By Qudsia Bano ISLAMABAD, Feb 01 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan has great potential in boosting agriculture production by focusing on vertical farming methods. One of the vertical methods of farming is aeroponics, which is growing plants without the need for soil in an airy or misty environment. Over the years, it has been a challenge for the policymakers to meet the expanding population's food demand as growing urbanisation and mismanagement of natural resources are fast consuming agricultural fields. This has made it all the more important to adopt vertical farming methods to meet the people’s food and nutritional requirements. By using aeroponics, pesticide use can be altogether eliminated, and a variety of nutrient solutions can be delivered to the root zone, depending on the requirement. Furthermore, nutrient composition can be manipulated to suit the root zone. Talking about this technique, Waqas Dogar, a scientist at the National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC) told WealthPK that currently Pakistan produces only potato through this method on imported seed. “The reason for importing potato seed is because we don’t have such a technology at home for seed multiplication.” Dogar said in aeroponics, the number of tubers per plant are usually higher than in soil farming. “Generally, 7-8 tubers are present in a plant if it is cultivated in soil, but through aeroponics the ratio increases to more than 50 tubers in a single plant.” Under aeroponics, the NARC scientist explained, roots are suspended and then shifted to a screen under a controlled atmosphere for multiplication of seed. Here, a mixture of macro and micro nutrients is delivered in the form of fog. Then, the final product is brought to greenhouse and sold to farmers. “This technology produces pre-basic seed with a larger yield than the traditional approaches. The method is ideal for tuber enlargement and makes oxygen delivery to the root zone much easier.” Dogar told WealthPK that currently Pakistan imports small seeds of potato, which are then processed through this technique for multiplication. “Pakistan will begin manufacturing high-quality, virus-free third-generation potato seed in near future with the help of South Korean aeroponic technology. This will help the country lower the annual import bill for potato seed.” The NARC scientist said production of healthy, uniform and strong potato tubers will result from this strategy. “This will increase efficiency of potato production and reduce the number of cycles in potato seed multiplication, thus minimising health and quality risks.” He said that collaboration between Pakistan and South Korea will help introduce new agricultural technologies and practices in seed development, promote smart farming and increase productivity and income of small farmers.