AeroFarms is the first indoor vertical farming system with B Corporation certification. AeroFarms is a Newark-based agriculture company with a noble mission to grow high-quality plants via responsible farming. It has dedicated its indoor vertical farming system to establishing sustainable agriculture.

Founded in 2004, AeroFarms is an organic farming innovator. It is regarded as the world’s largest vertical farm that grows plants without sunlight and soil.

AeroFarms is gradually evolving Agtech with its creative methods to cultivate fresh, leafy greens without any pesticides or chemicals. It uses 99% less land, 95% less water, no pesticides ever, and deploys merely a fraction of fertilizers.

AeroFarms combines cutting-edge technology in its fully indoor vertical farming system. It smartly collects data for razor-sharp precision farming via agSTACK software. The software is integrated with PLC and SCADA systems for better IoT irrigation.

AeroFarms ropes in aeroponics patented technology and Internet of Things (IoT) to produce more than 900,000 kilograms of fresh green plants every year. It helps grow the crops with 95% less water in a favorable and controlled environment.

Therefore, facilitated by IoT, plants of various types can now be grown all year regardless of the weather or season.

Growing Crops with IoT at AeroFarms

At AeroFarms, the plants are grown on 36 feet high stacked trays instead of soil. The seeds are germinated on a patented cloth medium. Minerals, Nutrients, and water are misted directly into the dangling roots of the growing crops into the chamber below.

As per the crop's need, an ideal LED lighting spectrum is given throughout the 12-16 days of the plant's growing cycle. Under a controlled environment, temperature and humidity are also adjusted to suit the plant's needs.

AeroFarms is a digital and data-driven company that utilizes technology at a massive scale. Sensors and cameras in the aeroponic system gather moisture, temperature, and nutrition data.

The information is then sent to the central control system, including custom and open software, computer vision systems, and several connected devices. The data is analyzed, and algorithms are implemented to ensure just-in-time growth.

The trained Newark staff knows when to pick the crops to yield the maximum flavor, nutrition, and freshness without spoiling them. Once the plant has matured, it is harvested on-site and sent to grocery stores.

AeroFarms indulges in as little environmental impact as possible. Its food supply chain is short-merely a couple of miles away because of its close vicinity to local grocery stores. Hence, it contributes to negligible carbon footprints regarding fuel and transportation costs.

Ensuring Food Security

The United Nations (UN) has already expressed its concerns over the threat to food security and the food supply chain. The UN estimates that even if food wastage is reduced by 25%, it would be more than enough to feed several starving and malnourished.

70% of the freshwater is used up for agricultural purposes. Almost one-third of the food produced globally, which amounts to 1.3 billion metric tons, is wasted.

In fact, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 60% more food has to be produced by 2050 for a population of 9.3 billion. Hence, it is high time that these problems are addressed with innovative approaches to IoT.

During its course of being a global leader in indoor vertical farming, AeroFarms has successfully grown more than 850 varieties of crops. It has also achieved 390 times better productivity without using soil or water.

Thus, AeroFarms believes that every farmer is a data scientist, and every plant is a data point. It has partnered with Dell and Dell EMC to ensure better data-driven implementation. Its collaborative process includes automation and analysis of seed, packaging, temperature, humidity, airflow, light, water, and nutrients to boost food safety.

Calamities such as violent storms and fluctuating weather can often damage harvest due to failed crop yields.

Thus, AeroFarms seeks to transform this sphere of agriculture. Instead of only focussing on ‘how to grow crops sustainably,’ it also focuses on ‘where to grow.’ That is why as scientists search for better alternatives to land for growing crops, AeroFarms opens its 70,000 square foot area for cultivating crops in a controlled environment.

The ever-growing population and water scarcity have been the major threats to food security. To feed the population of billions and farm sustainably, AeroFarms has developed a modern farming system that causes lesser harm to the environment as compared to traditional farming.

Dell’s Approach to AeroFarms

AeroFarms presently harbors two vital projects for execution. These projects improve operational efficiency via product tackling and uplifting product quality. Thus, to successfully execute its projects, AeroFarms reached out to Dell Technologies to leverage the support of all seven divisions.

AeroFarms seeks to widen its modern farming infrastructure via Dell Technologies to incorporate machine learning capabilities.

With the help of Dell EMC Ready Solutions for Machine Learning, it aims for core computing to automate the analytics and logistics process. In this way, AeroFarms has developed a robust IoT farming system with high order intelligence and complex-decision making capability.

AeroFarms collects and conducts data from multiple farms requires a geo-redundant cloud data backup to handle disparate data. Thus, it is looking to adopt Microsoft Azure to create a deep learning cost-effective module with insightful logistics.

The CEO and Co-founder, David Rosenberg, applauds Dell for understanding the integrated and thoughtful IoT infrastructure of AeroFarms. For the two critical projects of AeroFarms, Dell has deployed its technologies for establishing an edge to core to the cloud architecture.

The architecture implies the usage of Dell EMC Consulting IoT Advisory Service that leverages assistance of building roadmaps of implementation. The Dell EMC Consulting experts provided architectural and technological recommendations by taking AeroFarms’ requirements into account.

The devices installed and connected to IoT farming can withstand heavy usage and demanding conditions of the room.

The two projects of AeroFarms garner advice of Dell EMC experts and execute the following objectives:-

Project 1 Objective: To improve tracking of procedures from seeding to packaging.

To keep tabs on all distinct stages of farming (seeding, germinating, growing, harvesting and packaging), AeroFarms leverages Dell Edge Gateways. The Edge Gateway 3001 tracks the objective inputs even under extreme conditions of indoor farming.

Later on, product testing can be conducted via the entire expanse of their discretion locations. Information conducted via interaction with workers and sanitation records on each of their farms will be helpful to optimize processes. In this way, AeroFarms will be able to improve the texture, color, nutrition, and yield of crops.

Project 2 Objective: To deploy and improve real-time quality control of products.

Dell technologies deployed multi-spectral imaging of growing trays to improve real-time quality control of their cultivated products. The data captured from integrated light scanners and special scanners are sent to Dell Edge Gateways. It will obtain 3D topographical images of every grow tray on the cloth medium.

The Dell Latitude Rugged Tablets will be 24/7 connected to showcase the topographical images of the farm. It is constructed and displayed within a 70-degree indoor farm and 36-degree packaging room.

Final Words

A benefit of Dell’s new architecture is that it will enable Aerofarms to scale up their farming processes more quickly, which means faster growth, better control, and greater automation.

Aerofarms will be able to manage the farming process from edge to the cloud - which means AeroFarms will effectively optimize its procedures to get better crop yield and quality produce.

The global IoT in agriculture market was valued at $21.99 billion in 2021, which is expected to grow with a CAGR of 10.1% and reach $35.55 billion by 2026.

The world has seen a wave of companies specializing in agricultural robotics, data acquisition, and even analytics within the last few years. It's a trend that is changing the way the agricultural sector operates for the better!