MAKING VERTICAL FARMING STACK-UP

PI- Seb Oliver (University of Sussex)
Food Side Co-Investigators – Jack Farmer (Lettus Grow Ltd), Charlie Guy (Lettus Grow Ltd), Benjamin Crowther (Lettus Grow Ltd)
STFC Side Co-Investigators - Philip Rooney (University of Sussex),  Pete Hurley (University of Sussex)

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Indoor farms, whether they be a greenhouse or vertical farm, require close control over a wide range of environmental variables. The temperature, humidity, and air flow around the plant shoots and roots is a crucial determinant of crop growth rate. These can be balanced alongside lighting, irrigation, and nutrient delivery, to generate the perfect microenvironment for individual plant species – and maximise growth rate within the facility. Similarly, while large facilities have the budget to purchase multi- million-pound solutions from factory automation experts, most vertical farmers do not have access to automated sowing, harvesting, or packaging machines. This results in prohibitively high labour costs, as employees are put to work cutting crops by hand. This scoping project will involve collaboration between the STFC, LettUs Grow, and researchers from the Harper Adams University, to investigate technical solutions to the problems experienced by vertical farmers.

​Read more about a follow-on project in this blog. 

​2018 AWARDED SCOPING PROJECT - More scoping projects