Hydroponics is a cultivation technique without soil. There are several modalities for the system and among them is the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT), which consists of using channels to circulate nutrient solution intermittently. Due to the risks of soil and water contamination in metropolitan areas, this technique is a potential alternative to agricultural production in cities. The objective was to assess the panorama of the knowledge of the NFT system in the literature and the performance of various countries on it. For this purpose, a bibliographic survey was carried out from 2010 to 2019 on the international research bases Science Direct, Portal of Journals of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and Scielo, using the search terms “Hydroponics” and “Nutrient Film Technique Hydroponics”. There was an increase in the number of studies in the last four years of the analyzed period, from 2016 to 2019, thus representing an increase in interest in hydroponics, especially of the NFT type. This increase may be related to the efficiency and ease of handling of this system, productivity gains and the potential that the NFT has to reduce the carbon footprint. Thus, NFT is of great value in urban agriculture, especially in Brazil? its biggest representative?, with the potential to grow a lot in the future.