Cultivating vegetables in the Arctic is a harsh economic necessity. Delivering most fresh plant-based products rich in vitamins to remote northern settlements is costly and time-consuming. Aviation is expensive, impacting store prices significantly, while icebreakers, barges and trains move too slowly for perishable goods like fruits and vegetables.

Currently, growing cucumbers, greens and zucchini close to home on permafrost is seen as the only viable method. Recently, the Komi Republic decided to construct another greenhouse in the Arctic zone. A key factor revitalising the project is the AZRF's preferential regime, offering extensive support measures to investors. Local residents will also appreciate having fresh produce on their tables, especially if it's much cheaper than imported 'green gold.'

In Komi, this isn't the first proposal to expand the existing 'greenhouse park'—in 2022, the Severny settlement in Vorkuta's urban district nearly gained a new facility. The proposed greenhouse would span 11 ha and employ 125 workers to cultivate sweet peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers and more. Valuable crops would be shielded from external conditions by glass in a 'closed ground' system—a prevalent technology in northern climates. Currently, the project's fate remains uncertain, yet the idea persists.

However, substrates vary widely. Some enterprises opt for mineral or plant-based substrates like coconut fibre or mineral wool where fertilizers and nutrients can be added. Some companies favour a pure hydroponic system where plant roots are immersed in a specialised solution. Attempts to use actual soil encounter insurmountable challenges due to its unavailability in such regions. The Far North lacks fertile land; fertility decreases further eastward and soil freezing levels are significant concerns. However, if global warming thaws the region, old Soviet initiatives to develop frost-resistant Arctic potatoes might be revived. Yamal also believes this and has been developing polar vegetable varieties over the last decade.

Besides traditional greenhouses, biovegetarians are also available. This technology optimises sunlight use, heat retention and biohumus potential generated by worms processing production waste. The manufacturer claims that its biovegetarians are a closed ecosystem allowing to accelerate plant growth by 4-fold. Another type of vegetable production is vertical farms. These can be installed in any non-residential area as they consist of vertical racks filled with trays of greens and lettuce. Vertical farms have gained popularity in polar cities recently, particularly when entrepreneurs have access to unused spaces. Modern technology enables automated control over lighting and irrigation systems for optimal plant growth conditions. However, these farms currently have limited capacity and only partially meet urban demands.

Engineers and scientists are increasingly involved in cultivating plants under non-traditional growing conditions. The Ministry of Education and Science recently initiated smart greenhouse projects where artificial intelligence manages vegetable care. It regulates humidity, lighting levels, nutrient content in fertilizers, and their distribution throughout the greenhouse. The head of the Department of Plant Physiology of the Russian State Agrarian University—Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, Ivan Tarakanov, highlighted that modern farms utilise sensors and cameras to monitor environmental conditions for food production. These technologies measure factors like leaf temperature and moisture evaporation rates as part of ecosystem health monitoring efforts. While comprehensive control is currently managed by specialists, future processes might be delegated to robots although humans will still set the tasks. Nevertheless, tasks will continue to be assigned by people.

Agro-clusters are the most promising approach for developing agriculture in the Polar Region—akin to industrial parks, they enable centralised resource provisioning for fresh vegetable producers and the establishment of necessary infrastructure. Additionally, these clusters will provide spaces for conducting agricultural experiments. In the Arctic, many are keenly exploring aquaponics, a method of cultivating plants integrated with fish farming. The plants utilise the waste produced by fish, which is processed by bacteria, and they in turn cleanse and filter the water for aquatic organisms. This creates a self-sustaining production cycle that yields a substantial amount of valuable produce in a relatively compact space.

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