Lakshmi Reddi Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer | nmsu.edu
Lakshmi Reddi Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer | nmsu.edu
Near the entrance of a 40-foot container farm at New Mexico State University’s Grants campus, kale plants sprout in a horizontal nursery bed. Inside, instructor Gabriel Garcia demonstrates the vertical farming system by flipping a switch to activate red and blue LED lights that mimic sunlight.
“This is where we’ll move the kale when their root structures develop,” Garcia explained. The container farm project was initiated by NMSU’s Center of Excellence in Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems and became operational in early 2021 through a partnership with Tri-State Generation and Transmission and the Electric Power Research Institute. Indoor agriculture has gained interest as it uses less land and water than traditional farming methods.
“Container farms have many advantages,” said College of ACES Dean Rolando A. Flores Galarza. “They have the potential to address social, environmental, and economic facets of sustainability.”
The container farm serves as an educational tool for researchers and students studying indoor agriculture's viability in semi-arid regions like New Mexico. Garcia manages the container with students, learning about technology that includes vertical hanging enclosures connected to a closed-loop plumbing system recycling water.
By fall 2021, Garcia grew his first crop of leafy greens inside the container. Currently, he grows around 12,232 plants from seeds placed on peat moss cones under plastic domes for initial growth before moving them to vertical racks for further development.
“It’s been such an enriching experience for us all,” Garcia said. Students learn about agriculture techniques while seeing tangible results.
Inspired by this success, NMSU plans a similar project at its Las Cruces campus. The College of ACES collaborates with the College of Engineering and Doña Ana Community College on building another customized container farm.
Kevin Gall leads interior fabrication work on this new project set to be completed next spring. Jay Lillywhite highlighted multidisciplinary involvement: “We’ve had agricultural faculty...engineering faculty...agronomists...economists...and people working in marketing.”
This initiative exemplifies collaborative efforts across disciplines to explore sustainable agriculture solutions.
Alerts Sign-up