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Sustainable Urban Agriculture in the 21st Century

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A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural and Floricultural Crops".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 February 2022) | Viewed by 11272

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Giuseppina Pennisi

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Guest Editor

Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, 40100 Bologna, Italy
Interests: vertical farming; artificial lightning; vegetable crops
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Esteban J. Baeza Romero

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Guest Editor

Wageningen Plant Research, Wageningen University, 6708PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Interests: agricultural engineering; horticulture; greenhouse; indoor farming

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As cities become larger and a larger population moves into them, it becomes more and more important to bring agriculture to them. This is not only a possibility to create new business models—it is also a necessity because of the large impact that it can have on improving the quality of life of human communities. This impact includes greening the landscape, improving the chances of circularity between agriculture and other economic activities in the cities, and the social impact that it can have in a wide range of age groups, from education to leisure. The types of agricultural activities developed in cities can range from very simple gardens on rooftops to fully controlled vertical farms. All of this can contribute to producing high-quality food with zero mileage, helping in this way to revert climate change. The availability of healthier and fresher food can help to combat endemic problems in some societies, such as obesity and chronic diseases related to imbalanced diets. The sustainability of urban agriculture can be boosted by the arrival and massive implementation of technologies such as LEDs, hydroponics systems, Artificial Intelligence and improved logistics for cultivation, packaging, and final product delivery.

Dr. Giuseppina Pennisi
Prof. Dr. Esteban J. Baeza Romero
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

vegetables
health
circularity
climate change
indoor farming
rooftop greenhouses

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 6282 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of the Microclimate in a Traditional Colombian Greenhouse Used for Cut Flower Production

by Edwin Villagrán, Jorge Flores-Velazquez, Carlos Bojacá and Mohammad Akrami

Agronomy 2021, 11(7), 1330; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11071330 - 30 Jun 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2481

Abstract

Cut flower production in the Bogotá savanna is one of Colombia’s main export products. Flower production is mainly carried out in greenhouses, as this type of production system has substantial advantages over crops grown in open fields. Protected agriculture provides timely climate management that improves crop yields. The objective of this work was to build and validate a 3D CFD numerical model to understand the spatial distribution of temperatures because of the air flow dynamics inside a typical greenhouse in the Bogotá savanna. Root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) were the statistical indicators used between experimental and simulated wind speed and temperature data. The simulations considered twelve evaluation scenarios that were established based on the climatic conditions characteristic of the study region. The results indicate that under regional conditions of temperature and wind for this type of passive greenhouse, there is a deficient ventilation rate. This rate does not exceed 35 exchanges h⁻¹ compared to the recommended rates for crops, which is between 45 and 60 air exchanges h⁻¹. This renewal rate contributes to the heterogeneity of the microclimatic dynamics of the greenhouse, presenting hot spots with temperature values above 32 °C in all examined scenarios. For the lower air speed scenarios (<1 ms⁻¹), these areas of high temperature can reach up to 50% of the cultivated area. Therefore, it is suggested that future studies should seek technical solutions to optimize the microclimatic conditions of the greenhouse design used in the Colombian floriculture sector. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Agriculture in the 21st Century)

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14 pages, 1693 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Preferences of Different Cultivars of Lettuce Seedlings (Lactuca sativa L.) for the Spectral Composition of Light

by Barbara Frąszczak and Monika Kula-Maximenko

Agronomy 2021, 11(6), 1211; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11061211 - 15 Jun 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2856

Abstract

The spectrum of light significantly influences the growth of plants cultivated in closed systems. Five lettuce cultivars with different leaf colours were grown under white light (W, 170 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹) and under white light with the addition of red (W + R) or blue light (W + B) (230 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹). The plants were grown until they reached the seedling phase (30 days). Each cultivar reacted differently to the light spectrum applied. The red-leaved cultivar exhibited the strongest plasticity in response to the spectrum. The blue light stimulated the growth of the leaf surface in all the plants. The red light negatively influenced the length of leaves in the cultivars, but it positively affected their number in red and dark-green lettuce. It also increased the relative chlorophyll content and fresh weight gain in the cultivars containing anthocyanins. When the cultivars were grown under white light, they had longer leaves and higher value of the leaf shape index. The light-green cultivars had a greater fresh weight. Both the addition of blue and red light significantly increased the relative chlorophyll content in the dark-green cultivar. The spectrum enhanced with blue light had positive influence on most of the parameters under analysis in butter lettuce cultivars. These cultivars were also characterised by the highest absorbance of blue light. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Agriculture in the 21st Century)

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Review

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14 pages, 3197 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Applications and Development of LEDs as Supplementary Lighting for Tomato at Different Latitudes

by Onofrio Davide Palmitessa, Marco Antonio Pantaleo and Pietro Santamaria

Agronomy 2021, 11(5), 835; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11050835 - 23 Apr 2021

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5195

Abstract

High-tech greenhouses and artificial light applications aim to improve food production, in line with one of the sustainable development goals of the UN Agenda 2030, namely, “zero hunger”. In the past, the incandescent lamps have been used for supplementary lighting (SL) at higher latitudes to increase greenhouse production during the dark season. Light-emitting diodes (LED) have been replacing gas discharge and incandescent lamps, and their development is expanding SL applications in different agricultural scenarios (e.g., urban farming, middle latitudes). In fact, recent research on LED applications in Mediterranean greenhouses have produced encouraging results. Since middle latitudes have a higher daily light integral (DLI) than higher latitudes in the dark season and climate conditions influence the installed power load of greenhouses, LED installation and management in Mediterranean greenhouses should be different and less expensive in terms of investment and energy consumption. Accordingly, the aim of this review is to outline the state of the art in LED applications and development, with a focus on latitude-related requirements. Tomato was used as a representative crop. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Agriculture in the 21st Century)

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