One of the world’s most advanced indoor farming facilities has opened at the Dundee site of ENDURE’s Scottish partner, the James Hutton Institute. The facility will be used to showcase Intelligent Growth Solutions’ (IGS) power and communications technologies which are designed to reduce the barriers to vertical farming.
The pesticide-free vertical farming system is designed to reduce the cost of power and labour, which have hindered the uptake of indoor farming, alongside the capacity to consistently produce quality vegetables at scale.
The James Hutton Institute website reports that while the farm will not be producing crops for sale, “IGS will be collaborating with growers, retailers and international organisations to deliver the hardware and software platforms to revolutionise indoor growing environments.”
It adds: “Significant demand is already being realised amongst growers, retailers and national governments aiming to address food security issues and alternative methods of production in their regions.”
The website outlines some of the advantages offered by vertical farming, such as the major reduction in water wastage, an end to pesticide use and vastly reduced food miles. “It allows produce to be grown locally and on demand, which could reduce fresh food waste by up to 90 per cent,” it adds.
“The global horticulture market is crying out for new approaches to enhancing food production in terms of yield, quality and consistency,” said IGS CEO David Farquhar. “It is also searching for ways to reduce power consumption and labour costs and our technology has been designed to fundamentally address this.”
The location was chosen to boost collaboration, with James Hutton Institute researchers working with IGS to better understand how growing under lights can impact different varieties of crop growth, as well as drive increased productivity.
“There are genuine potential game-changing opportunities both for new and conventional horticultural and agricultural systems that can come from our collaboration,” said James Hutton Institute chief executive Professor Colin Campbell.
“The collaboration has proved to be a major strength in developing proposals for a new research facility at Invergowrie called the Advanced Plant Growth Centre and we look forward to help establishing Scotland as lead science centre for this new industry.”
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