Green Farming
Underground Farming: sustainability, land efficiency, and food security in Swiss agriculture
There are numerous unused areas underground in Switzerland that could be used for growing vegetables. One option here is to relocate lettuce cultivation to these underground areas using vertical plant cultivation. Underground cultivation also enables and promotes the regional production of lettuce in Switzerland, even in winter. Challenges here include the climate situation, air circulation and CO2 content. The project takes up the federal government's guidelines on the use of underground spaces and integrates this strategy. In addition, the project offers a rare opportunity to export acquired expertise in the field of agricultural technology, which is of particular importance to the Swiss agricultural sector. The aim of this project is to develop a scalable prototype as a model solution for the cultivation of lettuce, red oak leaf lettuce and trio lettuce. The optimal parameters for growing high-quality lettuce will be determined experimentally in the climate chamber at the ZHAW and will be verified by a large-scale prototype at VSH. Besides the technical aspects, economic efficiency of the solution will be a key topic of the developments.
Research Partners
ZHAW
Hagerbach Test Gallery
Industry Partner
Forster Gruppe AG
Amberg Engineering
SCAUT
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