VERTICULTURE – VERTICAL FARMING

Land is to be considered the most important aspect of production, especially agricultural production. With the time we can observe the rapid increase in population. So, to meet their demand productivity of the crop has to be increased. Here comes the picture of Verticulture. It is a practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers. It incorporates controlled environmental conditions to the crop which in turn improves yield and promotes soil less farming. It is a polyhouse based farming where water is provided through drip to each stack (or) layer and light is provided by LED. Generally crops with shallow rooted system is grown in Verticulture. This concept was first proposed in 1999 by Dickson Despommier, professor of Public and Environmental Health at Columbia university. Even in India, it is already implemented in major metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad. Some common choices of structures to house vertical farming systems include buildings, shipping containers, tunnels, and abandoned mine shafts.
ADVANTAGES:
Increases land use efficiency, Nutrient use efficiency, Water use efficiency.
Decreases use of chemicals.
Improves yield.
year round production is observed.
Everything will be easily monitored
No (or) less pest and disease attack.
Employment Generation.
DISADVANTAGES:
High initial cost of investment
Require technical labor
As everything is dependent on electricity it will be a major loss if there is a power cut.
Though the initial cost of investment is high, the success comes form the crop we choose.