WVU Innovation Corporation Indoor Farming Initiative

Commodities

• Fruits: berries (strawberries)
• Vegetables: greens (leafy)

Practices

• Crop Production: season extension
• Education and Training: demonstration
• Farm Business Management: farm-to-institution
• Production Systems: hydroponics

Project Focus

Farmers in West Virginia often operate on limited acreage and face significant weather-related challenges that restrict year-round production. Seasonal growing windows, precipitation variability, and land constraints limit opportunities to expand output or diversify crops. At the same time, institutional buyers such as West Virginia University seek consistent, locally grown produce year-round. This creates a structural gap: farmers are interested in diversifying into controlled-environment agriculture, but many lack access to the space, infrastructure, and capital needed to independently test indoor production systems.

This project responds to that need by exploring controlled environment agriculture as both a solution for land-limited farmers and a supplemental institutional sourcing pathway. By piloting an indoor vertical farming system within available space at the West Virginia University (WVU) Innovation Corporation, the project creates a shared production and learning environment where farmers, students, and institutional partners can evaluate year-round growing systems in a real-world setting.

Solution and Approach

The proposed solution is to design and implement a pilot indoor farming system in a phased approach that demonstrates how controlled-environment production can operate at a manufacturing scale, while providing farmers with a sustainable and profitable business and supporting institutional procurement. The pilot will focus on strawberries and leafy greens, crops compatible with hydroponic systems and with institutional demand, allowing evaluation of yield performance, operational efficiency, and financial feasibility.

Farmers will be engaged through advisory input, system design feedback, and evaluation of crop and infrastructure decisions to ensure the model reflects real-world production constraints. WVU Innovation Corporation, in partnership with WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics and WVU Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, will construct and operate the indoor farming system. The project will generate data and research on production and yields, operating procedures and documentation, and financial profitability that farmers can use to assess whether indoor systems could complement their existing operations.

In addition to supporting land-limited producers, the pilot will evaluate how indoor production can reliably supplement institutional sourcing, strengthening regional food system resilience and expanding year-round local supply. By linking agricultural producers, university partners, and institutional buyers within a shared innovation space, this project establishes a replicable framework for integrating indoor agriculture into rural and land-constrained farming communities across West Virginia and the broader Northeast.

WVU Innovation Corporation is a campus-based innovation and manufacturing facility seeking to activate space for applied research and economic development initiatives. Constructing an indoor farm within this facility aligns with its mission to support regional innovation and directly addresses the agricultural production challenges faced by West Virginia farmers.

The project objective is to design and evaluate a replicable indoor farming model that can be adapted at the small-farm level to address persistent agricultural challenges in West Virginia, including limited land, short growing seasons, and resource constraints. The project will assess how controlled-environment agriculture can serve as a year-round production strategy while also providing a supplemental food source for WVU Dining Services.

This project directly serves the Morgantown, West Virginia, farming community, with WVU as the central institutional partner and demonstration site. However, the resulting research and data will benefit farmers across the state, as well as throughout Appalachia. The work is grounded in the needs of local and regional producers interested in diversifying production but facing challenges related to capital investment, access to infrastructure, and technical complexity. By developing the farm within the WVU Innovation Corporation and engaging WVU's business and agriculture programs, the project creates a collaborative environment for applied learning, farmer input, and implementation planning.

As a result of this project, farming communities in the Northeast will gain a practical framework for implementing scalable indoor farming systems that strengthen food system, expand workforce skills, and provide viable year-round production options for land-constrained producers.