What Is the Limit of Vertical Farming Productivity?

ABSTRACT With the possibility of co‐optimizing all growth factors in vertical farming, such systems could contribute to future food supply, but the potential productivity is unknown. Analyzing 171 publications with 1403 data points across 10 crop categories from controlled‐environment experiments revealed major productivity variation among and within crop species. Potato produced the most edible dry mass of 33 g m −2 day −1 , 28 times more per layer than open‐field cultivation. High planting density crops generally showed a high productivity, while crops with longer life cycles were less productive considering time and space. The limits of productivity, defined as the points at which optimizing growth factors return no further benefit, remain uncertain. Uncovering this limit requires systematic, standardized, and scalable controlled‐environment experiments across crop types.

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Publication Details

Journal
Food and Energy Security
Published
2025-03-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/fes3.70061
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Crop Yield and Soil Fertility
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
17.13
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What Is the Limit of Vertical Farming Productivity?

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9 citations
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Crop Yield and Soil Fertility
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What Is the Limit of Vertical Farming Productivity?

Eva Rosenqvist, Hans Lambers, Francesco Orsini, Senthold Asseng, Kathy Steppe, Tracy Lawson, Claudia Luksch, Thomas D. Alcock, Gerd Patrick Bienert, Erik S. Runkle, L.F.M. Marcelis, Sebastian Eichelsbacher
article en
9 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the possibility of co‐optimizing all growth factors in vertical farming, such systems could contribute to future food supply, but the potential productivity is unknown. Analyzing 171 publications with 1403 data points across 10 crop categories from controlled‐environment experiments revealed major productivity variation among and within crop species. Potato produced the most edible dry mass of 33 g m −2 day −1 , 28 times more per layer than open‐field cultivation. High planting density crops generally showed a high productivity, while crops with longer life cycles were less productive considering time and space. The limits of productivity, defined as the points at which optimizing growth factors return no further benefit, remain uncertain. Uncovering this limit requires systematic, standardized, and scalable controlled‐environment experiments across crop types.

Food and Energy SecurityVol. 14(2)
University of Essex (GB), University of Copenhagen (DK), The University of Western Australia (AU), Ghent University (BE), Technical University of Munich (DE), Michigan State University (US), Wageningen University & Research (NL), University of Bologna (IT)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Crop Yield and Soil Fertility
17.13
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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