Samueli School of Engineering

We are faced with a future where there will not be enough land to produce food for the entire population. By 2050, the world population is projected to increase to about 9 billion people. However, 50% of the world’s arable land may be unusable by then, as traditional agricultural practices in the last 50 years have left 60% of all ecosystems degraded. In an effort to mitigate these issues, producers are increasingly interested in controlled environment agriculture, especially in regions where there are concerns about soil and groundwater pollution. One promising solution is hydroponics, a highly productive, resource efficient, and eco-friendly alternative to traditional farming. ZotPonics aims to bring easy hydroponics into the everyday household.