Urban farms are a relatively new agribusiness format. Its main advantages are minimal space requirements and proximity to consumers. Thanks to this, the urban farm can be an excellent start for a business in the agribusiness sector.
The urban farm is a favourable environment for growing crops: light, water, nutrients, absence of pests and diseases (closed environment), and the main advantage of this cultivation is complete independence from climatic and weather conditions. Such a farm allows you to provide city dwellers with fresh salads and spicy herbs all year round, minimises transport costs and does not require a large area. Independence from natural conditions is not the only advantage of vertical farms. The important thing is that they give a higher yield for a comparable growing area. Thus, one unit of cultivation area on a vertical farm can free 10-20 units of land from the same area occupied by agriculture. Urban trusses can also be installed on rooftops (as was envisioned when the technology was first introduced), in basements, ground floors, hallways, awkward or unused spaces, and even in shipping containers - in other words, anywhere there is access to water and electricity. Most often, however, large urban farms are located in separate hangar-type buildings. An urban farm is a closed ecosystem with its own microclimate that can be regulated. This makes it possible to grow vegetables and herbs all year round in regions located above the Arctic Circle or, on the contrary, in hot countries, in hard-to-reach settlements where it is impossible to deliver the same fruit due to the long delivery time. In a closed urban farm system, if all biosecurity conditions are respected, pests will not be able to penetrate