It’s a similar story in nations across the world: as the pandemic exposes weaknesses in food supply chains and increases consumer concerns around food safety and contamination and intensifies the existing trend towards ‘buying local’, interest in urban farming and protected cropping solutions grows.
In a recent Horti Daily article, David Farquhar, CEO of UK-based tech developer Intelligent Growth Solutions, which runs a demonstration vertical farm near Dundee, Scotland, says the pandemic has sparked considerable interest in vertical farming, with more than the usual number of visitors to the IGS site.
In vertical farm facilities, states Horti Daily, ‘batches of crops can be individually watered, fed and lit using LED lights, allowing them to be grown year-round with minimal labo[u]r near their markets, regardless of local soil or weather conditions’.
“You can run it entirely on robotics … You probably need to go in once every six months,” Farquhar said.
Source: Coronavirus crisis fuels interest in vertical farming I Horti Daily