Infarm successfully trialed indoor wheat cultivation, marking a major breakthrough in vertical farming

Vertical farming company infarm successfully trialed indoor wheat cultivation in soilless conditions by the end of 2022.

Preliminary trial results show that on a scale, vertical farming yields 117 tons per hectare annually, which is 26 times the yield of open-field agriculture. Infarm also states that with further technological advancements, indoor yields can be increased by an additional 50%.

Vertical farming is not affected by climate, season, location, or geographical conditions; it does not require farmland, has high space utilization, and can produce vegetables and fruits continuously for 365 days a year. It is regarded as an important Solution for future agricultural supply security.

相对于传统的大田农业，垂直农业作物品类比较有限，在当前的模式下，多数情况下只适合于种植矮生、短周期的叶菜类，药用植物等高附加值经济作物，高附加值的蔬菜等。也有一些垂直农业企业积极作物上品类上作突破，从叶菜类延生到浆果等更多品类。

However, staple crops such as rice, wheat, millet, and soybeans are difficult to cultivate in large quantities within vertical farms. infarm's successful realization of indoor wheat cultivation in soilless environments is undoubtedly a major breakthrough in the development of vertical farming.

However, the construction, technology, and operational costs of vertical farming are high. How far is it from indoor staple food cultivation leaving the laboratory to successful commercial promotion and large-scale application?

The UN World Population Prospects report predicts that the global population will reach 9.8 billion by 2050. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that to keep pace with population growth, food production must double by 2050.

However, over the past 50 years, the amount of agricultural land has remained stable, accounting for approximately 37% of total available land, and this figure is not expected to change significantly in the foreseeable future.

此外，受气候变化、自然灾害和环境污染的影响，农作物产量和质量受到严重影响，增加了农业损失。比如，长期持续的拉尼娜现象导致美国频繁出现干旱，干旱会导致小麦产量和品质严重下滑。而美国是世界上最大的小麦出口国之一，2021年，美国小麦产量占全球的5.8％，出口占到全球小麦总出口量的10.9％。

俄乌冲突的持续发酵，也加剧了全球粮食危机。中信期货研究所报告指出，俄罗斯和乌克兰在全球粮食生产供应中发挥着重要作用，2021年俄罗斯和乌克兰小麦产量总计1.08亿吨，占全球5.7％，出口量5300万吨，占全球26.1％。另外，俄乌还承担着全球18.7％的玉米进口量，因此俄乌局势变化对全球粮食供需影响较大。

In this context, whether limited arable land can meet food supply is an urgent and critical issue; many countries have placed food security in a stabilizing role.

Vertical farming, with its great advantage of being unaffected by climate, weather, seasons, and geographical conditions, enabling continuous crop cultivation 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, has become an important way to innovate solutions.

As one of the staple crops, wheat under optimized growing conditions in indoor vertical farms will yield higher than field production, with multiple harvests per year, using less land, reusing water resources, excluding pests and diseases, and causing no nutrient loss to the environment.

因此Infarm的这一成功试验，是解决全球粮食安全问题的重大突破。作为一家垂直农业领域颇具代表性的创业公司，Infarm在2021年12月完成2亿美元的D轮融资，由卡塔尔投资局（Qatar Investment Authority）领投，成立以来公司的融资总额达到6亿美元，估值超过10亿美元，是欧洲首家“独角兽”级的垂直农业初创。

After achieving a breakthrough in indoor wheat cultivation, Infarm Co-founder and CTO Guy Galonska stated in a declaration that the ability to grow wheat indoors is a milestone for Infarm and holds significant importance for global food security.

He also stated, "To continue feeding the world's growing population, we need to achieve higher crop yields. We have now proven that vertical wheat farming is feasible. We believe that as an alternative for adapting to climate change, wheat can be successfully grown on a large scale indoors."

Before Infarm, there were already successful cases of rice cultivation in indoor vertical farms in our country.

In 2021, the Plant Factory Innovation Team of the Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in collaboration with Qian Qian's team from the China National Rice Research Institute, achieved a major breakthrough by successfully cultivating rice and harvesting it within approximately 60 days under plant factory conditions, halving the traditional rice growth cycle of over 120 days in open-field environments.

According to Yang Qichang, chief scientist of the team and researcher at the Institute of Urban Agriculture, the rice used in this trial is a dwarf variety provided by the Qian Qian team. Its compact plant architecture offers high space utilization efficiency, making it suitable for multi-layer vertical cultivation in plant factory environments.

植物工厂不仅能缩短水稻生长周期、增加产量，还是绝佳的作物育种加速器。它不受土地、空间和气候条件的约束，一年四季均可进行加代育种，将大大节省育种工作者的时间。杨其长对外介绍，未来这座植物工厂水稻育种加速器有望实现每年6茬以上的“快速育种”，栽培层数甚至可以达到10层以上。

Additionally, Longping High-Tech also stated on the investor interaction platform in March 2022 that the company has been conducting exploratory research on shortening the rice growth cycle and accelerating new variety breeding efficiency through plant factories.

In Singapore, an island nation surrounded by sea with limited land and extremely scarce freshwater resources, vertical farming is one of the key cultivation methods. Singapore has made great efforts to apply vertical farming models to urban agriculture; relying on vertical farms within high-rise buildings, it has become a "Garden City" with 50% green coverage.

In February 2022, Singapore also successfully trialed rice cultivation in vertical farms, breaking the limitation that vertical farms cannot grow staple crops. The project is a pilot initiative called "Rice Growing in Buildings," conducted jointly by the Temasek Foundation and the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory.

Researchers first cultivated "Temasek Rice" seedlings in a greenhouse. After the seedlings sprouted, they were transplanted to a vertical farm in the Tampines HDB estate for continued growth. The vertical farm stands six stories tall, with the Temasek Rice planted in approximately two square meters of soil at the top floor. During the growth phase, a precision drip irrigation system was used to precisely regulate water and nutrient supply, delivering them directly to the rice roots. This system reduces water consumption by 70% compared to traditional flood irrigation methods used in conventional rice paddies.

After harvesting Temasek rice, it is brought to the laboratory for testing. Subsequent research focuses on improving Temasek rice's taste, fiber content, and glycemic index to match the quality of rice grown in traditional farmlands.

It is understood that rice seedlings of "Temasek Rice" cultivated in greenhouses are shorter than common varieties, making them suitable for growth in crowded environments. They also possess pest resistance and good drought tolerance, allowing them to continue growing even without irrigation for two weeks; vertical farming is therefore an ideal scenario. Furthermore, with a growth cycle of only four months and three harvests per year, rice yield is significantly increased.

can grow wheat and rice in vertical farms, undoubtedly providing a new imaginative space for solving the global food problem in the future.

However, there is still a huge gap between ideal and reality; currently, all breakthroughs exist only in laboratories. To scale up laboratory achievements for mass promotion and commercialization, cost and environmental protection are two major mountains standing in the way.

Currently, the application of vertical farming in the market is limited, and its adoption rate remains low. The reason is that promoting vertical farming is not difficult in terms of technology; rather, the challenge lies in reducing both construction costs and operational costs.

Currently, fully enclosed artificial light plant factories represent the highest technological form of vertical farming; the rice cultivated by Yang Qichang's team was born within such a plant factory.

Plant factories conduct crop production in enclosed environments, requiring the construction of related engineering and supporting equipment including external maintenance structures, HVAC systems, artificial lighting devices, multi-layer cultivation racks, nutrient solution circulation and control systems, and computer-based regulation and control systems.

Analysis by the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute reveals that constructing a plant factory under 1,000 square meters (including interior decoration, equipment, and facilities) costs between 15,000 and 20,000 yuan per square meter; building a plant factory of 5,000 to 10,000 square meters costs between 8,000 and 10,000 yuan per square meter; for large-scale plant factories exceeding 10,000 square meters, construction costs drop below 8,000 yuan per square meter.

The book "Plant Factory Systems and Practice" states that in artificial light plant factories, artificial lighting equipment accounts for the largest proportion of all equipment costs. In particular, in plant factories that fully adopt LED light sources, LED costs often account for about half of the total equipment cost.

This is only the high initial construction cost; later maintenance and production operating costs are equally significant.

Currently, production and operating costs mainly include electricity fees, various material fees (nutrient solution, seeds, CO2 gas fertilizer), labor fees for workers, logistics transportation fees, personnel management fees, etc.

Li Peng, Deputy General Manager of Sanan Optoelectronics, once revealed that electricity costs currently account for about 25% of the production and operation costs of plant factories. "An industrial building with an area of 10,000 square meters and a height of four to five meters, when converted into an artificial light plant factory, consumes over 13 million kWh of electricity annually."

In China, 75% of electricity comes from coal power generation. The coal production process causes pollution, so the environmental restoration costs associated with energy consumption cannot be ignored.

The above data are all based on calculations for common dwarf crops in plant factories, such as lettuce and cash crops. In contrast, staple crops like rice and wheat occupy more space and incur higher costs.

If commercial promotion value is considered, the market value of staple crops is far inferior to that of cash crops, fruits, and vegetables. Producing staples with higher costs but relatively low selling prices is difficult for the market to accept at this stage.

However, a production method representing future agriculture stands before us; we must not only calculate the 'economic account' and measure the 'return on investment', but also consider its strategic significance.

Many urgent issues face us: rapid population growth, sharply rising demand for food security, drastic reduction in arable land, and a continuous decline in the agricultural workforce... Humanity needs new ways to produce agricultural products; vertical farming is one effective approach. Its greater significance lies in its potential as a major project to save humanity from extinction.

Therefore, many laboratories and companies are actively researching vertical agriculture to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and expand (Sales) channels. We also optimistically see that this is not an unsolvable problem; whether in reducing energy consumption, lowering management costs, or expanding market channels, there are now many ideas. For specifics, please refer to article "Plant Factories: Trapped by Costs".

Even for the current most expensive plant factory, Zhongke Sanan General Manager Zhan Zhuo has predicted that with the improvement of overall system technology and the advancement of LED luminous efficacy, while traditional agriculture faces rising costs in labor, land, transportation, and environmental aspects, by 2025, the production cost of plant factories will nearly converge with that of traditional agriculture .