STATE OF THE ART AND NEW TRENDS OF SOILLESS CULTURE IN SPAIN AND IN EMERGING COUNTRIES

Professional soilless cultivation systems are competitive agrosystems that use energy and materials efficiently at the highest level of sustainability that exists in modern agriculture. In Spain, soilless cultivation appeared in the 1980’s, when there were less than 100 ha cultivated with these techniques; now the areas covered reach 5,500 ha. These systems have led to technological advances in horticulture, vegetable production, gardening, and landscaping. For example, this technology has contributed to fertigation and to the global microclimatic control of greenhouses, advances that have subsequently been extrapolated to global horticulture. Central European soilless cultivation systems have been developed in other parts of the world. Here, we specifically reference soilless cultivation in Spain, especially in the Spanish Southeast, using three specific examples: 1. Mexico from the US border (e.g., Monterrey, the Sonora Desert, Tijuana, etc.) to the border with Guatemala and Belize, 2. the Maghreb (the area including Morocco, Tunisia, and nearby nations), and 3. China, the country that could become the greatest commercial power in the world. The second great green revolution consists of the application of hydroponic techniques and soilless cultivation to vegetal and urban architectures. We assume that the second great green revolution has not yet occurred but will be applied to urban environments that emulate the mythical city of Babylon in terms of development and three-dimensional architecture. There have been some recent advancements in soilless cultivation, and technologies from other fields are being adapted to soilless cultivation. These new technologies include the following: 1. the use of renewable energy (e.g., solar, solar-thermal, biomass-fired cogeneration, and geothermal), 2. more efficient artificial lighting and lower CO₂ emissions, and 3. the identification of the contrast between fertigation and other activities using thermal imaging cameras.