Vertical farming in closed environments

Worldwide vertical farming is gaining attention: maximizing the use of space by high vertical growing in multiple layers, with LED lighting in a climate-controlled environment. Initiatives are emerging in Belgium as well. However, there are a number of specific questions and challenges related to climate regulation, choice of LED spectra and/or energy efficiency. The future of these systems will also depend on the degree to which we can improve the profitability of these systems by:

• Further increasing the yield
• Lowering the production costs 
• Identifying specialised crops or cultivation protocols that can bring added value to the produce 
•  Exploring opportunities in the circular economy by closing loops within these systems or between these systems and other economic activities.

To explore the possibilities of vertical farming in Flanders, Inagro installed a container for multilayer indoor growing at their main site in Rumbeke-Beitem. In addition, another indoor multilayer growing facility will be installed at Agrotopia in the near future. These research facilities will serve to optimise cultivation techniques, address the challenges related to vertical farming and explore its integration in the production chain for a diversity of crops.