Vertical farming: Why it matters for Bhutan

The world today is suffering from the problem of rising population that demands more food to be produced. The food demands has a direct impact on the requirement of agricultural land, thus the arable land requirement is also increasing. However, in the recent past it has been observed that even the arable land is shrinking as a result of township expansion, industrial growth, and domestication of population. Vertical farming is considered to be a potential solution to the problem mentioned above. It is a practice of growing food as well as herbs (medicinal plants) in vertically stacked layers as well as vertically inclined surfaces. In the modern arena, vertical farming harness the technologies like artificial control of light, environmental control (temperature, gases, humidity, etc) and fertigation. This enables the farming to happen in structures like sky scrapers, warehouse or any structure that can be closed from all the six sides. This means that vertical farming can happen even in the middle of a town irrespective of the congestion that place has.