The Secret Lies in the Difference Between Plant Factories and Open Field Cultivation
First of all, let’s explain the difference between plant factories and open field cultivation as a premise.
What is a plant factory?
A plant factory is a facility that artificially controls environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, light, and CO2 concentration.
By maintaining optimal conditions for crop growth, it is possible to improve quality and stabilize production. In addition, its strength is that it enables year-round and planned production, allowing it to meet market needs.
What is open field cultivation?
On the other hand, open field cultivation is a traditional form of agriculture that utilizes natural conditions outdoors to grow crops.
The reason why open field cultivation is widely practiced is that it can directly utilize natural resources such as sunlight and soil. In other words, it’s cheap.
However, it is greatly affected by the weather, which is a disadvantage that makes stable production difficult.
That’s the point.
This difference between the two holds the key to whether or not they are “suitable” for growing grains.
In other words, what I want to say is that plant factories are not suitable for growing grains.
Challenges of Plant Factories in Wheat and Soybean Cultivation
Now, based on the characteristics of plant factories and open field cultivation, I will explain whether grains can be grown.
From a technical point of view alone, cultivation is “possible.”
However, if you try to grow grains in a plant factory, you will encounter the following obstacles.
1. Ensuring Light Quantity and Cost
Wheat and soybeans require more light for growth compared to other vegetables. In particular, they need to be exposed to a large amount of light during the reproductive growth stage (from flowering to grain filling).
However, light costs money in a plant factory. To cover the amount of light required for grain cultivation with artificial light, a huge amount of electricity is required. This is a major challenge in terms of cost.
Plant factories consume a lot of electricity. To what extent? It’s just barely enough to grow lettuce, which doesn’t require that much light.
2. Growth Period and Cultivation Space Efficiency
Wheat and soybeans have a longer growth period and grow taller than vegetables. In the case of wheat, it takes about 6 months from sowing to harvesting, and soybeans take 3 to 4 months. Also, wheat can grow to over 1m tall, and soybeans can grow to about 60-70cm.
This is because they require a long growing period to bear fruit. Therefore, it is difficult to use the limited space of a plant factory efficiently. To make effective use of cultivation space, crops that are short in height and can be harvested in a short period of time are suitable.
In other words, leafy vegetables are suitable.
3. Balance with Sales Price
Currently, the standard practice for plant factories is to aim for high profits with strawberries, etc., or high turnover with lettuce.
However, the market price of wheat and soybeans is lower than that of vegetables, so it is difficult to exceed the production cost in a plant factory.
In addition, plant factories need to be large-scale. This is because it is necessary to take advantage of economies of scale to reduce costs. However, wheat and soybeans have characteristics that are not suitable for plant factories, so efficient production is difficult even if they are scaled up.
Future Prospects of Wheat and Soybean Cultivation in Plant Factories
Currently, it can be said that wheat and soybean cultivation in plant factories is not economically viable, but it may be possible in the future.
However, in recent years, even leafy vegetables are struggling to be profitable in plant factories.
It may be a very distant future before wheat and soybean cultivation in plant factories becomes a reality.
However, this does not mean that existing plant factories are not making any profit at all. It is possible to increase profits depending on the know-how of the site.
To do so, it is essential to improve on-site capabilities, and this site provides the know-how to do so.
If you are interested, please check out the following content.
If energy-saving and cost-reduction technologies are developed, costs will be significantly reduced, and they may be used for grain cultivation.
In addition, plant factory technology may be used for food production in environments where open field cultivation on Earth is difficult, such as in outer space. There, stable production is more important than cost, so the strengths of plant factories can be utilized.
Summary
Wheat and soybean cultivation in plant factories is currently not economically viable, but it may be possible in the distant future.
It is important to continue to pursue the possibilities of plant factories for the sake of stable food supply in the future.
Plant factories mainly cultivate leafy vegetables. Typical examples include lettuce, spinach, and salad greens. These vegetables are suitable for plant factories because they can be harvested in a short period of time and have relatively high unit prices. In addition, fruit vegetables such as tomatoes and strawberries, as well as herbs, are also cultivated. These items have high added value and can take advantage of the benefits of cultivation in plant factories. On the other hand, it is currently considered difficult to cultivate grains in plant factories due to cost and cultivation efficiency issues. However, advances in technology may make grain cultivation possible in the future. Plant factory technology may be used for food production in special environments such as outer space.
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