The world is on the brink of a climate related disaster. The solution requires a combination of engineering disciplines that do not come together very often. But they must, because the challenge is so enormous that the future of the human race quite literally depends on it. 

Wheat, rice, sweetcorn, and soybean currently provide two thirds of human caloric intake worldwide. But the world is changing. In the face of rising global temperatures, crop yields are expected to fall… with each additional degree of warming, wheat production alone will fall by 6%, rice by 3.2%, soybean by 3.1% and sweetcorn by 7.4%.

In this episode we are talking about a new kind of farming. It combines a range of engineering and scientific disciplines. Mechanical engineering, robotics, software engineering, thermodynamics, lighting, microbiology, and hydroponics. It also takes advantage of the latest agricultural science.

It is called vertical farming, or controlled environment farming, and it has the potential to revolutionise the agricultural sector.

Guests

Dave Scott, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, Intelligent Growth Solutions

Derek Stewart, Director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre, James Hutton Institute

Elliott Erskine, Microbiologist and Knowledge Transfer, Intelligent Growth Solutions

Fara Kahir, Senior Software Developer, Intelligent Growth Solutions

Partner

Intelligent Growth Solutions is where agriculture and engineering combine. Founded in 2013, IGS brought together decades of farming and engineering experience to create an agritech business with a vision to revolutionise the indoor growing market.

Resources

Paper: Temperature increase reduces global yields of major crops in four independent estimates

Paper: Wheat yield potential in controlled-environment vertical farms

The IPCC report on climate change can be read here