Advancing CEA integrated pest management: A rapidly growing industry

Controlled environment agriculture aims to provide sustainable agriculture intensification by maximizing the obtainable yield per unit area of land. While knowledge of pest control in high tunnel and low-tech greenhouse production is vast, the challenges associated with pest management in advanced greenhouse and vertical crop production have received considerably little attention. Some of the primary considerations for pest management in these systems is the horizontal and vertical movement of pests, environmental heterogeneity between crop layers, and effects of supplemental light intensity on pest establishment. Understanding these challenges is critical for developing sound pest management strategies in this industry projected to achieve greater than 20% compound annual growth to 2030.