Centuries have passed by since we humans inhabited this planet, and right from the ancient times we are continuously witnessed the developmental process which goes a long way in making our lives better. Each and every field has seen numerous inventions which only help in our progress and one such field which is seeing a lot going on is that of farming with the latest buzzword vertical farming. Farming is being carried out by human beings since ages, but the contemporary times have also created a need to look at this field from a different perspective and hence vertical farming. With increasing population, the need for food will also increase, but what about the farm spaces? Vertical farming appears to be a ray of hope here as the main aspect of space or arable land is what taken care of by this type of farming.
The cultivating of plants which is done on the surfaces which are inclined vertically is referred to as vertical farming. Also one of the important aspects to mention with regards to vertical farming is the skyscraper greenhouse within which plant life could be cultivated thus taking farming to another level. Vertical farming is a shift from conventional farming to modern farming wherein the plants would be grown through the multi-levelled systems without the requirement of additional land of arable type. In this type of farming, artificial lighting is used and one of the advantages of vertical farming is that it may have the capability to bring down emissions of greenhouse gas for the simple reason that the requirement of transportation would be less. Vertical farming is that type of farming which could be referred as building-integrated agriculture. Since this type of farming is carried out in a controlled environment, it would also do away with the requirement of pesticides.
The main point to understand here is the shortage of arable or agricultural land to provide food for the increasing population, let alone issues like soil depletion, soil erosion, and transportation costs involved in taking the agricultural produce form place of production to place of consumption, scarcity of fresh water and so on. Vertical farming can potentially be referred as sustainable farming which has the potential to manage the above mentioned issues, thereby helping all humans on Earth to obtain fresh local produce that is filled with healthy nutrients.
Climate plays a huge role in conventional farming and there are aspects like the requirement of huge amounts of fresh water, multiple levels that exist in taking food from farm to the end users and relatively more requirement of fertilizers. Per square meter higher yields could be offered through vertical farming and the nutritional value of the food could also be enhanced with this type of farming. The use of the three major aspects namely, land, water as well as fertilizers would be relatively less in vertical farming and this means it can help to eliminate deforestation as arable land is not required in this type of farming. With this, we can save forests and cultivate the plants at the place where the agricultural produce would be consumed.
With millions of people going hungry each day, vertical farming could serve as a great option to manage this serious issue. Wastage of food could be prevented with vertical farming and as the factor or climate is not into picture here; it simply means the production of food could be done throughout the year thereby taking care of food shortages and thereby eliminating hunger. With urbanization on the rise, vertical farming appears to be a potentially good solution to manage the aspects like nutrition and caloric deficiencies. Agricultural runoff would also be eliminated with vertical farming done as skyscrapers which are of mixed-use. Environments may also not be impacted negatively with vertical farming. Since the name itself suggests that plants would be grown vertically, the space needed would also be less. With all of this considered, thus, vertical farming may not only help in dealing with the issue of hunger, but would contribute in eliminating deforestation also.
