The optimum efficiency of the cultivation facility is one of the most important points for attention, when investing in horticulture. This ensures sustainable production and profitability of the investment. The central question is then: how many kilos of product does my cultivation system deliver per amount of input of water, energy, CO2 and soil?
The answer to that question is called the Resource Use Efficiency (RUE). Wageningen University and Research has a team of greenhouse horticulture experts who can use their computer models to calculate the RUE for each location on Earth and for each cultivation system. In doing so, they offer businesses guidance on investments in horticulture through customization.
The Wageningen experts calculate the Resource Use Efficiency of horticultural cultivation systems in assignments from the business world. Companies that are on the eve of new investments will then discuss the possible investment directions with the Wageningen researchers. Based on this, the researchers calculate the various specific options, whereby the client exclusively receives the customized results.
The group also conducts research that is co-financed with public money. The results from such research can become widely available. The researchers recently wrote a scientific publication together with colleagues from TU Delft about one such project. The research was co-financed by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union and from the Top sector Horticulture and Starting material in the Netherlands.
The publication gives Wageningen researchers scientific recognition of their approach. They also show in the publication that their approach yields concrete and useful figures. With these numbers, investors in greenhouses or other cultivation systems can make well-founded choices to minimize risks and maximize sustainability and profitability.
As an example in the scientific publication, three locations were examined: Northern Sweden, Abu Dhabi and the Netherlands. Greenhouses were compared with plant factories: multi-layer cultivation systems in closed and conditioned rooms. When comparing these specific situations, it turned out that there is no system that is better in all respects. A greenhouse is (with the current technology) more energy-efficient than vertical agriculture, even in places where the use of solar energy is linked to [major] disadvantages. Vertical agriculture can be feasible if other resources (such as water or land) are scarce, and/or if it offers a better marketing or logistics perspective than greenhouse cultivation.
Read the full paper.
Source: Wageningen University & Research
Announcements
Vacancies
- Technical Sales Representative, Leamington, Ontario
- Technical Sales Representative, Ancaster, Ontario
- HR Generalist
- Head Grower Strawberries (West Virginia USA)
- Global Sourcing Manager
- Buying Operations Manager (BOM Process)
- Sourcing Manager EU
- Manager Operations Ethiopia
- Manager Operations Ethiopia
- Senior Grower
"Tweeting Growers"
Top 5 - yesterday
- Dümmen Orange shows full portfolio at FlowerTrials
- Entries for the Aiph International Grower of the Year Award to close on June 30
- Chrysanthemums can be grown with less electricity and less heat
- NL: Orchid Inspiration Days around the corner
- New sprayable feed enhances the establishment of beneficial insects
Top 5 - last week
Top 5 - last month
- Hasfarm’s network expands in Indonesia, partnering with Bromelia Flowers and Tropika
- "Breeders need to study the Chinese market carefully before introducing a variety"
- North America: “Unbridled optimism for Mother’s Day tempered by reality”
- “A new sales channel for flower companies without any labor or high fixed costs”
- “Carnations have made a comeback; being seen as trendy again”
Plant factories versus greenhouses
Making the right choices when investing with the Resource Use Efficiency
Publication date:
Receive the daily newsletter in your email for free | Click here
Other news in this sector:
- 2023-06-06 "Our newly opened Innovation Center recreates highly controlled environment of vertical farming"
- 2023-06-05 US (PA): Sugar Valley Greenhouse counting their blessings, one petal at a time
- 2023-06-01 Amasya Research Institute is trying to bring back extinct Sprenger's tulip
- 2023-06-01 Australia: Ball Mother-stock House meets growing demands
- 2023-05-30 Two new cover additives to balance the temperature between night and day
- 2023-05-30 US (PA): Fire destroys greenhouse in Nippenose
- 2023-05-29 UK: Take a peek in a glasshouse
- 2023-05-24 "Power lies in the marriage between 'ag' and 'tech'"
- 2023-05-24 US (AK): Summer flowers are in full bloom for a project dating back 30 years
- 2023-05-15 US (MA): Araujo Farms in Dighton opens brand new greenhouses to showcase huge array of plants
- 2023-05-11 US (PA): Greenhouse in Lawrence County feeling impact of train derailment, chemical release
- 2023-05-10 UK: Herefordshire nursery plans 70 more acres of pot plants
- 2023-05-10 Turkey: Bilecik municipality fulfills 90% of its flower consumption from its own greenhouses
- 2023-05-09 New addition to LaFarm expands education and farming possibilities
- 2023-05-09 Turkey: 45 hectare flower greenhouse is set up in Erbaa, Tokat with 12.5 million USD investment.
- 2023-05-08 Carnation planting season in Isparta under way for the summer harvest
- 2023-05-08 90% of the ranunculus grown in Antalya exported to Europe
- 2023-05-08 Inside a Dutch tulip farm
- 2023-05-08 Japan: Tohoku growers seek to export more flowers overseas
- 2023-05-05 New Instagram series sheds light on horticulture in Ontario’s ‘sun parlour’
