The Skyscraper Crop Factory: A Potential Crop-Production System to Meet Rising Urban Food Demand
Li Zhang,
Lan Huang,
Tao Li,
Tao Wang,
Xiao Yang,
Qichang Yang
Affiliations
Li Zhang
Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IUA-CAAS) & Chengdu National Agricultural Science and Technology Center (NASC), Chengdu 610213, China
Lan Huang
Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IUA-CAAS) & Chengdu National Agricultural Science and Technology Center (NASC), Chengdu 610213, China
Tao Li
Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Tao Wang
Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Xiao Yang
Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IUA-CAAS) & Chengdu National Agricultural Science and Technology Center (NASC), Chengdu 610213, China; Corresponding authors.
Qichang Yang
Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IUA-CAAS) & Chengdu National Agricultural Science and Technology Center (NASC), Chengdu 610213, China; Corresponding authors.
Vertical farming systems, such as sky farms, are a potential type of agricultural system for stable and effective food production. Here, we highlight the potential of the sky farm, denoted as the “skyscraper crop factory” (SCF), for cereal crop production and discuss some nascent technologies that would be applied in this production system. SCFs are ideal crop-production systems for increasing the effective arable area for crops and ensuring food security in times of crises that cause a shock in global trade. They can also provide food in urban areas to meet producers’ and consumers’ demands for the increased nutrition, taste, and safe production of cereal crops. Moreover, as their use can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, SCFs could be a sustainable addition to conventional agricultural crop production.
