As the urban population continues to increase, innovative minds are looking at alternatives to traditional agriculture as a method to provide food for everyone with less impact on the landscape as well as our water resources. Vertical farming is one option that’s being implemented across the globe.

With Vertical Farming Food crops can be grown easily in urban areas by planting layers that are vertically stackable in order to conserve space and consume less energy and water to water the. The situation in India, Vertical farming is in its early phases, but there are only a handful of startups and Agri-tech companies that are working to transform the practice.

It was in 1915 that Gilbert Ellis Bailey coined the term “vertical farming in turmeric” and published an article titled “Vertical farming”. In the early 1930s William Frederick Gerick pioneered hydroponics at the California University in Berkley.

The 1980s saw Ake Olsson who was a Swedish ecological farmer, created an elongated rail system to cultivation of plants. He also proposed the idea of vertical agriculture as a way to produce vegetables in urban areas. The concept of vertical agriculture was suggested as early as 1999 by Prof. Dickson Despommier. The concept behind it was to produce the urban food supply by reducing the distance required and also reducing the time required to transport the produce grown in rural areas into the cities.

He envisioned growing food within urban settings and get fresher and healthier food available quicker and at lower cost. Therefore, vertical farming is described as the cultivation of and the production of plants or crops on vertically stacked layers as well as horizontally inclined surfaces.

Physically, plants are stacked vertically within the form of a tower. This means that the area needed to plant plants is reduced. Then, a mixture of artificial and natural lighting is employed to create a the ideal conditions for effective growth of the plants. The third element is the growing medium that is used by the plants. As opposed to soil aeroponics, hydroponics or aquaponic growth mediums are utilized as the growth medium. When the method becomes more scientific, the efficiency of the process improves and, as a result vertical farming becomes sustainable , requiring 90% less water opposed to other methods of agriculture.

1. Hydroponics

It is a method for cultivating food in water by using mineral nutrient solutions that do not require soil.The main benefit for this technique is it eliminates issues related to soil, like pests and insects that feed on soil and disease.

2. Aeroponics

The development of aeroponics was inspired by the efforts by NASA (the National Aeronautical and Space Administration, USA) to discover the most efficient method to cultivate plants in space during the 90s. Aeroponics is a system where there is no medium for growing and, consequently there are no containers for the growth of crops. For aeroponics systems, sprays and nutrient solutions are utilized as an alternative to water. Because the plants are attached to a support , and the root zones are spray with nutrient solutions which requires very little space, less water, and virtually there is no soil.

3. Aquaponics

“Aquaponics” is the term used to describe it. aquaponics is coined when mixing two phrases: aquaculture, which is a reference to the farming of fish and hydroponics–the method of cultivating plants without soil to establish symbiotic relationships between fish and plants.

The symbiosis occurs when the nutrient-rich waste of fish tanks is used as “fertigate” for hydroponic production beds. Additionally, the hydroponic beds are also bio-filters, which take out gases, acids, and chemical compounds, including ammonia, nitrates and phosphatesfrom the water. In addition, the gravel bed create a habitat for nitrifying organisms, which enhance the cycle of nutrient and also filter water. Thus, freshly cleansed water can be used to recirculate the tanks for fish.

Vertical farming has many advantages that make it a promising option in the near future for agriculture. The requirement for land is minimal, the water usage is reduced by 80 percent and the water is recycled and reused, it’s free of pesticides and in the case of high-tech farms, there’s no dependence on the weather.

A vertical farm can make farming within the boundaries of a city an actual possibility. If the farms are close by and the produce is swiftly transported and always fresh as compared to the chilled produce that is typically found in supermarkets. The reduction in transportation will reduce the carbon footprint of fossil fuels as well as the resulting emissions, and consequently decrease the risk of spoilage during transport.

Like everything else, vertical farming also has its negatives. The initial capital cost for setting up the vertical farming method is the main issue. There are also the expenses for constructing the structures, as well as its automation , which includes computerized monitoring systems remote control systems, software’s automated stacking and racking systems as well as controlled lighting systems using LEDs as well as a climate control system and many more.