Professor Chungui Lu of Nottingham Trent University inside one of the vertical ‘container farms’.
Scientists at Nottingham Trent University in the UK have created two vertical ‘container farms’ capable of producing crops which are said to be more nutritious and have bigger yields than produce grown in fields.
The farms use a variety of automated feeding and environmental control systems to create the ideal growing conditions all year round. Each container farm is capable of producing three to five tonnes of crops a year.
Scientists at the university’s School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences plan to use the containers for teaching and research – and to showcase the potential for precision agriculture in a time of global challenges for food security and safety. According to the university, nearly 70% of the UK’s fruit and vegetables currently comes from abroad.
The farms have been created as part of a project with scientists at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China.
Produce is grown vertically on racks using various LED light and nutrient ‘recipes’ to stimulate growth, depending on the particular species, variety of crop and its different developmental stages.
Suitable wavelengths of light enhance plant growth, giving crops higher yields, more flavour and increased nutrition.
Plants are also grown using include hydroponics – growing plants without soil in a nutrient-rich solution – and aeroponics, whereby plant roots are suspended mid-air in high humidity while being intermittently misted with a nutrient solution.
Recipes of the 17 different nutrients which control crop quality and flavour are automatically monitored and delivered to each plant via a software-based control system. The scientists said delivering these directly to the roots ensures almost all nutrients are taken up by the plant – hence bigger yields, faster growth and improved nutrition. Only about 30%-40% of nutrients are taken up by the roots when grown in soil.
Chungui Lu, professor of sustainable agriculture at Nottingham Trent University, said: “We want to address food security and sustainable agriculture issues by developing new farming systems which can provide an improved crop quality and yield.”
He added: “We believe that there is enormous potential for urban agriculture and vertical farming to meet these emerging challenges. Container farms have optimum growing conditions from germination right through to harvest. It is a hugely efficient and sustainable way of growing very fresh vegetables and some fruit all year round.
“Container farms the size of ours would be able to produce three to five tonnes of crops per year. Producing natural and sustainable local food under such protected conditions could be very attractive for a range of organisations, such as supermarkets and restaurants. The system is also completely autonomous so people wouldn’t need to know how to operate it.”
BrightFarms, Gotham Greens and Agricool are among urban farming companies to have secured funding in recent months.
France-based Agricool, which is backed by Danone Manifesto Ventures, has developed a technology to grow fruits and vegetables more productively and within small and controlled spaces known as ‘Cooltainers’ (recycled shipping containers transformed into urban farms).
The company said it is responding to reports which suggest that by 2030 20% of products consumed worldwide will come from urban farming – compared to 5% today.
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