22 June 2021 Tuesday
Plant Factories
All of our production and consumption activities, which we initially carried out to survive, have now reached unimaginable proportions, and this situation has begun to affect not only us, but also our world and almost all living things that share this planet with us.
At this point, the fact that some threats for both humanity and our world have become visible shows us that we should not do some things as before. For example, the agricultural production activities we carry out for the sake of nutrition have started to create uncontrollable consequences for our world. At the same time, our agricultural production is at risk for different reasons.
According to a recent United Nations report, the current world population of 7.8 billion is expected to increase by an additional 83 million each year. This means that more food must be produced for more people. It is estimated that we will probably need 50 to 70% more food by 2050. In addition to the increasing world population, climate change is another problem for agricultural production and our world. In addition, weather conditions such as drought and flood also bring devastating effects on agricultural production. Along with these, the pollution of soil, water and air has become a major threat to meet the increasing food demand. While climate change gradually reduces freshwater resources, traditional farming methods consume more water and our underground water resources are depleted for this reason. In addition, the effects of migration from rural to urban areas and poor agricultural practices are rapidly reducing productive and healthy agricultural areas. Rapid migration from rural to urban areas and reluctance of new generations to deal with agriculture cause a decrease in food production. Considering all these reasons, it is clear that we cannot feed humanity with traditional agriculture and that we cannot protect our planet from pollution under these conditions.
To understand how we got to this stage, we actually need to take a look at the history of food production activities. About 10,000 years ago, traditional agriculture began with the cultivation of wheat in the southeastern region of Turkey. The Industrial Revolution brought about the modernization of primitive farming methods and thus, industrial agriculture, which is the second stage of agriculture, was started. However, with the huge increase in world population after World War II, arable land was processed uncontrollably to meet the increasing food demand and there was an incredible increase in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides (substances used to prevent, control or reduce harmful organisms). For this reason, controlled agriculture, which is the third stage of agriculture, started after the development of greenhouse cultivation in the second half of the 20th century. Thus, a wider variety of crops began to be produced in longer seasons and in smaller areas. However, with all these processes, soil, water and air have also been polluted and the increasing world population has become a major threat to meet the food demand.
At this point, it has become compulsory for us to move to the fourth stage of agriculture, which we can call "Agriculture 4.0", which is different from traditional agriculture for both humanity and sustainable world life and aims to produce environmentally friendly and sustainable plants with minimum water use in order to obtain high quality products. In recent years, indoor plant production facilities with artificial lighting, also known as "Plant Factories", have become systems that are rapidly becoming widespread in the world, especially for the production of leaf vegetables and various seedlings. Plant factories are systems that produce plants suitable for production in the space with artificial lighting in a serial and rapid manner. One of the most important differences of plant factories against open field production or greenhouse production is that they can be built anywhere imaginable.
Plant factories are actually among the innovations that all humanity should support for many reasons. For example, plant factories are operated indoors under controlled growing conditions such as light, temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration. Growers can rearrange these conditions in all plant factories for optimum plant growth. Ideal conditions in plant factories allow plants to develop under the same conditions all year round, while drought, flood, wind, etc. They also provide relief from destructive effects. Plant factories also facilitate rapid delivery of fresh produce by enabling local food production in urban areas.
When the production part is examined, it is seen that there are many innovations and benefits. For example, unlike other agricultural methods, growing the roots of plants by immersing them in a nutrient solution prevents water loss and this allows the plant to take the nutrients it needs with very little effort.
In this process, the energy consumed by the roots is spent on growth and plants grow much faster than they grow in the soil. For this reason, harvesting is done much more frequently in plant factories than in conventional agriculture (for example, a vegetable that is harvested 3-6 times a year in traditional agriculture can be harvested up to 20 in artificial lighting system). And almost all of the harvested plants can be packaged untouched. In addition, most vegetables grown outdoors using conventional agriculture are sprayed with pesticides. Since plant factories grow plants in a closed environment where no insects can enter, neither organic nor chemical pesticides are used. Another important point is that thanks to the controlled environment provided by plant factories, producers have the opportunity to grow even plant species that are not suitable for the climate of any region. In addition, the production of agricultural products under controlled conditions ensures that all kinds of vegetables are supplied to the market at the desired time and costs can always be kept under control.
For all these reasons, “Plant factories” are perhaps one of the most important technologies in order to save the future of both humanity and our world. Therefore, it would be wiser for both us and our world to replace our traditional agricultural activities with these environmentally friendly systems. Perhaps the most important step we will take to build the future in a healthy way and protect our planet from pollution is to develop sustainable technologies such as "Plant Factories".
Sources:
Yamori, W., Zhang, G., Takagaki, M., & Maruo, T. (2014). Feasibility Study Of Rice Growth in Plant Factories. Rice Research: Open Access.
Yücesan, B., & Olutaş, M. (2019). Bitki Fabrikalarının Dünü, Bugünü ve Yarını. Uluslararası Anadolu Ziraat Mühendisliği Bilimleri Dergisi, 1(5), 1-3.
https://www.vegetory.com.my/single-post/why-do-we-need-plant-factories
https://www.farminova.com/en
Çağlar KARAKURT
Research Assistant
Istanbul Gelisim University
Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences
Department of International Trade and Business
