Vegetable Vertical Farming: Evolution and Future Prospects
Abstract
India’s agricultural land is constantly moulting. In order to address the problems caused by the overpopulation, water scarcity, climate change, labour shortage, and urbanisation that is reducing the amount of arable land, newer technologies are being developed. Vertical farming, which involves cultivating and producing crops on vertically stacked layers and vertically inclined surfaces, may be an efficient approach to increase food production with less area. In 1915, Gilbert Ellis Bailey published a book titled “Vertical Agriculture” and created the term “vertical farming”. It is necessary to construct such farms that require less land and less time to transport food produced in rural regions to urban areas in order to grow food there. The market for vertical systems is rapidly growing, and aeroponics and stacked containers both employ comparable techniques. Vertical agriculture is frequently explored in depth in the business and scientific areas. To ensure the secure growth of the chosen vegetables needed for a family, IIHR in India has designed a vertical garden structure that can be installed in the sun-bearing utility area, on the balcony, and on the terrace. Anyone who wants to cultivate vegetables, medicinal plants, and flower crops vertically can utilise this construction. In India, vertical farming has difficulties with mainstreaming, public awareness, farmers’ involvement, technical skills, expense of operating vertical farm systems, and financial feasibility.