Indoor Farming Growing Indoor Agriculture to New Heights

Overall production of fruits and vegetables is not keeping up with the world's nutritional requirements as population growth is exponential. Traditional farming practices are finding it impossible to meet this demand due to growing issues such as a lack of water, a lack of available land, and an aging farming population with declining enthusiasm from younger generations. Indoor farming has the potential to boost crop yields, circumvent land-use restrictions, and potentially lessen the environmental effect of agriculture by reducing supply-chain travel distances.

Lessened impact of outside weather, allowing indoor farming to continuously provide fresh food. Therefore, this factor propels the market growth. In addition, according to a research report by Astute Analytica, the Global Indoor Farming Market is likely to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1% over the forecast period from 2023 to 2031.

How does indoor farming work?

Crops are cultivated using the current agricultural technique known as "Indoor farming," which involves stacking them vertically. This technique artificially controls gas levels, temperature, and lighting using agricultural technology that is environmentally regulated. Indoor farming allows us to boost agricultural yields in a smaller area compared to traditional agriculture by growing crops in tower-like structures inside skyscrapers, warehouses, shipping containers, and even under bomb shelters. Indoor farms use artificial lightings, like fluorescent grow lights, LED lights, and high-pressure sodium lamps (HPS), in place of natural light. Hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics are additional alternatives to soil-based growing techniques used by indoor farmers.

The increase in indoor farming

Let's look at how businesses around the world are utilizing cutting-edge technology to take g indoor farming to greater heights, including cameras, sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), automation, data science, robots, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

AeroFarms: AeroFarms makes use of the most recent advancements in plant biology and AI and plant biology for its industrial-scale indoor indoor farms. The firm use of its own expanding technology platform has been able to produce more than 550 different kinds of greens that are offered by major American retailers like Whole Foods, Walmart, and Amazon Fresh.

IFarm: This Finnish indoor farm firm combines science, technology, and agriculture to provide automated indoor urban farming solutions. The company provides modular indoor farm systems for the growth of herbs, salads, and berries. The company's iFarm software is an all-in-one farming solution that allows for remote climate management and planning and scheduling planting as well as providing instructions for plant care and daily activity monitoring.

Iron Ox: This California-based company's cutting-edge greenhouses grow leafy greens, fruits, herbs, and berries using plant science, AI, robotics, and natural sunlight. According to Iron Ox, their greenhouses produce 15 times as much food per acre as field farms while using about 90% less water, 75% less electricity, and 75% less space than LED-based indoor farms.

Cubic Farms: Jack Benne and his child Leo Benne, both farmers, formed Cubic Farms. They made their way to a Puerto Rican farm that had been severely damaged by a hurricane. Their encounter led them to develop an automated indoor rising system that would maximize available space while causing the least amount of environmental damage.