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Plant Factory: An Indoor Vertical Farming System for Efficient Quality Food Production, second edition presents a comprehensive look at the implementation of plant factory (PF) practices to yield food crops for both improved food security and environmental sustainability. Edited and authored by leading experts in PF and controlled environment agriculture (CEA), the book is divided into five sections, including an Overview and the Concept of Closed Plant Production Systems (CPPS), the Basics of Physics and Physiology – Environments and Their Effects, System Design, Construction, Cultivation and Management and Plant Factories in Operation. In addition to new coverage on the rapid advancement of LED technology and its application in indoor vertical farming, other revisions to the new edition include updated information on the status of business R&D and selected commercial PFALs (plant factory with artificial lighting). Additional updates include those focused on micro and mini-PFALs for improving the quality of life in urban areas, the physics and physiology of light, the impact of PFAL on the medicinal components of plants, and the system design, construction, cultivation and management issues related to transplant production within closed systems, photoautotrophic micro-propagation and education, training and intensive business forums on PFs.
Part 1: Overview and concept of closed plant production system (CPPS)
1. Introduction
2. Role of the plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL) in urban areas
3. PFAL business and R&D in Asia and North America: Status and perspectives
4. Vertical farming in Europe: Present status and outlook
5. Plant factory as a resource-efficient closed plant production system
6. Micro- and mini-PFALs for improving the quality of life in urban areas
7. Rooftop plant production systems in urban areas
Part 2: Basics of physics and physiology - Environments and their effects
8. Light sources
9. Plant responses to light
10. LED advancements for plant-factory artificial lighting
11. Physical environmental factors and their properties
12. Photosynthesis and respiration
13. Growth, development, transpiration, and translocation as affected by abiotic environmental factors
14. Nutrition and nutrient uptake in soilless culture systems
15. Tipburn
16. Functional components in leafy vegetables
17. Medicinal components
18. Production of pharmaceuticals in a specially designed plant factory
Part 3: System design, construction, cultivation and management
19. Plant production process, floor plan, and layout of PFAL
20. Hydroponic systems
21. Seeding, seedling production and transplanting
22. Transplant production in closed systems
23. Photoautotrophic micropropagation
24. Biological factor management
25. Design and management of PFALs
26. Automated technology in plant factories with artificial lighting
27. Life cycle assessment
28. Education, training, and business workshops and forums on plant factories
Part 4: PFALs in operation and its perspectives
29. Selected PFALs in the United States, the Netherlands, and China
30. Selected PFALs in Japan
31. Representative plant factories in Taiwan
32. Challenges for the next-generation PFALs
33. Conclusions: Resource-saving and resource-consuming characteristics of PFALs
Toyoki Kozai PhD is the president of The Agricultural Academy of Japan. After establishing his early work on greenhouse light environments, energy savings, ventilation, and computer applications, his scientific interest was extended to in-vitro environments and their control for sugar-free medium micro-propagation and transplant production in closed systems using artificial lighting. He served as President of the Japan Plant Factory Association (a non-profit organization) and is leading the research and development of controlled environmental greenhouses using heat pumps, artificial lighting, fogging, CO2 enrichment, and nutrient solution control systems. Selected awards are the Lifetime Achievement Award (2009) from the Society of In Vitro Biology, USA. The 2002 Purple Ribbon Award from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. Japan Prize of Agricultural Sciences from Association of Japanese Agricultural Scientific Societies, 2018 honorary PhD degree from Mahidol University, Thailand ‘The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star’ from Japanese Government 2019.
Dr Genhua Niu is a professor in urban horticulture with Texas A&M AgriLife Research at Dallas and the Department of Horticultural Sciences. Her area of expertise is controlled environment agriculture and plant stress physiology. Her current research focuses on hydroponics, nutrition management, LED lighting, optimization of growing environment, and development of best management practices related to urban controlled environment agriculture. She is the co-editor and author of the book Plant Factory: Indoor Vertical Farming for Efficient Quality Food Production (1st & 2nd edition). Dr Niu received several awards from Texas A&M University for her service and research, American Society for Horticultural Science, and USDA-NIFA.
Dr Michiko Takagaki is a Professor at the Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, assigned to the University Farm, and has engaged in education and research. In charge of foreign student affairs since 1997 and of international affairs in general since 2006. She holds a concurrent assignment as the Director of the Center for Environment, Health and Fields Sciences since 2009 (2009-2015, 2018-present). Engaging with research and experiments in Agronomy of Tropical Agriculture with major fields in Thailand, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, Dr Takagaki has done research and taught in the fields of tropical agriculture, environmental control, protected horticulture and training of basic horticulture.
