Virtual Center of Excellence for smarter urban vegetable farming

The center is Signify's first virtual horticultural knowledge-based research center. It aims to enable urban growers to access knowledge residing with Signify's teams and specialists, expertise in its proven growth recipes and its portfolio of products and services. Research insights gathered by Signify's physical research hubs, the GrowWise Center in Eindhoven and BrightBox in Venlo, since 2015 will also be made available over this virtual center.

The center covers all critical knowledge required to successfully build a vertical farm or modern greenhouse including plant science, lighting application, Internet of Things (IoT) control and engineering design. Through the center, apart from sharing its international expertise, Signify also aims to grow its presence in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region.

As a region with one of the most rapidly growing urban populations, Asia needs to grow food more sustainably and smarter to feed its people. For Singapore, food security is a pressing issue as the majority of its food is imported and supply disruptions due to the pandemic have increased the urgency to build a more resilient food future.

Signify seeks to support Singapore's "30 by 30" goal to build up its agri-food industry's capability and capacity to produce 30% of nutritional needs locally and sustainably by 2030. With the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), Signify will boost the ability of local vegetable growers to achieve high-quality crops and higher yields by tapping into the more than 150 growth recipes the company has developed and the center's research bank to implement technology such as integrated climate control systems that create the ideal growing conditions for crops.

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Photo by Petr Magera on Unsplash

Source: Dega-Gartenbau