CEA: a fertile landscape for robot suppliers

The Dutch model for indoor agriculture has been the standard across the controlled environment agriculture landscape. In a region where sunlight is limited during much of the year, a thriving harvest depends on the ability to provide artificial sunlight during periods of prolonged darkness. This is achieved through tightly controlled greenhouses which can be spotted across rural areas of the Netherlands. Controlling humidity, water intake, and lighting, growers have achieved a new efficiency in growing certain crops using automated greenhouses. So much so that the Netherlands - the 134th country by physical size - is the world's second largest exporter of agricultural produce.

Increasingly, the topic of vertical farming is being discussed as an alternative to traditional controlled environment agriculture methods. Companies like Aerofarm, Bowery Farms, Infinite Acres, and Plenty amongst many others, have raised a significant amount of capital under a value proposition aimed at tackling problems such as increasing population, water scarcity, and topsoil degradation. Between these four companies, nearly $2 billion of funding has been raised. Despite this funding, the vertical farm market remains nascent. However, the fundamentals driving this market are too large to ignore. Both vertical farming and traditional automated greenhouses are set to see rapid growth over the next decade as humanity works to fill its breadbasket amidst a strong headwind.

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Source: Agritech Tomorrow