Modernisation has its own adverse effects. With the increasing standard of life, infrastructural requirements have increased. Cities developed with proper technologies and skills while villages remained with many agricultural lands although no proper skill or knowledge. As society progressed we learnt the importance of awareness for agricultural tactics and new frontiers like terrace farming emerged as convenient options. The problem boils down to an age-old farming dilemma—how to yield the largest crops in the smallest space for the lowest cost with the least amount of energy.
Northeastern University graduate Chris Denaro found a solution to this problem in form the of STEM Boxes. The farms, called STEM Boxes, are specially designed for maximum efficiency. He’s the chief technology officer and co-founder of STEM Cultivation, a company that makes portable cannabis farms that are sustainable and easy to use. Cannabis is useful in the pharmaceutical and medical industry. STEM organisation works to produce cannabis in fewer resources.
The STEM Boxes use a vertical growing technique, by which plants grow in stacks from floor to ceiling. Walking into the box is like walking into a closet, but instead of clothes, there are six rows of pipes hanging from the ceiling. Each pipe has 10 individual sockets to hold the plants, which are fed and watered through an irrigation system. At capacity, the box can hold 240 cannabis plants. The farms are outfitted with LED lights so bright that people need to wear sunglasses inside to protect their eyes. Since the design of STEM Boxes is vertical, it uses less LED. Consequently, it consumes less power. Denaro’s goal is to bring down the cost of Cannabis. He blames the high cost of cultivation that raises the cost of medicines and makes them unaffordable for the common people.
Shraddha Patil.