In the past few years, we’ve heard so much about global warming that it’s necessary to think about how it will affect agriculture and, of course, the food industry.
There are already ways to prevent the harvest of fruits and vegetables from suffering huge losses by increasing the use of new technologies around the world.
For example, when we grow strawberries in an open field (in the traditional growing system) in Ukraine, we get a harvest of 15 tons per hectare, but in the same location and in a modern greenhouse, we get a harvest of around 60 tons per hectare. It means; 1 ha greenhouse = 4 ha standard field (4 times less area, less labor, less bee, no weed, fewer insects, fewer chemicals, less water, no weather condition problems like rain, wind, cloudy weather, less sunlight, etc…)
Also, nowadays, we hear a lot about LED green power lamps. In open-field production, plants need sunlight, and farmers definitely can’t control the weather, whether it’s cold nights, rain, the measure of sunlight, or extremely hot summers… But in the greenhouse, you can control everything, even the sunlight with LED lamps, because, in typical summer, plants are exposed to sunlight for a maximum of 12 to 16 hours per day, whereas in the greenhouse, you can increase that to 24 hours per day; in this case, the plant will work nonstop and give an early and much larger harvest.
It will obviously increase a little bit water and electricity demand.
But for these high electricity expenses, we have a solution back at the beginning of our article. Remember the beginning of the third paragraph: “1 ha greenhouse = 4 ha standard open field.” So in that area where we have freed it from standard soil; we can use solar power panels and batteries, or we can use the roof of the greenhouse for solar panels.Â
So technology is the key solution for agriculture, and it will ensure more efficient food production in the future.
