Horticulture Crops
Overview
The future of agriculture is exciting! There will be lots of changes with new technology, genetics, and farming practices, including the use of vertical farming in greenhouses to grow our food. But some things will not change; Saskatchewan farmers will always produce healthy and sustainable food while taking the best care of their crops and the environment.
Let’s take a look at how vertical farming works!
Vertical farming uses greenhouses to grow rows and rows of plants in a controlled environment.
Join us in learning what vertical farming is and how it can impact our future.
Vertical Farming Greenhouses
Vertical farming uses greenhouses to grow plants. The environment can be easily controlled in these greenhouses which means that the crops grown there don’t have many of the problems that field crops do. For example, there are fewer pests, and they can be easily controlled. The plants receive exactly the amount of water, sun, and nutrients they need. There is less money spent on fertilizer and pesticides and less chance of the chemicals used affecting the environment.
The environment can be controlled so well in greenhouses in order to provide the best conditions for the plants.
In Saskatchewan, we have a short growing season and can only grow crops that can produce seed in spring and summer (3 to 4 months). We grow lots of oilseeds, grains, and pulse crops which are all harvested as dried seeds. But could you ever imagine growing mango, avocado, or bananas in Saskatchewan? In high-tech, climate-controlled greenhouses, you can grow almost anything!
Vertical farming greenhouses could allow plants like mangos to grow successfully in Saskatchewan.
Vertical farming allows us to use 70% to 95% less water than required for normal crop growth.
The Netherlands is becoming a food superpower – check out how they are growing 20 times more food with a quarter of the water.
Vertical Farming Technology
Many specialty crops need a lot of hands-on work to grow and harvest the crops. The future of horticulture crops will also include more technology! Imagine seeing a herd of agri-robots working in a field to harvest strawberries, raspberries, wild rice, pumpkins, or other specialty crops. Check out the different agri-robots that have been invented to work on farms and in greenhouses!
There are a variety of agri-robots in development around the world.
With the help of agri-robots, farmers will be collecting much more data than ever before. Agri-robots could collect data on soil health, plant health, weather, and more and then use this data to make different decisions for different parts of the field. The robot could then send a robot sprayer or weeder to deal with the issue.
Agri-robots can help with the hands-on work required for growing plants.
Agri-robots can help spray the plants with pesticides as needed.
Other agri-robots have sensors that track data.
Agri-robots could make a big impact on the efficiency of agriculture in the future.