A BRIEF DEVELOPMENT HISTORY OF SOILLESS CULTIVATION IN CHINA

A small soilless cultivation farm named Safeway Farm was first established in Shanghai during 1935-1945, which occupied more than 2000 m2, and tomato was the main vegetable planted there. In the 1980s with imported sets of equipment on soilless cultivation, Shanghai started its research on soilless cultivation. In early 1996, five sets of greenhouse facilities were introduced in from The Netherlands and Israel by the municipal government of Shanghai, some of which were used for soilless vegetable cultivation. Today in Shanghai, the area of vegetable soilless cultivation is about 50 hectares. In recent years, soilless cultivation has developed dramatically in suburbs of Shanghai, especially in some relaxation and sightseeing agri-parks, which is pushing function diversification of soilless cultivation.
Market acceptance, price, and lack of skilled farmers are key factors which limit the development of soilless cultivation. We are happy to see that soilless cultivation is gradually accepted in the market, especially in relaxation and sightseeing agriculture and family cultivation. We should pay more attention to facilities improvement and popularization and enhancement of technology which should be practical, standard and simple.