ATW 2024: Can vertical farming help feed the world?

Agri-TechE Week 2024 celebrates its 11th year – our largest yet, featuring eleven events curated by Agri-TechE and hosted by our incredible member community. This week exemplifies innovation, collaboration, and forward-thinking in agri-tech.

Each event reflects the strength of our ecosystem, fostering vital connections between growers, researchers, and technology developers. Thank you to our members for hosting and making Agri-TechE Week possible and showcasing what our community can achieve. 

Organised by the RNAA, Fischer Farms opened their doors to a group of Norfolk farmers and advisers all eager to learn about innovative ways to grow uniform crops all year round.

Fischer Farms is a vertical farming operation that is leading the way in scalable food production to provide a more resilient and sustainable way to feed people. The organisation has a multi-channel route to market supplying mainly food service and wholesale. The facility in Norwich specialises in the production of leafy greens and aromatic herbs.

We got to see how basil, watercress and chive is grown on the site – the basil smelled and tasted particularly fresh and delicious! All three crops start off in a damp mat of rockwool, on which seeds are spread at different densities.

The group was particularly interested in learning about the different growth requirements for these crops. For example, basil and chive only need watering once a day, but watercress requires a steady stream of water. While watercress and basil are harvested once, chive on the other hand goes through several rounds of cutting.

One of the advantages of growing crops in a protected environment is that all aspects of the growing cycle can be controlled, from the day and night cycles to the temperature, airflow and water. We discovered that the water used on site, coming from either the mains or collected rainwater, is filtered to become purified and then supplemented with a bespoke concoction of nutrients required for different crops.

Leafy greens aren’t the only crops of interest to Fischer Farms. Research & Development is the focus of a second facility based in Lichfield, where trials are taking place to test growing alternative crops such as soft fruits. The R&D site is continuously looking at ways to innovate, through growing different crops – such as pharmaceuticals, trialling different growing regimes or engineering solutions for vertical growing.

Following the visit to Fischer Farms, we heard about the establishment of the Food Enterprise Park. The hub is supporting food production in Norfolk through the co-location of businesses that can add value through food processing and agri-tech solutions. Find out more about Fischer Farms and the Food Enterprise Park.