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The future of vertical farming: necessary advances in precision technology, crop selection and market sector development

William A. V. Stiles, Darren Oatley-Radcliffe Orcid Logo, Christopher D. Smith, Christopher J. Wallis

The Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology, Volume: 100, Issue: 5, Pages: 637 - 649

Swansea University Author: Darren Oatley-Radcliffe Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/14620316.2025.2513702

Abstract

Vertical farming in indoor controlled environments is increasingly recognised as an essential component of resilient and secure national-level food production, but varied challenges across technology and crop development, economic potential and market sector status conspire to prevent rapid adoption...

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Published in: The Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology
ISSN: 1462-0316 2380-4084
Published: Informa UK Limited 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69727
first_indexed 2025-06-12T13:55:56Z
last_indexed 2025-10-18T09:46:29Z
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spelling 2025-10-17T11:12:04.8412639 v2 69727 2025-06-12 The future of vertical farming: necessary advances in precision technology, crop selection and market sector development 6dfb5ec2932455c778a5aa168c18cffd 0000-0003-4116-723X Darren Oatley-Radcliffe Darren Oatley-Radcliffe true false 2025-06-12 EAAS Vertical farming in indoor controlled environments is increasingly recognised as an essential component of resilient and secure national-level food production, but varied challenges across technology and crop development, economic potential and market sector status conspire to prevent rapid adoption. Indoor food production in controlled environments, where the environment and production approaches can be optimised to enhance production outcomes, and which are unaffected by the negative impacts of extreme weather, offers a means to reinforce and future-proof traditional food production approaches, to ensure future food security, yet this sector has struggled to achieve economic parity with traditional field-based approaches and successful business models are rare. In this review we consider the status and developments needed across vertical farming technologies and crop options, to improve production efficiencies, and future market sector developments needed to address the economic challenges presented by this approach to food production, to ensure successful development of the essential indoor food production sector. We highlight four key areas that need to be addressed, namely: energy and production efficiency; delivery relative to economic scale; and deficit compared to traditional agriculture, whilst also suggesting potential solutions within each area. Journal Article The Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology 100 5 637 649 Informa UK Limited 1462-0316 2380-4084 Vertical farming; CEA; indoor plant production; controlled environment production 3 6 2025 2025-06-03 10.1080/14620316.2025.2513702 Review COLLEGE NANME Engineering and Applied Sciences School COLLEGE CODE EAAS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee Wales Innovation Network (WIN) 2025-10-17T11:12:04.8412639 2025-06-12T14:50:32.7895517 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering William A. V. Stiles 1 Darren Oatley-Radcliffe 0000-0003-4116-723X 2 Christopher D. Smith 3 Christopher J. Wallis 4 69727__34467__b723f093b9c243a8b49a06290a3fe22f.pdf 69727.VOR.pdf 2025-06-12T14:54:32.9547362 Output 4381213 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
title The future of vertical farming: necessary advances in precision technology, crop selection and market sector development
spellingShingle The future of vertical farming: necessary advances in precision technology, crop selection and market sector development
Darren Oatley-Radcliffe
title_short The future of vertical farming: necessary advances in precision technology, crop selection and market sector development
title_full The future of vertical farming: necessary advances in precision technology, crop selection and market sector development
title_fullStr The future of vertical farming: necessary advances in precision technology, crop selection and market sector development
title_full_unstemmed The future of vertical farming: necessary advances in precision technology, crop selection and market sector development
title_sort The future of vertical farming: necessary advances in precision technology, crop selection and market sector development
author_id_str_mv 6dfb5ec2932455c778a5aa168c18cffd
author_id_fullname_str_mv 6dfb5ec2932455c778a5aa168c18cffd_***_Darren Oatley-Radcliffe
author Darren Oatley-Radcliffe
author2 William A. V. Stiles
Darren Oatley-Radcliffe
Christopher D. Smith
Christopher J. Wallis
format Journal article
container_title The Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology
container_volume 100
container_issue 5
container_start_page 637
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 1462-0316
2380-4084
doi_str_mv 10.1080/14620316.2025.2513702
publisher Informa UK Limited
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Vertical farming in indoor controlled environments is increasingly recognised as an essential component of resilient and secure national-level food production, but varied challenges across technology and crop development, economic potential and market sector status conspire to prevent rapid adoption. Indoor food production in controlled environments, where the environment and production approaches can be optimised to enhance production outcomes, and which are unaffected by the negative impacts of extreme weather, offers a means to reinforce and future-proof traditional food production approaches, to ensure future food security, yet this sector has struggled to achieve economic parity with traditional field-based approaches and successful business models are rare. In this review we consider the status and developments needed across vertical farming technologies and crop options, to improve production efficiencies, and future market sector developments needed to address the economic challenges presented by this approach to food production, to ensure successful development of the essential indoor food production sector. We highlight four key areas that need to be addressed, namely: energy and production efficiency; delivery relative to economic scale; and deficit compared to traditional agriculture, whilst also suggesting potential solutions within each area.
published_date 2025-06-03T05:24:12Z
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score 11.089572

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