Our technology is geared towards flexibility, allowing our customers to pivot to market demand and safeguard against fluctuations
This article was guest written by IGS’ Head of Science, Tanveer Khan. Tanveer leads a team of plant scientists at our Crop Research Centre near Dundee, Scotland. Her work is instrumental in how IGS customers get the most from our technology through cutting-edge crop recipes, reaping the benefits of a dynamic, flexible system.
Being adaptable is important in any industry. In agriculture, this has never been more pertinent, particularly when growers are faced with a volatile climate, unpredictable supply chains, and labour shortages. They're now contending with drought, storms, and a heating planet, all of which make growing crops and predicting yield far more challenging. Many of them also face regional price fluctuations caused by truncated supply chains and climate and geopolitical instability, so being flexible and able to pivot quickly is vital.
We’ve geared our technology to be flexible across a number of areas, giving customers noticeable advantages in crop production, substrate usage, and integration into a wider agricultural operation. Our system has been designed to optimise across all these areas, working closely with growers to arm them with all the tools they need to succeed.
Crop growth
IGS technology gives customers the ability to grow multiple crops and switch production in line with market demand. Ultimately, this makes them more resilient in the event of sudden changes (such as crop pricing, or the price in growing linked to electricity, substrate, seeds, or labour requirements). We’ve trialled more than 250 varieties of crop using our technology, and can draw on this expertise and work with customers to fine-tune recipes to their market specifications. This then helps them to open additional revenue streams, growing ancillary crops alongside their primary output, and future-proofing operations.
Flexibility in vertical farming comes into its own when looking at crop price changes. If there is a sudden decrease in, say, the price of rocket, the grower can look to prioritise the production of another crop. By having access to multiple vertical farming towers, growers can formulate a strategy which can prioritise all the in-demand crops they have agreed with their customers, as well as ensuring they have backup in the form of other varieties. This adaptability gives growers the flexibility they need to respond to market demands swiftly, making them more agile than other means of growing.
Monocropping
Monocropping – focusing on growing one crop variety per Growth Tower – gives IGS customers greater flexibility. We’ve seen sizable advantages delivered to the customer by operating in this way. For example, conditions in the tower can be optimised for one particular crop, with nutrient delivery tailored to a specific stage of plant growth at either a Growth Tower or Growth Tray level, working to increase yield and ensure high quality.
This means that a single tower can hold plants of the same variety but spanning a range of growth stages, each having its individual needs catered for. In the unlikely event an issue occurs, crop loss is minimal since batches are spread across a number of towers. This can prove particularly useful when scheduling harvests and ensuring a continuous supply of crops to the end customer.
We advise against mixing crops in a single tray, particularly for large-scale producers. It’s far more efficient to deliver one consistent nutrient solution per Growth Tower, as each crop uses a specific recipe and deviating from it can lead to lower yield and suboptimal growth conditions. There’s a biosecurity element to all this, too, as a disease outbreak could spread more easily amongst mixed crops and compromise the entire yield. This approach helps to safeguard growers and ensure that any gap in supply can always be met.
If market demand changes, then growing different crops across multiple towers gives growers the ability to quickly pivot. Conditions can be tweaked to suit the crop in question, helping them to stay agile and safeguard their operations against sudden change.
Substrate usage
Another important area that gives IGS customers more flexibility is substrate usage. Our crop recipes are adaptable, so customers aren’t tied to a particular substrate – they can choose one that can be readily sourced locally, for example, or something they already use elsewhere in their operations. This is cost-effective, allowing growers to concentrate spend on other areas of the business and not be stuck with one brand or type of substrate.
Contrary to what you might first think, the substrate used doesn’t need to be sterile – this gives growers even more flexibility over which they choose. At our Crop Research Centre, we use coconut coir, which is non-sterile, and implement a quality control process for added biosecurity. We always advise our customers to choose substrates which minimise environmental footprint, are biodegradable, and are best suited to the crop in question (spinach prefers plugs over loose coir, for instance). We’re continuing to work in tandem with the wider growing industry to investigate new substrates entering the market and ensure that the guidance we offer to customers delivers the greatest chance of success.
Integration
We’ve been manufacturing vertical farming technology for well over a decade now, and since our inception we’ve proudly stuck to one of our founding principles: making our technology easy to integrate with industry-standard equipment. Just like our recommendations on substrate usage, this helps growers to minimise costs and stops them from having to go and purchase expensive new components. This gives the customer greater flexibility around their supply chain, but also means that we can work with growers across the world and adapt to regional specifications, such as supply chain availability and energy source, which is particularly relevant from a crop science perspective.
Giving customers greater flexibility through adaptive technology and crop science
Through the way we’ve engineered our technology and designed the accompanying Growth Recipes, we empower our customers to be flexible. Our tech solutions help customers grow crops, pivoting where necessary, considering ancillary components such as substrate usage and integration into a wider farm, and ensuring the recipe development process takes in elements such as monocropping. This all serves to give IGS customers a jump-start on their competition, minimising risk and maximising profitability.
We’ve got a range of other resources on all things vertical farming, energy usage, and how our technology can be used in the face of a competitive agricultural market. Take a look at our on-demand webinars to learn more.
