[VFarm]

Research programme: PRIN 2020

Research areas: Agronomy and field, vegetable, ornamental crops, Agricultural and food economics , Plant pathology and entomology

Scientific officer: Francesco Orsini

Period: 08/05/2022 - 09/05/2025

Research groups: Francesco Orsini, Giuseppina Pennisi, Giorgio Prosdocimi Gianquinto, Elisa Appolloni, Laura Carotti, Ilaria Zauli, Matteo Landolfo, Vito Aurelio Cerasola, Matteo Vittuari, Valentina Guerrieri, Simone Amadori, Nicoletta Contaldo

Other Departments involved: Industrial engineering

Project Manager: Valeria Bregola

In recent years, a rapid growth has been experienced in the global distribution of vertical farms, especially in North America, Asia and Northern Europe. Indeed, mainly thanks to their elevate performances in resource use (e.g., water saving) or their reduced costs for cooling as compared with greenhouses, their application in warmer climates (e.g., Mediterranean), is gaining interest among researchers and practitioners. However, their uptake and validation, as well as the optimisation of technologies to the Mediterranean context, is proceeding slowly, with a limited role of Italian technology providers or actual applications in the global market. Also, to date the sector is experiencing a limited diversification among produced crops, and the large majority of existing vertical farms limit their production to few crops categories (mainly vegetables and aromatic species), for which cultivation in vertical farming environments is particularly simple.

The project Sustainable Vertical Farming (VFarm) aims to implement a virtual process for enabling the environment for the rapid growth of vertical farming in Italy. Such aim will be targeted by interdisciplinary research that combines strategies for crop diversification (encompassing optimisation of vegetable crops and herbs cultivation protocols, but also targeting microgreens, edible flowers, spices, berries, mushrooms and aquaponic products), altogether with applied research on technologies for vertical farming (including growing systems, pest control strategies, LED lighting and climate control management). Experimental data will be used to feed sustainability indicators (through life cycle thinking approaches, encompassing environmental, economic and social impacts), and will enable to design typologies (e.g. container-type and warehouse-type vertical farms) and strategic tools (e.g. a sensor-based Decision Support System) specifically adapted to the Italian context. A strong link between research and innovation is foreseen, thanks to the establishment of strong bounds between academy and private enterprises for a rapid uptake of the developed technologies. Accordingly, VFarm will promote the Italian scientific excellence, cooperation between research, business and the civil society, the creation of policy guidelines for a sustainable society, promotion of gender equality in science, and the recruitment of young researchers, in line with EU strategies and toward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.