The world’s population continue to increase, and in the next few years, it is estimated that the population will hit the two billion mark. The industrialization will also increase, and most the available land for farming will be occupied by buildings as the increased population will require to be housed, and the industries which will have come due to industrialization will take up the other part of the land. But the population will need to be fed, and more land will be required to produce food that will be used to feed the population.
It means that land will become a rare resource and if we continue using the conventional ways of farming, it means that we will invade the forest to create land for producing the crops needed to feed the population. The forests are an essential part of the human being life because it is used to provide oxygen that animal breath and also supports other ecology systems. Due to this reason, Dickson Despommier a professor from Columbia University come with the idea of vertical farming, in this type of farming unlike the conventional one that the parts are grown on single levels. In vertical farming, plants are grown in multilayers which are vertically stacked together to form a structure which is in the form of the skyscraper.
When the plants are planted in multilayers means that the productivity will increase and the area used for growing the plants is small. The plants are grown using hydroponic nutrients which is situated within a building, which means that those in the urban centers can produce their food in their buildings. Accessing the food product becomes easy because it is within the city center, the carbon monoxide produced by the cars as people get food production away from the city will be reduced because people can get to the points where the food are grown by walking.
The crops that are grown through this kind of farming are raised in a controlled environment whereby they are grown organically; no pesticides and insect ides is required. So the cost of producing the crops goes down because the farmer practicing this kind of farming will not buy the pesticides or insecticide. The plants grown using vertical farming are raised in a controlled environment inside a building so the crops cannot be destroyed by harsh weather like the hurricanes, hail, and drought as the climate is controlled. The vertical farming helps in conserving water, and it is estimated that with vertical farming one can produce food with seventy percentage of water used in the conventional method of farming. Find out more on this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming.
