Urban farms possible via SNAP hydroponics

Manila, Philippines - The Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) conducted recently a seminar on “Simple Nutrient Additional Program (SNAP) Hydroponics” at the Commonwealth Hall main building, Quezon City.

Attending the seminar were members of homeowner associations, senior citizens, and private individuals who are interested in the technology and who wanted to augment their income through vegetable farming.

Dr. Primitivo Jose A. Santos of the Institute of Plant Breeding-University of the Philippines Los Baños (IPB-UPLB) was the resource speaker.

SNAP hydroponics is an alternative system of growing plants without soil. It uses an inert media and a nutrient solution containing essential elements needed by the plant to grow. The technology was developed by Dr. Santos together with Dr. Eureka Teresa M. Ocampo of UPLB from a project funded by BAR. Also with the support of BAR the trademark for the SNAP hydroponics has been approved in 2009 for wider adoption.

This technology was primarily designed for urban farming and backyard vegetable farming systems.

“This type of farming is easy to set up and more practical than the conventional farming system. It occupies minimal space hence it is doable in urban setting where small terraces can be used for growing crops. Also, the supplies and materials used are cheap and can be sourced out from recyclable materials,” explained Dr. Primitivo. He said one could grow high-value vegetables such as lettuce, sweet pepper, cucumber, and celery for home consumption. “You’ll have readily available vegetables on your table and it’s fresh,” he asserted.

Given the potential of the technology, many farmers and private individuals started to become interested in SNAP hydroponics. “Number of technology users increased as we have received a number of interested people requesting to know more about the technology also, there was an outpour of orders and sales for the SNAP solution,” revelead Dr. Santos.

Miguel L. Linsangan, president of the Don Fabian Homeowners Association Inc., and a participant of the SNAP hydroponics seminar, explained how they have heard about the technology and mentioned that they first saw it in the Mag-Agri Tayo program and from the various exhibits that BAR participated in.

“We have heard of so many kinds of hydroponics but it is the SNAP technology that we are mostly interested about, so we requested BAR to conduct a seminar on SNAP in our area, said Linsangan.