CEA Trends, Insights & Future Prospects

Dr. Sean Campbell

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Economic Research Service in conjunction with researchers from Virginia Tech released the January 2024 version of the Economic Information Bulletin (Number 264) titled “Trends, Insights, and Future Prospects for Production in Controlled Environment Agriculture and Agrivoltaics Systems.”

The authors cited the potential of two systems for providing socioeconomic benefits beyond the short-term benefit for increasing food production, controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and agrivoltaics (AV), and covered topics such as:

■ Recent innovations in CEA and AV production systems

■ The extent to which these systems have been adopted

■ Whether they’re providing output for existing agricultural markets

■ Types of crops/agricultural goods being produced and supplied

The authors also noted the recent increases in private and public investments in these technologies, benefiting both research & development and commercial production. Visit ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=108220 to download the full report.