Hydroponic VF brings fresh produce to non-arable regions

In many areas of the world, environmental conditions are not conducive to traditional farming. Ensuring food security depends on continuous agricultural innovation, which has been part of the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) mission since its founding, given the country's arid conditions and little water. Smart Acres is one of the many companies exploring new sustainable agricultural innovation—its focus is on hydroponic vertical farming. "Living in a region with a lot of non-arable land and in arid conditions, we're not able to produce a lot of the crops needed for consumption for the nation. The UAE actually imports 90% of the food for consumption," says Aphisith Phongsavanh, lead project manager of Smart Acres.Smart Acres is an indoor vertical hydroponic farm that grows pesticide-free leafy greens using one-tenth of the land and 90% less water than traditional farming. The Abu Dhabi-based farm grows 13 cycles of lettuce a year, yielding 20 times more food than traditional farming would on the same square meters of land.

The Smart Acres farm consists of eight shipping containers equipped with modules that use internet of things technology to monitor for humidity, temperature, and the nutrients inside the plants. It's all in the name of creating an environment that's optimized for plant growth and high nutritional value. "When we come in, we have air showers built into our facilities. We make sure that our controlled environment is as sterile as possible to protect the plants from external factors," says Phongsavanh.

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Photo by Petr Magera on Unsplash

Source: Technology Review