry,” Eur. J. Hortic. Sci., vol. 83, no. 5, pp. 280–293, 2018.
G. L. Barbosa et al., “Comparison of land, water, and energy requirements of lettuce grown using hydroponic vs conventional agricultural methods,” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 6879–6891, 2015.
C. Treftz and S. T. Omaye, “Hydroponics: Potential for augmenting sustainable food production in non-arable regions,” Nutr. Food Sci., vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 672–684, 2016.
A. Graber and R. Junge, “Aquaponic systems: Nutrient recycling from fish wastewater by vegetable production,” Desalination, vol. 246, no. 1–3, pp. 147–156, 2009.
J. E. Rakocy, M. P. Masser, and T. M. Losordo, Recirculating Aquaculture Tank Production Systems: Aquaponics—Integrating Fish and Plant Culture. Southern Regional Aquaculture Center, 2006.
C. F. Sace et al., “Hydroponics: A review on modern agriculture technology,” Int. J. Res. Eng. Technol., vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 1–4, 2015.
N. Sharma, S. Acharya, K. Kumar, N. Singh, and O. P. Chaurasia, “Hydroponics as an advanced technique for vegetable production,” J. Soil Water Conserv., vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 364–371, 2018.
D. Touliatos, I. C. Dodd, and M. McAinsh, “Vertical farming increases lettuce yield per unit area compared to conventional horizontal hydroponics,” Food Energy Secur., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 184–191, 2016.
K. Benke and B. Tomkins, “Future food-production systems: Vertical farming and controlled-environment agriculture,” Sustainability: Sci. Pract. Policy, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 13–26, 2017.
F. Kalantari, O. M. Tahir, R. A. Joni, and E. Fatemi, “Opportunities and challenges in sustainability of vertical farming,” J. Landscape Ecol., vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 35–60, 2017.
T. Kozai, G. Niu, and M. Takagaki, Plant Factory: An Indoor Vertical Farming System for Efficient Quality Food Production. San Diego, CA, USA: Academic Press, 2016.
A. AlShrouf, “Hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics as compared with conventional farming,” Am. Sci. Res. J. Eng. Technol. Sci., vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 247–255, 2017.
E. Pantanella et al., “Aquaponics vs hydroponics: Production and water use efficiency of lettuce,” Acta Horticulturae, vol. 927, pp. 887–893, 2012.
M. A. Nichols and N. Savidov, “Aquaponics: A nutrient and water efficient production system,” Acta Horticulturae, vol. 947, pp. 129–132, 2012.
M. Dorais, “Greenhouse vegetable production,” Horticultural Reviews, vol. 28, pp. 239–319, 2003.
C. Sonneveld and W. Voogt, Plant Nutrition of Greenhouse Crops. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2009.
L. Morgan, Hydroponic Crop Production: A Practical Guide to Growing Vegetables, Herbs and Flowers. Suntec International Hydroponic Consultants, 2018.
M. H. Jensen and A. J. Malter, Protected Agriculture: A Global Review. World Bank Technical Paper, 1995.
P. Adams, “Nutritional control in hydroponics,” Acta Horticulturae, vol. 578, pp. 211–261, 2002.
D. Savvas, “Hydroponics: A modern technology supporting the application of integrated crop management,” Eur. J. Plant Sci. Biotechnol., vol. 7, pp. 1–12, 2003.
P. Bradley and C. Marulanda, “Simplified hydroponics to reduce global hunger,” Acta Horticulturae, vol. 554, pp. 289–296, 2001.
S. Singh and B. Singh, “Smart hydroponic farming using IoT technology,” Int. J. Eng. Res. Technol., vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 101–106, 2019.
K. Kularbphettong et al., “Automated hydroponics system using IoT technology,” J. Phys.: Conf. Ser., vol. 1144, 2019.
R. R. Shamshiri et al., “Advances in greenhouse automation and controlled environment agriculture,” Comput. Electron. Agric., vol. 153, pp. 1–17, 2018.
K. Specht et al., “Urban agriculture of the future: An overview of sustainability aspects of food production in cities,” Sustainability, vol. 6, no. 10, pp. 6223–6242, 2014.
A. M. Beacham, L. H. Vickers, and J. M. Monaghan, “Vertical farming: A summary of approaches to growing skywards,” J. Hortic. Sci. Biotechnol., vol. 94, no. 3, pp. 277–283, 2019.

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Keywords

Precision Hydroponics
Sustainable Agriculture
IoT
Artificial Intelligence
Resource efficiency
Vertical Farming
Smart irrigation
Controlled environment agriculture

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Precision Hydroponics: Innovations for Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Crop Production – A Review. (2026). DHANALAKSHMI SRINIVASAN JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING & MANAGEMENT, 2(01). https://jconsortium.com/index.php/dsjem/article/view/961

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[1] H. M. Resh, Hydroponic Food Production: A Definitive Guidebook for the Advanced Home Gardener and the Commercial Hydroponic Grower, 7th ed. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2013.

[2] J. B. Jones, Hydroponics: A Practical Guide for the Soilless Grower, 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2016.

[3] M. Raviv and J. H. Lieth, Soilless Culture: Theory and Practice. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier, 2008.

[4] D. R. Hoagland and D. I. Arnon, The Water-Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil. California Agricultural Experiment Station Circular 347, 1950.

[5] D. Savvas and N. Gruda, “Application of soilless culture technologies in the modern greenhouse industry,” Eur. J. Hortic. Sci., vol. 83, no. 5, pp. 280–293, 2018.

[6] G. L. Barbosa et al., “Comparison of land, water, and energy requirements of lettuce grown using hydroponic vs conventional agricultural methods,” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 6879–6891, 2015.

[7] C. Treftz and S. T. Omaye, “Hydroponics: Potential for augmenting sustainable food production in non-arable regions,” Nutr. Food Sci., vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 672–684, 2016.

[8] A. Graber and R. Junge, “Aquaponic systems: Nutrient recycling from fish wastewater by vegetable production,” Desalination, vol. 246, no. 1–3, pp. 147–156, 2009.

[9] J. E. Rakocy, M. P. Masser, and T. M. Losordo, Recirculating Aquaculture Tank Production Systems: Aquaponics—Integrating Fish and Plant Culture. Southern Regional Aquaculture Center, 2006.

[10] C. F. Sace et al., “Hydroponics: A review on modern agriculture technology,” Int. J. Res. Eng. Technol., vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 1–4, 2015.

[11] N. Sharma, S. Acharya, K. Kumar, N. Singh, and O. P. Chaurasia, “Hydroponics as an advanced technique for vegetable production,” J. Soil Water Conserv., vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 364–371, 2018.

[12] D. Touliatos, I. C. Dodd, and M. McAinsh, “Vertical farming increases lettuce yield per unit area compared to conventional horizontal hydroponics,” Food Energy Secur., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 184–191, 2016.

[13] K. Benke and B. Tomkins, “Future food-production systems: Vertical farming and controlled-environment agriculture,” Sustainability: Sci. Pract. Policy, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 13–26, 2017.

[14] F. Kalantari, O. M. Tahir, R. A. Joni, and E. Fatemi, “Opportunities and challenges in sustainability of vertical farming,” J. Landscape Ecol., vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 35–60, 2017.

[15] T. Kozai, G. Niu, and M. Takagaki, Plant Factory: An Indoor Vertical Farming System for Efficient Quality Food Production. San Diego, CA, USA: Academic Press, 2016.

[16] A. AlShrouf, “Hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics as compared with conventional farming,” Am. Sci. Res. J. Eng. Technol. Sci., vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 247–255, 2017.

[17] E. Pantanella et al., “Aquaponics vs hydroponics: Production and water use efficiency of lettuce,” Acta Horticulturae, vol. 927, pp. 887–893, 2012.

[18] M. A. Nichols and N. Savidov, “Aquaponics: A nutrient and water efficient production system,” Acta Horticulturae, vol. 947, pp. 129–132, 2012.

[19] M. Dorais, “Greenhouse vegetable production,” Horticultural Reviews, vol. 28, pp. 239–319, 2003.

[20] C. Sonneveld and W. Voogt, Plant Nutrition of Greenhouse Crops. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2009.

[21] L. Morgan, Hydroponic Crop Production: A Practical Guide to Growing Vegetables, Herbs and Flowers. Suntec International Hydroponic Consultants, 2018.

[22] M. H. Jensen and A. J. Malter, Protected Agriculture: A Global Review. World Bank Technical Paper, 1995.

[23] P. Adams, “Nutritional control in hydroponics,” Acta Horticulturae, vol. 578, pp. 211–261, 2002.

[24] D. Savvas, “Hydroponics: A modern technology supporting the application of integrated crop management,” Eur. J. Plant Sci. Biotechnol., vol. 7, pp. 1–12, 2003.

[25] P. Bradley and C. Marulanda, “Simplified hydroponics to reduce global hunger,” Acta Horticulturae, vol. 554, pp. 289–296, 2001.

[26] S. Singh and B. Singh, “Smart hydroponic farming using IoT technology,” Int. J. Eng. Res. Technol., vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 101–106, 2019.

[27] K. Kularbphettong et al., “Automated hydroponics system using IoT technology,” J. Phys.: Conf. Ser., vol. 1144, 2019.

[28] R. R. Shamshiri et al., “Advances in greenhouse automation and controlled environment agriculture,” Comput. Electron. Agric., vol. 153, pp. 1–17, 2018.

[29] K. Specht et al., “Urban agriculture of the future: An overview of sustainability aspects of food production in cities,” Sustainability, vol. 6, no. 10, pp. 6223–6242, 2014.

[30] A. M. Beacham, L. H. Vickers, and J. M. Monaghan, “Vertical farming: A summary of approaches to growing skywards,” J. Hortic. Sci. Biotechnol., vol. 94, no. 3, pp. 277–283, 2019.

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