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Optimizing Indoor Agriculture
for leafy green production

Optimizing Indoor Agriculture
for leafy green production

Welcome to SCRI OptimIA

Rapid global population growth and urbanization have increased demand for local year-round production of healthy, affordable fruits and vegetables.

This rising demand is fueled by consumer perception that produce transported from mild-climate field-production sites deteriorates in freshness and product quality upon arrival at distant markets. Another aspect of the local-grown movement is the desire to move toward environmental sustainability.

Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) production is the only feasible way to achieve local production year-round in seasonal climates. When cropping areas are stacked vertically within buildings, with overhead light-emitting diode (LED) lighting at each level, this platform of CEA is termed vertical or indoor farming (IF).

OptimIA (Optimizing Indoor Agriculture) is a USDA-supported Specialty Crop Research Initiative project to help this emerging industry be more profitable and sustainable through critical research and extension activities.

Our long-term project goals are to help integrate indoor farming into the specialty-crop segment of agriculture in the U.S.; to increase the sustainability and hence profitability of this rapidly emerging sector; and to locally produce leafy greens that have higher quality attributes.

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