INDIA: Reducing operational cost of vertical farms using online crop monitoring

This project provides step-change advances towards enabling Vertical farming (VF) technologies. In comparison to traditional agriculture, these systems reduce water usage, eliminate the use of agrochemicals and provide year-round, local production. We look to increase the adoption of sustainable food growing systems, which reduces the environmental impact of crop production and create opportunities for the growth and export of UK agricultural technologies.

The focus of the project is to reduce the operational costs of VF systems and enable the wealth of UK technical and growing know-how in an optimised growing system. The key objectives are: improve yield by 30%; and reduce operational costs by 25%. It will integrate leading innovations into a scalable, commercially viable, turn-key solution demonstrator. This system will reduce the complexity and costs of constructing, controlling and monitoring optimal growth conditions. It will provide growers with better information and the right data to make decisions and automate responses to changes detected, enabling higher quality, higher yield produce, while better equipping them to adapt to market demand and reducing the risks of business failures.

FOTENIX incorporate their active multispectral vision capabilities into the VF system, enabling real-time data feedback on crop health and growth status. This technology allows the development of an integrated decision-support system for the automated control of the lighting, nutrients and climate.