Michael Gargaro
Academic and research departments
Centre for Environment and Sustainability, School of Sustainability, Civil and Environmental Engineering.About
My research project
The land sparing potential of vertical farming to support Bioenergy with Carbon Capture Storage (BECCS) deploymentThis PhD will assess the land substitution potential of vertical farming (VF) technologies at a global scale. The project will explore which crops are currently commercially viable in VF and how field grown crops can be moved into VF production around the world. Spatial, technical and socio-economic modelling will be used to assess the transition from field-based agriculture into VF. In collaboration with the University of Aberdeen, the potential to grow bioenergy crops in these areas where land has been ‘spared’, will be assessed.
Supervisors
This PhD will assess the land substitution potential of vertical farming (VF) technologies at a global scale. The project will explore which crops are currently commercially viable in VF and how field grown crops can be moved into VF production around the world. Spatial, technical and socio-economic modelling will be used to assess the transition from field-based agriculture into VF. In collaboration with the University of Aberdeen, the potential to grow bioenergy crops in these areas where land has been ‘spared’, will be assessed.
Publications
Climate change-related impacts have hampered the productivity of agricultural lands in recent times, affecting food security globally. Novel technology-based agricultural production systems such as controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) are a way to reduce the impact of climatic variation and pests that harm current global crop production and ensure consistent crop development. These systems often use artificial lighting and soilless mediums to produce crops. This meta-analysis has investigated the key influencing factors on crop production within these systems, using previous studies on lettuce (the most cultivated crop in these systems) to understand what affects yield within CEA. This analysis has found that on average, CEA systems yield twice that of field-based agriculture (3.68 kg m −2 vs. 1.88 kg m −2), with the most influencing factors being the variety of cultivars grown, the season, the nutrient delivery method, and the lighting type. The cultivation time for this study was 40 days, with 94% of papers having trial periods of 70 days or less, much lower than field-based agriculture (60–120 days). Vertical farming (stacked vertical CEA cultivation) studies were found to especially drive up yield per area (6.88 kg m −2). The results of this meta-analysis are useful for starting to understand the key influencing factors on CEA growth and highlight the breadth of research ongoing in the CEA industry.