When it comes to rice, however, Prof Adam Price, a specialist in the crop at the institute of biological and environmental sciences at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, is “absolutely not aware” of any large-scale hydroponic production anywhere in the world. He adds that there are no biological reasons why rice cannot be grown using hydroponics, and that growing the grain using the method has “potential benefits”.
“It could absolutely save water if you could recover the water, which is potentially of immense value in the parts of the world where water is being used unsustainably to grow rice,” he says.
The growing of rice uses a lot of water, he says, for reasons that are not related to the physiology of the plant, which in its Asian form has the Latin name Oryza sativa. The heavy water consumption is a consequence of the methods used to grow the crop.