Vertical farming

According to the United Nations Population Division (2009), the world population will increase from about 6.9 billion in 2010 to 9.2 billion in 2050 or an addition of about 2.3 billion more people to feed. The percentage of urban population will likewise increase from 50.46% in 2010 to 68.70% in 2050. It is expected that world population will continue to increase. Currently, the rate of growth per year is about 80 million.

Human population is growing, but lands area on the earth remains the same. The food security is alarming the world. There will be one day that there are not enough lands to farm. So vertical farming come into the role to counter this problem.

Vertical farming is the practice of producing food in vertically stacked layers, and where controlled environment can be introduce to produce better yields. 

Or in another words saying, we build apartment to accommodate more people. Vertical farming is like an apartment to plant crops, increasing the production with minimal land use.

How vertical farming helps:

1. Increased and Year-round Crop Production. This farming technology can ensure crop production all year-round in non-tropical regions. 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending on the crop. For strawberries, 1 indoor acre may produce yield equivalent to 30 acres.
Furthermore, indoor farming will minimize infestation and post harvest spoilage.

2. Protection from Weather-related Problems. Because the crops will be grown under controlled environment, they will be safe from extreme weather occurences such as droughts and floods.

3. Organic Crops Production. The advantages of this urban farming technology can be further exploited by large scale production of organic crops. The controlled growing conditions will allow a reduction or total abandonment of the use of chemical pesticides.

4. Human Health Friendly. Indoor farms will reduce the occupational hazards associated with traditional, horizontal farming. Such risks include: accidents in handling farming equipment, exposure to infectious diseases like malaria, exposure to poisonous chemicals, and confrontations with poisonous or dangerous animals.

5. Reduce Food miles. Most of the vertical farming method is applied in urban areas because the land require is minimal. Hence, the distance of the food to be transported to the consumers is reduced. This reduce the energy wasted on transportation and decrease the environment impact by the transportation on food.

Vertical farming allow urban areas to absorb the expected influx of more population and yet still remain food sufficient. The technology could provide more employment to the rural populace expected to converge to the cities in the years to come.


However, vertical farming is costly and energy inefficient. The extra expenditure will be needed for lighting, heating and power supply will be in excess of the benefits. 
The vertical farming would be too expensive to implement and uncompetitive with traditional horizontal farms which use free natural light. 

In my opinion, vertical farming needed more time to develop. By utilising all the brains on this world, there must be a solution to make it better. 
Of course, a detail cost analysis need to done and study the environmental impact by the vertical farming. 

All this data need to be prepared and shown online, to support the claims that the vertical farming are benefiting the society.