Vertical farming company Infarm has successfully produced wheat in an indoor farm, using no soil, no chemical pesticides and much less water compared to open field farming.
Infarm stated it is the first vertical farming company to tackle staple crop production in a controlled environment. The first trials allowed a projection of 11.7 kg per m2 yield per year. Further projected at scale, this is the equivalent of 117 tonnes per hectare per year.
“To continue to feed the world's growing population, we need to achieve higher crop yields which we have now proven to be possible for wheat through indoor, controlled environment agriculture,” said Guy Galonska, CTO and co-founder of Infarm. “Our results are significant when compared to the average yield of outdoor wheat production, which is about 4.5 tonnes per hectare per year and heavily dependent on weather and seasons. We are confident that wheat can be grown successfully at scale indoors as a climate-resilient alternative. Our record yield could potentially be increased by a further 50 percent in the coming years using a combination of improved genetics, hardware and optimized growth environments.”
According to Erez Galonska, CEO and co-founder of Infarm, being able to grow wheat indoors is a milestone for Infarm “and of significant importance for global food security, as wheat is a calorie-dense but resource-intense crop that is a core component of diets worldwide. We started Infarm to find new ways of producing food to feed the world’s growing population and the results show that we are a big step closer to achieving this goal.” ●
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched seeds last November that travelled to the International Space Station in a joint effort to develop new crops able to adapt to climate change on Earth.
Now, the seeds of Arabidopsis, a plant commonly used in genetic experiments due to its unique features, and sorghum, a grain used for food for humans, animal feed and ethanol, are being exposed inside and outside of the International Space Station for approximately three months to conditions prevailing in space, primarily microgravity, a complex mixture of cosmic radiation and extreme low temperatures.
When the seeds return from space, currently expected in April 2023, they will be germinated and grown in the IAEA greenhouses and laboratories, and examined for DNA structural variations and biological effects. These analyses will help understand whether cosmic radiation and space conditions have a uniquely valuable effect for crop improvement and could potentially benefit people on Earth.
The ongoing experiment is based on almost 60 years of experience of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre in inducing mutations in plants and thereby speeding up their breeding with the help of radiation to develop new agricultural crop varieties. So far, more than 3,400 mutant varieties of more than 210 plant species that were developed using induced genetic variation and mutation breeding – including numerous food crops, ornamentals and trees – have officially been released for commercial use in 70 countries.
This experiment will be the first time the IAEA and FAO conduct genomic and biological analyses of seeds exposed to space mutagenesis. At the International Space Station, the seeds are being exposed to unique conditions that cannot be reproduced in a laboratory on Earth. One goal of the experiment is also to compare such seeds with the ones exposed to radiation in laboratory conditions to study DNA and growth effects. ●
Seeds of Arabidopsis and sorghum are being exposed inside and outside of the International Space Stationfor approximately three months to conditions prevailing in space, primarily microgravity, a complex mixture of cosmic radiation and extreme low temperatures.
Image: NASA, Nanoracks, IAEA
The University of Western Australia (UWA) is one of five Australian universities to receive a $90 million funding boost to create food and medicines for space explorers.
The Australian government is providing $35 million for the new Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, led by the University of Adelaide, with additional funding and in-kind support from 38 partner organizations bringing the total value to $90 million.
The UWA node of the program is led by three WA Scientist of the Year Award winners including Professor Harvey Millar, Professor Ryan Lister and Professor Ian Small, all from UWA’s School of Molecular Sciences. Professor Lister is also from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research.
Professor Millar said UWA would receive a grant of more than $7 million for its part in the project. He said the centre would help establish a long-term human presence in space. “We’ll develop plant varieties and production systems for pick-and-eat plants like water spinach, tomatoes and strawberries,” he noted. “We’ll also develop food plants for long-term space nutrition using duckweeds that are one of the fastest growing plants.”
According to Professor Lister, long-term off-Earth habitation is on the horizon, “but the success of these missions depends on having medicine and nutritious food without the need for resupply missions from Earth,” he said. “Requiring light, water, carbon dioxide and minimal nutrients, plants are the ultimate solar-powered biofactories for supporting human nutrition and health, as well as production of useful materials.”
Professor Small said the space work had spin-off benefits for agriculture on Earth and would help reduce the sector’s carbon footprint. “Many of the challenges needed for long-term life on Moon and Mars are also faced by agriculture on Earth and need to be researched to advance the efficiency of plant-based foods, for example, increasing fertilizer use efficiency,” he said.
Head of UWA’s International Space Centre, Associate Professor Danail Obreschkow said the research would lead to significant benefits to life on Earth. “A large portion of the food required for nutrition, oxygen and wellbeing will need to be produced en route so it’s essential we solve
this problem for the continued exploration of our solar system and there will be major benefits also for life on Earth.” ●
Artist's impression of a Mars living environment. Image: Bruce Moffett, University of Adelaide
