Instant Insights: Controlled environment agriculture
About this ebook
The first chapter summarises rapid improvements in the technology used for plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs), including developments in automation, lighting, climate control, sensors and algorithms.
The second chapter briefly discusses the sustainability of indoor vertical farms (IVF) and details best practices for conducting an environmental sustainability assessment of IVFs using the life cycle assessment methodology.
The third chapter reviews the advent of soilless culture systems (SCSs) and their role in supporting the transition to a more sustainable agriculture. The chapter considers the range and variety of horticultural crops which can be grown in SCSs.
The fourth chapter details recent advances in screenhouse design for protected cultivation and describes the common types of structures and materials used by growers. The chapter also addresses whether increasing water-use efficiency in screenhouses is possible.
The final chapter provides an overview of the ornamentals industry and the technological advances improving its efficiency and sustainability, such as the implementation of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting systems to manipulate plant growth and development.
About the author
Professor Marcelis is Head of the Horticulture and Product Physiology Group at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. The Group is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading university centres of expertise on greenhouse cultivation and vertical farming. Professor Marcelis is an internationally-recognised authority on the use of light in greenhouse and other protected systems to optimise crop production.
Dr Nazim S. Gruda is Professor of Horticulture at the University of Bonn, Germany. Professor Gruda is internationally-renowned for his research and over 250 publications in areas such as soilless culture, controlled environment cultivation and product quality of horticultural crops. He is Chair of an International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) Working Group and has edited Acta Horticulturae for the ISHS. In recognition of his research, Professor Gruda was awarded the 2003 “Dr. Heinrich-Baur-Prize” by the Technical University of Munich, Germany, the 2017 “National Scientific Prize” by the Albanian Academy of Science, and the status of “Distinguished Scientist” by the Chinese Academy of Science in 2020.
