Large-scale implementation of vegetable production with water reuse

The process of an agri­cul­tur­al food pro­duc­tion with recy­cled water, suc­cess­ful­ly devel­oped in the HypoWave research project, is going into large-scale appli­ca­tion for the first time. In the course of the fol­low-up project HypoWave+, the research net­work has begun prepa­ra­tions for hydro­pon­ic veg­etable pro­duc­tion with recy­cled irri­ga­tion water on a one-hectare site.

Agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion world­wide is increas­ing­ly depen­dent on irri­ga­tion. But region­al water short­ages and the result­ing con­flicts over use are on the rise. High-yield har­vests can­not be tak­en for grant­ed in Ger­many either due to pro­longed heat and dry soils. New, water-sav­ing cul­ti­va­tion meth­ods are being sought. With the HypoWave+ research project led by the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty of Braun­schweig, the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion and Research (BMBF) is there­fore fund­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of an alter­na­tive form of agri­cul­tur­al cul­ti­va­tion in com­bi­na­tion with water reuse on an indus­tri­al scale.

HypoWave process: Alternative for agriculture

The hydro­pon­ic process, in which plants in con­tain­ers with­out soil are sup­plied via a nutri­ent solu­tion using recy­cled water, had been suc­cess­ful­ly test­ed in a pre­vi­ous project in Hat­torf, Low­er Sax­ony. “Now the aim is to take the expe­ri­ence gained with the water-effi­cient process based on recy­cled water to large-scale pro­duc­tion and pro­vide sci­en­tif­ic sup­port,” says project man­ag­er Thomas Dock­horn of the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty of Braun­schweig. The new HypoWave process not only offers an alter­na­tive to irri­ga­tion with drink­ing water and ground­wa­ter. The cul­ti­va­tion method also opti­mizes nutri­ent sup­ply, since vital nutri­ents such as nitro­gen and phos­pho­rus are sup­plied to the plants from the treat­ed water.

Despite water shortages: regional food production in times of climate change

Togeth­er with farm­ers from Low­er Sax­ony, the sci­en­tists are plan­ning to pro­duce up to 700 tons of toma­toes and pep­pers under glass on one hectare of cul­ti­va­tion area. The veg­eta­bles will be sold in region­al gro­cery stores through­out the year, except for a short win­ter break.

“In the course of the sci­en­tif­ic mon­i­tor­ing of HypoWave+, we are focus­ing on ques­tions of qual­i­ty man­age­ment and the mar­ketabil­i­ty of the process. We want to set the nec­es­sary course for this.”

- Mar­ti­na Winker, project coor­di­na­tor from ISOE