Fidel Trejo Orozco, an engineering academic of the Valle de Mexico University, designed a Plant Growth Chamber (CCV). The CCV is a portable environmentally controlled device that can regulate and optimize the growth of crops for human consumption.
Trejo Orozco explained in an interview that the main advantage of his invention over others that already existed in the market was that "you can move it completely or in pieces and then assemble it anywhere."
The expert said that the idea of making it portable came about so that it could be used "in some kind of disaster, such as hurricanes or earthquakes. The camera could be shipped with crops ready to be harvested. It would be an excellent complement to the DNIII plan because, as it is portable, it can be taken wherever it's needed, so the people in disaster areas can have access to fresh and nutritious food.
The CCV consists of a hexagonal prism that occupies less than three-square meters. All of the space inside is used for cultivation, as it uses the device's volume and height, instead of its surface, "which allows us to produce up to two hundred kilograms of lettuce or one hundred eighty kilograms of strawberries in that little space," detailed Trejo Orozco.
The engineer explained that he based the camera's illumination on NASA research, which revealed that plants grow better when exposed to blue and red light.
The camera, which works with a kilowatt, uses LED lamps calibrated to be the equivalent of light at noon. These lights are blue, to help the plant to grow, and red, to optimize the fruit ripening process, added the expert.