Vertical Farming in Food-Insecure Countries
Photo Credit © ifarm.fi on Wikimedia Commons; (see license); no changes were made.
Back in 2008, the UN Conference on Trade and Development identified two major challenges to combating food insecurity in developing countries. The first was the polluting nature of conventional food production and its impacts on natural and human capital. The second was to investigate the potential role for organic cultivation processes in lowering food insecurity, and to determine how such cultivation processes could or should be introduced to African and other less-developed countries. [FN1]
One of the notable conclusions was that “the most sustainable choice for agricultural development and food security is therefore to increase total farm productivity in situ, that is in the developing countries that are the most in need of food supplies.” The conference drew attention to three focal points:
The extent to which farmers can improve food production and raise income with low-cost, locally available technologies and inputs;
Whether farmers can make this improvement without further damaging the environment;
The extent of farmers’ ability to trade.
What is Vertical Farming?
One of the organic cultivation processes mentioned was vertical farming, a new type of practice in which crops are grown in vertically stacked layers instead of being planted in the soil of traditional horizontal farmland. [FN2] Vertical soilless farming may seem bizarre from a conventional perspective based on soil-based planting: Farmers simulate the soil nutrients and water needed for growing crops just as if they were planted in soil. Currently, there are three technologies for growing crops vertically:
Hydroponics, where nutrient-enriched water serves as the medium for crop cultivation.
Aquaponics, where aquatic plants, fish or invertebrate animals and crop seedlings are grown together in an aquatic medium. In this practice, the animal waste serves as organic fertilizer for the plants.
Aeroponics, where plants suspend their roots in the air where they get misted with nutrient solutions.
Vertical farming is a relatively new idea, but the benefits are fast being acknowledged. A few key benefits are:
Year-round crop production
Under conventional farming, soil-based land is subject to the law of diminishing returns due to soil exhaustion and is often limited by seasonal production. Without dependence on a soil medium, vertical farms are capable of producing crops at any time of the year if they are equipped with temperature, light and humidity controls that maintain favorable conditions for crop production. The environment is also pest-free and less prone to wind and storm damage.
Not weather-dependent
Soil-based farming is a weather-dependent practice, with certain crops doing better in the winter and others in the summer. For vertical farming, the environment is controlled to optimize conditions for efficient crop production.
Optimizes farming space
Vertical farms involve stacking crops in layers, one above the other. So, mathematically, ten layers of crop seedlings cultivated in a small space would require ten times as much farmland to cultivate the same quantity using standard soil-based farming methods.
Saves water and reduces pollution
Vertical farms use 95% less water than soil-based farms. [FN3] Since the water used on vertical farms goes through a process of collecting, purifying and recycling, water is neither wasted nor exposed to pollutants. Crops are free of chemicals and pesticides.
Vertically cultivated crops confined in a regulated environment are not exposed to pests. Therefore, there is no need to use pesticides and other chemicals for pest control.
Costs of Vertical Farming
As of 2018, the global vertical farming market value was assessed at US$2.13 billion and the compound annual growth rate to 2026 was almost 25 percent. The main growth drivers were rising consumer demand for healthy organic food, interest in new food production techniques and growing urbanization. However, these investments have been slowed significantly by the Covid-19 pandemic. [FN4] Once the pandemic is under control, it is expected that vertical farming will become widely adopted, and costs will drop.
Vertical farms are expensive to set up and maintain, and this could be a turn-off for developing countries. For example, according to data from US-based vertical farm grower AeroFarms, a vertical farm has an upfront cost of $565.22 per sq. ft. (0.093 m2) AeroFarms’ 69,000 sq. ft. (6410 m2) facility in New Jersey cost $39 million to set up. However, it produces up to two million pounds of vegetables annually. Calculated over a 15-year period, it would cost a farmer $3.07 to successfully grow a pound of vegetables in a vertical farm, all expenses considered. [FN5]
Raising productivity in situ: some pioneers
In Liberia, West Africa, agriculture makes up over 38% of its GDP, but food insecurity is at a worrying level. With depreciating land fertility due to repeated use, urbanization, population growth, and consequent increase in food demand, the country’s masses are ‘stomach-threatened’. With a view to improving the situation, the United Nations Mission in Liberia has championed the construction of aquaponic units in the country, with a first small system completed in 2018. [FN6] Results are not yet in and the country is hard-hit by a Very High Level of Covid-19 at the time of writing.
Afghanistan has progressed well in installing vertical farming systems thanks to grants from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund supported by 34 donors and administered by the World Bank. [FN7] With studies showing that about 85% of Afghan farmers use irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizers, it is clear that vertical farming will be impactful for this country. [FN8]
In Pakistan, where agriculture had constituted almost 23% of GDP in 2018 [FN9], commercial vertical farming has begun and may prove to be the future of urban agriculture in the country’s major cities. As of 2018, a vertical farm set up in 2016 successfully supplied healthy vegetables and fruits to the restaurants in Karachi. Farhan Sohali, owner of this farm claims that it took a 45-60-day cycle to grow 2,500 plants with 90% less water than soil-based farming, in a 60-square-foot room: the farm produced “70 times more crops per square meter than they did in field farming.” [FN10]
Resources & Notes
https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ditcted200715_en.pdf
https://www.igrow.news/igrownews/how-vertical-farming-helps-save-water
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/vertical-farming-market-101958
https://www.hortidaily.com/article/6043997/liberia-gets-aquaponics-unit-from-unmil-ffdc/
Development of vertical growing systems are part of Afghanistan’s National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP) which has since 2016 provided technical assistance, worked for improved management and increased productivity of horticultural products, animal production and health, The consortium has granted more than US$190 million to support the NHLP. See https://www.artf.af/sites/default/files/ARTF/Afghanistan-Reconstruction-Trust-Fund-Rebuilding-Together.pdf
https://www.statista.com/statistics/383256/pakistan-gdp-distribution-across-economic-sectors/