Vertical farms and pollination robots: new technologies to supplement crop production free from environmental constraints
摘要
Human-induced environmental changes have been reducing the available agricultural land and its quality resulting in a steady decline in the diversity and density of pollinators which affect crop productivity. These destructive anthropogenic activities have raised serious concern about the ability of traditional land-based agriculture to sustain global food production to feed the growing population of the world. Two new technologies, vertical farms (VFs) and pollination robots (PFs), have the potential to overcome these limitations. In VFs, crops are grown in horizontally stacked layers arranged vertically in extra-large buildings maintained under controlled environmental conditions. Pollination Robots (PRs) are mechanical devices designed to perform pollination of crop plants, VFs can be set up even on land unsuitable for agriculture and in countries with limited available agricultural land. PRs can be used to pollinate not only crops grown in UFs but also in field grown crops in which pollination is a constraint. These technologies have come up in many countries and extensive work is going on around the world to make these technologies economically viable and profitable. VFs and PRs have the ability to supplement food production throughout the year free from environmental impacts.