Vertical farms have had successes producing fresh greens and herbs, tomatoes and strawberries—all necessary and delicious crops but not the most calorie-dense. That honor falls to cereals and grains, which generally take up more space and spread out over amber-tinted fields. But those amber waves of grain could soon take up residence indoors, with the first successfully grown indoor wheat.

Global warming poses a major threat to food security and necessitates the development of crop varieties that are resilient to future climatic instability. By evaluating 149 spring wheat lines in the field under yield potential and heat stressed conditions, we demonstrate how strategic integration of exotic material significantly increases yield under heat stress compared to elite lines, with no significant yield penalty under favorable conditions.

Artificial Intelligence models with right knowledge will be the key then to deciphering and making sense of this huge amount of rich data and translating it into actionable intelligence for farmers and agri-businesses. Integrating the diverse data including differentiated spectral bands, parameters like canopy temperature, soil temperatures and information, light and radiation, hyper local weather can provide advisory through various channels for growing crops reliably and more precisely.

Beneficial rainfall as the calendar flipped to a new year improved a still-dire moisture situation in some areas where winter wheat is grown. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its analysis of the Jan. 3 US Drought Monitor, estimated 64% of winter wheat production was within areas experiencing drought, down from 69% in the Department’s appraisal of the Dec. 27 Drought Monitor.