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20 Aspects of Land Spring / Summer 2019
AGRITECH
Indoor farming
“Indoor farming units, growing
a year-round supply of fresh
produce are an increasingly
popular set-up option,” says Nick
Barber of Savills Energy.
Indoor, or vertical, farms grow rows
of crops stacked in tiers. The plants are
grown without using soil, in a water-
based solution, infused with nutrients – a
technique known as hydroponics – while
high quality light is provided by LEDs.
“The system has strong green
credentials, for example, it overcomes
concerns over soil degradation and
high water-use associated with some
traditional agricultural systems,” says
Nick. “Water is constantly recycled and
the units themselves can be sited in
under-utilised space.”
Indoor farming also offers farmers a
high degree of control over the growing
environment. They can manipulate day-
length, temperature and precise nutrient
levels and maintain the same conditions
for 365 days of the year.
Larger scale operations of thousands
of square metres are now being set up
on the outskirts of urban areas and for
landowners there are options to set up a
unit or let land to existing companies.
However, there is a drawback. Indoor
farms depend heavily on heat, light and
additional CO2 to boost plant growth.
Power sourced from the grid would be
prohibitively expensive, so units often
invest in anaerobic digesters or biomass
burners. “These are allied to combined
heat and power generators that also
yield CO2, so the system can be very
efficient but the initial capital cost may be
substantial,” explains Nick.
One Norfolk-based farming company,
GroPod, grows root vegetables in self-
contained units, which eliminates the
need for heat.
Blockchain traceability
“The technology system
that keeps crypto-currencies
tamperproof is already being
adapted to help tighten
traceability and boost
customer confidence,” says Joe Lloyd of
Savills Rural Research.
Blockchain software, which underpins
currencies such as Bitcoin, creates a
chain of digitised data blocks.
Satellites and data
As well as being able to steer
a combine harvester from
300 miles above the ground,
today’s satellites can also
photograph fields on a daily
basis. The photographs are clear enough
to enable identification of individual trees,
and can be used to collect all manner of
information that can be especially useful
when viewed over several years.
Some of the ways satellite photography
is used include assessing in-field
productivity and looking at crop health.
This is done through looking at the colour
of vegetation in the field, which can give
information about the drying pattern
of a field and the stability of the soil,
as well as providing health indicators
such as vitality and biomass. Through
data collection it is possible to create
indices that individual growers can use
to appraise a farm’s metrics against the
pooled data.
However, satellite techology is not
cheap. A less costly route for precision
A GroPod for vegetables needs no added heat
“These blocks have a unique identity
in a similar way to a fingerprint; so by
changing a block you change the chain’s
identity and the chain is broken. Any
new information is only added to the
end of the chain, which does not alter
the sequence of the preceding blocks,”
explains Joe.
This series of linked blocks is a more
secure way of holding data because unlike
conventional systems where data is held
centrally behind firewalls, there is no
centralised version of the chain. The result
is a tamperproof, interlinked data log.
“In agriculture, suppliers across
the world are already starting to use
the blockchain system,” says Joe.
“Companies such as Cargill in the USA,
use the system to trace thousands of
turkey movements. While here in the
UK, Marks & Spencer is using a DNA
sampling system to trace the provenance
of its beef. Firms are also promoting
the extra security levels used as a
confidence-boosting selling point.”
As the technology is rolled out it will
undoubtedly add cost as hardware will
need to be upgraded to record and link
the data. “But in the longer term, the
benefits of secure data could outweigh
these set-up costs,” suggests Joe.
“The technology
system that keeps
crypto-currencies
tamperproof is already
being adapted to help
tighten traceability”