Current status and future challenges in implementing and upscaling vertical farming systems

Abstract

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Evaluating the Fertilising Potential of Blended Recovered Nutrients in Horticultural Growing Medium on Viola x wittrockiana L.

“…The first consequence is that a linear regression model for mixture data cannot contain an intercept. Furthermore, cross products x i x j and squares x 2 i cannot be simultaneously included as regressors in the model since this leads to perfect collinearity.…”

“…Crops like viola cultivated on growing media can perform either as an open or closed soilless culture system. The drainage of the fertilizer in open soilless culture systems results in a non-negligible loss of the economic benefits arising from fertilizer savings, but more importantly, potentially jeopardising the environmental benefits of soilless culture systems, with lower land and water use than conventional agriculture, and thus improving yields and resource use efficiency [2]. Furthermore, without limitations in the use and type of fertilisers, leached irrigation water from these growing media-based systems containing high concentrations of nutrients results in potential eutrophication and water pollution when discharged to the environment [3,4].…”

High Light Intensity from Blue-Red LEDs Enhance Photosynthetic Performance, Plant Growth, and Optical Properties of Red Lettuce in Controlled Environment

“…Climate changes, as well as the increase in urban populations and the need to fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals, pose the need to produce more with less, increasing the resilience of food systems [1,2]. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) systems like vertical farming (VF) or plant factories with artificial light (PFAL) are proposed as suitable means to produce food in cities [3,4], with several economic and social benefits [5,6]. Crop production in such systems can reach approximately 80-90% higher water and resource use efficiency compared to open field cultivation, thanks to optimal environment control [7,8].…”

Realising the Environmental Potential of Vertical Farming Systems through Advances in Plant Photobiology

“…These are sometimes defined separately as sunlit and sunless farms with different terminologies. This review focuses on sunless CEA operations, which we will define as vertical farming systems (VFS) [ 9 ]. We have chosen VFS because they are the most energy-consuming form of CEA and hold high potential for improving relative energy consumption, carbon emissions, and financial costs.…”