The flagship project "New Agrotechnologies for the Arctic zone" is being implemented in the laboratory of artificial climate of the scientific center "Agrotechnologies of the Future" of the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Agricultural Academy named after Timiryazev.
To grow vegetables and herbs in difficult climatic conditions, smart city farms have been created here. They look like vertical greenhouses with lighting, temperature and humidity sensors. Mobile modular closed-loop systems in the form of containers can be delivered by sea to Arctic ports, RIA Novosti reports.
City farms installed near settlements are able to provide local residents with fresh vegetables, berries, and herbs all year round.
Previously, high-pressure sodium lamps were mainly used in greenhouses. Now there are LEDs, thanks to which it is possible to change the light spectrum and thus accelerate or slow down photosynthesis, control the speed of fruit ripening. As a result, ultra-ripe tomatoes were created in the laboratory without any chemical additives.
As scientists explain, city farms are equipped with digital cameras, as well as thermal imagers. The change of day and night cycle here does not happen by the clock, but in the way that is best for plants. The same goes for fertilizing and watering.
Everything is controlled by a Russian-made robotic system: it monitors the main physiological characteristics of plants, makes adjustments to the microclimate of the greenhouse. There are no analogues of this software. All sensor data is fed into a computer, encoded, and then used for machine learning. The ultimate goal is a digital city farm run by artificial intelligence.
The laboratory is also implementing a project to produce mini-tubers of seed potatoes by aeroponics. For maximum productivity, this agriculture needs relatively low temperatures and a lot of light.
"It is necessary to constantly cool the room and maintain lighting, and this is a huge energy consumption. Therefore, the seed tuber is very expensive. We calculated and it turned out that in the Arctic, where there is free cold and a lot of energy production, it will be cheaper. The yield according to our technology reaches one hundred or more tubers per plant. We may be able to build smart farms near the ports of the Northern Sea Route and deliver seed potatoes around the world," said Ivan Chuksin, a research engineer at the Artificial climate Laboratory.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
