Inside the future of farming

The exterior of a factory on regional road 321 in Yongin, Gyeonggi, does not provide any clues that anything out of the ordinary is happening inside.

Entering the plant, though, is anything but an ordinary procedure. Visitors first pass through an air curtain before being asked to put on laboratory coats. Another air curtain removes any germ-carrying particulate matter that the first one missed. After that, an “air shower” blasts subjects from both sides before they step onto the main floor of the plant. The procedure is similar to entering a semiconductor production facility.

Operated by Insung Tec, this Yongin factory is actually the site of the country’s first industrial vertical farm.

The 165 square meter (1,776 square feet) factory floor has four seven-level plant beds. Green sprouts rise from each fluorescent-lit level. Vegetables such as kale, romaine and green lettuce, and basil grow here, where nutrients are fed into the soil through tubes. There is no natural light, and the workers are more lab technicians than farmers.

“We have two layers of air curtains and an air shower to prevent outside diseases and insects from entering the facility,” said Byun Seung-sub, the head of the plant. “The biggest merit of this vertical farm is that we can produce pesticide-free vegetables year-round, regardless of weather and seasonal growing patterns that limit more traditional farming.”

In one corner of the farm, four KT employees are busy installing a remote control system for the project called Smart Green Farm. KT and Insung Tec are collaborating on the project. Other benefits of this vertical farm are reduced labor costs and a much quicker farm-to-market distribution ratio, made possible because vertical farms can be constructed nearer to, or inside, urban centers.

Commercially viable vertical farms yield 10 times the bounty per square meter than regular green houses. Vertical farms are capable of producing 3,080 heads of lettuce per 3.3 square meters annually, whereas greenhouses can grow 333 heads in the same amount of space and time.

Despite yield, labor cost and time-to-market distribution benefits, vertical farming remains hobbled by economic feasibility. Even with the use of energy efficient light-emitting diodes and specially designed fluorescent lights, energy costs take up the majority of the operational costs. The production of lettuce in vertical farms is twice as costly compared to lettuce grown in greenhouses.

Nevertheless, demand is rising for Insung Tec’s produce. Shinsegae Department Store sold vegetables produced by Insung Tec last June, and Lotte Mart introduced a vertical farm system at its Seoul Station location.

Forecasting a windfall after vertical farming reaches a critical mass and becomes commercially viable, companies have been working around the clock to find ways to cut energy costs.

	A Pasona employee picks weeds at an indoor rice field being grown using artificial light and hydroponics in Tokyo. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Kast Engineering, a venture company in Gumi, North Gyeongsang, developed a technology to lower energy costs by 20 percent. It markets what it calls “blinking technology.” Instead of a constant level of light, these LED lights “blink” thousands of times per second. “Regular city farms using ordinary LED lights use 5 kilowatts per hour to grow 100 grams of lettuce, but our blinking LED system uses 3 to 4 kilowatts per hour,” said Park Jin-suk, head of Kast Engineering’s business team.

Kast Engineering sold its technology to 10 farms and research facilities in Hamyang County, South Gyeongsang, and in Goseong County, Gangwon, in the first year of sales in 2010.

Kast Engineering built a 132-square-meter vertical farm last October. The farm can produce 26 tons of lettuce per year, but it is mainly used for research and development. North Gyeongsang covered 50 million won ($44,500) of the plant’s 250 million won construction cost.

Korea’s conglomerates have also recognized the potential of vertical farming. LG CNS developed an information technology system that controls farms’ LED lights, humidity levels and growth rates. LG CNS sold the system to agricultural research facilities including the Gyeonggi-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services.

Factory managers can remotely control their vertical farms, no matter their distance from the actual production facility. The implications are enormous. A future is envisioned in which massive growth operations in multiple facilities are controlled by a central management team in one location.

Hyundai Department Store Co.’s Hyundai Green Food program started researching vertical farming at a 1,064-square-meter facility in Chonbuk National University’s LED Fusion Technology Center. Researchers from the university have been involved since February. There, plants are grown at a constant temperature of 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) under 15 hours of direct blue LED light, which has a wavelength of about 475 nanometers. In this environment, produce grows two to three times faster than plants grown outdoors or in greenhouses.

Researchers are also working on ways to modify plants grown in vertical farms to maximize yields. In particular, perilla leaves grown in vertical farms contain a higher concentration of a chemical compound responsible for creating the leaf’s unique scent. They are also grown with more chlorophyll - a green pigment vital for photosynthesis - which would speed up the growth rate.

	Children look at an indoor plant factory in a department store in Mia-dong, northern Seoul. [YONHAP]

Going forward

The Rural Development Administration categorizes vertical farming - which it calls “city farming” - as a representative technology of the future. It devised a five-year plan in 2009 to develop technologies for vegetable production, farm buildings and remote surveillance of environmental control systems.

The RDA is scheduled to open a cutting-edge vertical farm on March 23 in a 396-square-meter, three-story building. It will have a geothermal heat pump and multistage cultivation systems. Most importantly, it will employ a solar energy generator in an attempt to drastically reduce energy costs.

The Rural Development Administration built a test-bed facility on Antarctica last January. The 14-square-meter vertical farm at the Korea Antarctic Research Center has yielded 10 kilograms of canola seed, kale, radish sprouts and bean sprouts.

Open lectures have been held for farmers interested in learning about vertical farming.

The Korea Education Center of Future Technology held seminars on Feb. 24 and 25 on technologies and analyses related to commercializing vertical farming. The Korea Industrial Education Institute also held lectures on a case study and business strategies.

“Plant factories are considered a green growth industry of the future. Many countries are focusing on plant factory technology, since it is a highly valued industry, which combines state-of-the-art environment-controlling technologies,” said Um Yeong-chul, a Rural Development Administration researcher.

Globally, countries have taken different approaches to vertical farming. In Europe, vertical farms are more like automated greenhouses. In Japan, the farms are more like closed factories.

Swedeponic, a Swedish company, employs natural light along with artificial light. “They mostly grow leaf vegetables or herbs,” said Choi Gi-yeong, a professor at the Department of Environmental Horticulture at the University of Seoul. “Japanese plant factories are typically fully automated factories. They seal the building from sunlight. Japan has about 50 such farms and they are normally smaller than 1,000 square meters.”




Source : http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2933479