System Sensing in Vertical Farming and Controlled Environment Agriculture (Sys-Sens)

SYS-SENS is a multidisciplinary effort designed to target one of the key challenges facing society - that of ensuring sustainable food production for future generations whilst reducing the negative effects on the environment. Over the last decade the effects of climate change, and in recent months COVID-19, have highlighted the incredibly fragile nature of our current food production operations and served as yet another reminder that there is a real and present necessity to optimise our food production systems and accelerate efforts towards decarbonisation and sustainability which will in turn boost local food production. It has become evident that we need to shorten our supply chains if we are to help decarbonise the food supply chains and also to increase our food self-sufficiency. Controlled environment agriculture (CEA), including vertical farming, has advanced significantly over the last 5-10 years delivering major savings in water and nutrient use compared to existing crop production and, with the advances in energy sourcing and management, looks set to be a sustainable route to producing a significant proportion of our food and reduce the reliance on just-in-time imports, valued at £14bn in 2018 (Controlled Environment Agriculture. Savills 2019).

This project brings together experts in crop biology, phenotyping, controlled environment agriculture/vertical farms, photonics, remote sensing and product delivery as a first step to designing a product for the accurate and non-invasive measurement of crop stresses and their relationship to food nutritional content/maturity and production optimisation. These relationships will form the bases of sensor-derived algorithms that will, through integration with the vertical farm data management system, facilitate continuous produce optimisation, increased productivity and reduced carbon footprint. Here a pilot trial will be undertaken in a state-of-the-art commercial vertical farm demonstrator (IGS) to determine value in an operational controlled environment agriculture setting. Proof of the concept and subsequent commercialisation of the sensor will allow (UK and global) CEA food producers to optimise their operations leading to lower energy, fertiliser & water use whilst simultaneously delivering higher nutritional value foods to the consumer.