Science & Technology

Vertical Farming -Removing Slack From Urban Sprawl

Introduction

Agriculture has formed the foundation of human civilization though a lot has changed over the years. Many believe that vertical farming can be the answer to challenges of increasing food demand due to growing population along with decreasing arable lands. Instead of farming vegetables and other foods on a single level, such as in a field or a greenhouse, this method produces foods in vertically stacked layers commonly integrated into other structures like a skyscraper, shipping container or repurposed warehouse. Aeroponic, aquaponic or hydroponic growing mediums are used instead of soil.

In the following article, we intend to explore the following–

• Key trends to driving agriculture • Shifts in Agricultural practices to adapt to aforesaid changes • Benefits, limitations, potential in India for vertical farming

As per numerous domain experts, vertical farming shows a large promise of the changing landscape in agriculture in India.

Key Drivers of change in Indian Agricultural landscape

Urbanization

Since the dawn of mankind, cities have attracted more and more people. The rate of urbanization has varied with civilization but the trend is unmistakable. The number of megacities (> 5 million inhabitants), estimated to grow by about 37% to 104 by 2030, have moved into the cities with more expected to do so in the following decade leading to what is called the urban sprawl.

There is also an increase in urban population world over as cities provide more opportunities for people. This has led to increase in population due to 2 primary reasons:

• More number of people are moving into cities • More settlements are graduating into cities (primarily in Developing Nations)

The crux of the situation is different as the more a city expands the more dependent it becomes for its food supplies to sustain itself.

Gentrification

Increase in urban development in a city leads to areas with less green spaces while land in city centers becomes more expensive. Addition of green spaces

near such areas makes the land more desirable. This in turnis leading to price inflation as it is rare that such unused land in rapidly developing cities attracts higher paying households. The areas are eventually becoming unaffordable for the original inhabitants who might find it better to rent their homes to supplement their income. While the original inhabitants either sell or earn a consistent income through renting of the properties, the new inhabitants moving to such areas generates demand services and products.

Shift in Consumption Pattern

As the purchasing power and awareness of the populous grows, a shift to healthy and organic produce is being observed. The same has already been identified by growth in artisanal and gourmet foods in luxury market and increase in purchase of organic produce in high end market. Whole foods, which caters to organic demand and were amazons most valued purchase,are trying to enter organic food market in the groceries segment.

Traditional flatbed farming methods also require large swathes of land for cultivation. With increase in urban population which don't grow their own food, there is increased reliance on the same plot of land to increase yields to service the growing population. Only 18% of the total land of the world is arable and suitable for growing crops. The total land under cultivation also reduces as cities grow and convert the land at outskirts previously used for agricultural purposes.

Benefits

Vertical farming has a lot of promise and having greater output from a small cultivation area is not the only advantage. Major benefits are enumerated below:

• Condensed to factory like sites • Extensive vertical racking to locate in smaller sites • Located near urban areas results in: –Easier Transportation easier with low lead time. –Less spoilage during transport • Optimized environment leads to: –High Yields –No need for pesticides –Efficient use of resources • Higher harvesting rate for crops • Lower fertilizer consumption • No pollution from fertilizer runoff • No Soil Degradation –No pesticides used –No fertilizer runoff into water bodies

Limitations

High initial investment

The high cost of initial equipment for vertical farming creates an entry barrier for small farmers as well as entrepreneurs, while traditional farming can be started with just a piece of land with small investment. The running cost for the equipment also needs to be factored in the cost of production making the current products viable for higher priced organic produce only.

Limited Crop Variety

The existing technology limits the types of crops which can be grown to high growing and mostly green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, basil and turmeric. The harvesting of tuber based crops and fruit trees is incompatible with vertical farming.

Potential in India

The most potential shown is actually in the larger cities with Delhi being the prime candidate as it stands to gain the most from carbon capture from farms all the while benefiting from 1.9 crores population for consumption of the produce. As the PPP of the nation rises, along with it rises awareness and demand for organic groceries.

While there are already many India based vertical farming startups the industry as a whole is still in its nascent stage. Few of the startups which are transforming agriculture as we see in India are highlighted below –

Gaps in the market

Legal Counselling

The players in the vertical farming segment will be required to navigate the complex agricultural policies of the Indian Agricultural segment which in itself is quite complex and can vary greatly with crop demands. As startups outsource the same, focusing more on their core business experts in government policy will be needed to seize the opportunity.

Market Research

The current market for vertical farming systems is in the organic foods segment which although growing, is still a niche industry with seasonal demands. This brings in the need for robust market research so that companies can focus on growing products with the highest chances of success with their targeted customers.

Benchmarking and Supply Chain Assistance

As more and more super markets opt for such products and tie up with vertical farms, the need for a scalable logistical blue print becomes necessary which can work with the workflow of varied classes of customer. The demand for industry best practices and setting of standards and benchmarks becomes necessary as companies look to appraise the suppliers for not only produce quality but also efficiency of their supply chain.

End Notes 1. Ajay Gokul AJ and Sheeja PS. “Vertical Farming: a novel farming technology”. International Journal of Modern Trends in Engineering and Research (2016): 2349-9745. 2. Meeting Report “Utilization of vertical spaces for horticultural crop production in urban and periurban areas”. Current Science (2016): 2048-2049. 3. Garg A and Balodi R. “Recent trends in agriculture: vertical farming and organic farming”. Advances in Plants and Agriculture Research (2014): 142-144 4. “Vertical Farming: Status, Researchable Issues and Way Forward”(2018). Janakiram, T.; Kaushik, Nutan; Pandey, Vikramaditya; Singh, Ranvir and Sharma, Abhishek (eds.), pp. 180. 5. http://www.igovernment.in/articles/35581/verticalfarmingtobeintroducedinindiasoon 6. http://www.verticalfarm.com/ 7. https://www.indiafoodbanking.org/hunger 8. Vertical farming association, Mumbai. 9. Association for Vertical Farming 10. https://krishijagran.com/news/major-emphasis-on-turning-farms-to-factories-vertical-farming-workshop/ 11. https://yourstory.com/socialstory/2019/03/mumbai-couple-hyperlocal-farm-2fblcy3ya6 12. https://www.cleantech.com/200m-of-plentyful-capital-the-next-wave-of-vertical-farming/

About the Author

Sahil Jain

Sahil is a Management Consultant with Deloitte India in Gurugram, where he works on development and strategy consulting projects. He enjoys reading on topics related to data science, public policy, health and nutrition. He is an avid sports enthusiast and has been a national level armwrestler. A consultant by day and a reader by night, he is loath to discuss himself in the third person, but can be persuaded to do from time to time. You can find him on LinkedIn at -https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahil-jain-2279458b/