MOSCOW, July 27, Vladislav Strekopytov. The agricultural technology created by Russian scientists is able to provide the population of the Arctic with fresh berries, vegetables, herbs, and even arrange supplies to other regions. Will the Arctic become a «second virgin land»?In the artificial climate laboratory of the scientific center «Agrotechnologies of the Future» RGAU-MSHA named after K. A. Timiryazev, the flagship project «New agricultural technologies for the Arctic zone» is being implemented. To grow vegetables and herbs in difficult climatic conditions, smart city farms were created — vertical greenhouses with light, temperature and humidity sensors. These are mobile modular systems of a closed cycle. They will find a place in remote military garrisons, and in shift workers' settlements, at polar stations, drilling platforms, at the entrances of residential buildings and even on a submarine.
In the form of containers, they can be delivered by sea to Arctic ports. Installed near settlements, they are able to provide local residents with fresh vegetables, berries, and herbs all year round. Moreover, it will turn out much cheaper than now, when they bring it on airplanes. «0.702331961591221» data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»421″ data-source-sid=»rian_photo» class=»lazyload» width=»1920″ height=»1348″ decoding=»async» />
“This will bring lettuce-green products closer to the consumer and improve the quality of life of people in remote regions,” says Professor Ivan Tarakanov, head of the Department of Plant Physiology of the Timiryazev Russian State Agrarian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. “Such agricultural technologies are in demand not only in the Far North, but also in the South, for example, in the arid Arabian Peninsula, where it is too hot and there is a lot of solar radiation, and this is bad for plants.In the laboratory — in a basement without sunlight — scientists grow lettuce, parsley, arugula, basil, tomatoes, berries. In vertical greenhouses, you can cultivate any kind of herbs, fruits and vegetables. And in terms of taste and content of useful substances, they are not inferior to natural ones.
«In closed modules with artificial irradiation — light culture technology — we create optimal conditions, achieve high productivity and control the quality of the crop,» emphasizes the professor.< br />Previously, greenhouses used mainly high-pressure sodium lamps. Now — LEDs.
“Thanks to this, we correct the spectrum of light, change it: we give one thing to seedlings, another to adult plants, we add ultraviolet light before harvesting. This is how we influence the accumulation of biomass, the biosynthesis of target functional compounds,” the scientist explains.
For example, in an experiment with licorice, a medicinal plant from the root of which a cough medicine is obtained, the content of the main useful substance, glycyrrhizin, was doubled only by correcting the light.
By changing the ratio of blue and red, you can speed up or slow down photosynthesis, the formation of biomass. And by optimizing the density of the photon flux and the daily level of illumination — to control the rate of fruit ripening. As a result, ultra-early tomatoes were created, in particular. And no chemicals!
«LED irradiators are a unique tool,» notes the professor. «Thanks to them, we develop light recipes suitable for each type. LEDs have a long service life and low heat emission, they do not overheat plants. they have half a kilogram of green mass than high-pressure sodium lamps.
Plant stethoscope
City farms are equipped with hyperspectral and RGB cameras, as well as thermal imagers. Digital cameras record the circadian rhythms of plants and their response to changes in illumination, the light spectrum, thermal imagers record infrared radiation and measure the temperature of the leaves.
«The temperature varies depending on the moisture supply, illumination, energy supplied per unit area,» says Tarakanov. «This is a very important parameter. We use it to evaluate the evaporation rate and select the optimal water regime.»
«Change of day and night» on city farms does not take place by the hour, but in a way that is best for plants. The same goes for fertilizing and watering. Everything is controlled by a robotic system: it monitors the main physiological characteristics of plants throughout the entire production cycle, makes the necessary adjustments to the microclimate of the greenhouse.
Most of the instruments and components of the automated complex are Russian-made. Only Chinese LED irradiators. In the industrial version of autonomous modules, they will be replaced by domestic ones.
Developers of smart city farms are especially proud of the software created in collaboration with colleagues from other Russian institutions. There are no analogues to this software. All sensor data is fed into a computer, encoded and then used for machine learning. The ultimate goal is a digital city farm controlled by artificial intelligence.
«The bottom line is that people without special knowledge and skills can grow vegetables, berries, herbs,» says Ivan, a research engineer at the artificial climate laboratory. Chuksin.
Greens with custom composition
We plan to change the taste of fruits based on individual preferences.
«We are very interested in the problem of personalized nutrition,» adds Chuksin. light, it is possible to grow products that are most suitable for a particular person. This applies to dietary and even medical recommendations.»
The laboratory has already conducted successful experiments on the cultivation of stevia. The compounds obtained from the extract of this plant — steviosides — are 250-300 times sweeter than sucrose, but are harmless to diabetics. Next in line are experiments with various berries and medicinal plants.
«These are high value-added products, and their production on autonomous city farms is economically justified,» says Professor Tarakanov.
And scientists think that it will be profitable to grow seed potatoes in the Arctic. The laboratory is implementing a project to obtain seed mini-tubers using the aeroponics method in closed systems with controlled lighting, nutrition and microclimate.
Potatoes are native to the highlands of South America. For maximum productivity, it needs relatively low temperatures and a lot of light.
«To do this, it is necessary to constantly cool the room and maintain lighting, and this is a huge energy cost. Therefore, the seed tuber is very expensive,» Chuksin explains. «We calculated, and it turned out that in the Arctic, where free cold and a lot of energy, it will be cheaper.»
«The yield of our technology reaches a hundred or more tubers per plant. It remains to build smart farms near the ports of the Northern Sea Route and deliver seed potatoes around the world», — the scientist concludes.
It looks like the Arctic can really become a new agrarian region of Russia, a «second virgin land». It sounds unexpected, but the facts speak for themselves.
July 1, 08:00