The AgriFORCE Growing Systems team has spent more than two years doing a deep dive into the research and development of our proprietary facility design and automated growing system.
Over this time, we learned a great deal that has helped to further the work that we are doing in the agriculture technology sector. As business professionals and as people, we have expanded our knowledge about the serious issues – crises, in fact – that are facing this important industry.
Climate change and extreme weather are global emergencies. Entire regions are being ravaged as a result of flooding, hurricanes, heat waves, unseasonably dry conditions resulting in devastating wildfires and more. Communities are being displaced and food crops are being decimated as a result. Let’s be clear here – the food security issues that are being caused as a result of this are going to create an even bigger humanitarian crisis.
Food security is a necessity of life, and with population growth expected to hit nearly 10 billion by 2050, current crop yields already aren’t sufficient. Arable land is disappearing globally through the effects of climate change and soil erosion – and soil health deterioration is making large areas of arable land no longer usable. This dramatically decreases the ability of farmers globally to produce food, yet the world’s population continues to increase substantially.
The environmental impact of farming is also a serious concern. Today’s cultivation processes continue to use up precious natural resources – like water – and put more and more stress on the electrical grid. In addition, when it comes to health and safety, the processes currently in place are failing miserably. Practices seem to be relying more and more on pesticides during the cultivation process and/or irradiation upon harvest. These environmental and health and safety issues alone must be addressed immediately – many would say urgently. That’s where AgriFORCE comes in.
AgriFORCE is going to lift the sector up out of the industrial age and into the digital one – to a world where Clean. Green. Better. is the standard, not aspirational. Our proprietary facility design and automated growing system is the future of viable farming. It addresses a more informed consumer marketplace, where being grown as close to nature as possible is important; where being pesticide-free and organic matters; and where being environmentally sustainable is crucial. Add profitability to this because you are delivering what consumers are demanding – and that means everyone benefits.
By Ingo Mueller, CEO, AgriFORCE Growing Systems Ltd.