By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. This can be disastrous in term of agriculture land and production. Vertical farming is seen as an alternate solution to rise in urban population.
Vertical farming as a component of urban agriculture is the practice of cultivating plant life within a skyscraper greenhouse or on vertically inclined surfaces. A common version of vertical farming uses techniques similar to glass houses, where natural sunlight can be augmented with artificial lighting and metal reflectors. Research showed that it is more environment friendly than present techniques of farming. Cultivation of plant life within skyscrapers will produce less embedded energy and toxicity than plant life produced on natural landscapes.
- Farmers can increase their production by using this indoor farming because they can produce crop all round the year.
- crops would be sold in the same infrastructures in which they are grown, they will not need to be transported between production and sale, resulting in less spoilage, infestation, and energy required than conventional farming encounters.
- Crops can be protected from natural disasters such as undesirable temperatures or rainfall amounts, monsoons, hailstorms, tornadoes, flooding, wildfires, and severe droughts.
- Vertical farming would reduce the need for new farmland due to overpopulation, thus saving many natural resources.
- Traditional farming is a hazardous occupation with particular risks that often take their toll on the health of human laborers.
- Vertical farms could exploit methane digesters to generate a small portion of its own electrical needs. Methane digesters could be built on site to transform the organic waste generated at the farm into biogas which is generally composed of 65% methane along with other gases. This biogas could then be burned to generate electricity for the greenhouse