Decided that the world's largest vertical farm will be built in Dubai

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is plagued by water shortage in 2018, and vertical agriculture that can grow crops with little use of water is drawing attention. In Dubai, one of the emirates forming the UAE, we are planning to build the world's largest vertical farm using a large area of ​​130,000 square feet (approximately 12,000 square meters).

Dubai to get 'world's largest vertical farm' | CNN Travel
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/dubai-vertical-farm-emirates-catering/index.html

Dubai plans world's biggest vertical farm with 130,000 sqft facility - SlashGear
https://www.slashgear.com/dubai-plans-worlds-biggest-vertical-farm-with-130000sqft-facility-10537090/

It was a joint venture between Crop One Holdings specializing in agricultural technology and Emirates Flight Catering , which cooks meals in the airport and cooking in-flight meals, and decided to build the world's largest vertical farm, about 40 million dollars (about 44 We plan to start construction of vertical farm facilities from November 2018, with a budget of 100 million yen).

In announcing the construction, Crop One Holdings explains the benefits of a vertical farm. The company says, "Vertical farms are technically possible to use only LED lights and renewable energy for lighting, because they can save on water usage compared to outdoor farms, so that there is little environmental impact It is also known, since we can grow vegetables indoors, there are merits that you can produce crops all year round without worrying about the season. "

According to Crop One Holdings, in the case of the vertical farm planned this time, it will save 99% more water than growing vegetables outdoors. However, it is said that it is difficult to cover all of the electricity with solar power and wind power, and part of electric power is planned to be used for public.

Leo Marcels, professor of horticulture at the University of Werningen said, "There are many studies on how to reduce energy usage on vertical farms, and with the development of lighting technology all Dubai vertical farms operate with renewable energy We may be able to do it, "suggesting that there is a possibility that it will change to a vertical farm that does not use public electric power in the future.

According to Crop One Holdings and Emirates Flight Catering, it will be December 2019 that vegetables cultivated on Dubai's vertical farm will be able to be harvested, and when harvesting actually starts, it will be up to Approximately 2.7 tons of blue vegetables will be offered as lounges of airports and materials for in-flight meals.