Commercial ‘vertical farm’ opens in Dubai
▶ First in the GCC, featuring food grown pesticide-free and using 90% less water
The GCC’s first commercial vertical farm, which grows leafy green vegetables using coconut husks instead of soil and requires 90 per cent less water than regular farming, has been officially launched in Dubai.
The concept of the vertical farm, similar to that of greenhouses, grows pesticide-free food without the need for sunlight, soil or chemicals.
Badia Farms, established by Saudi entrepreneur Omar Al Jundi and British agricultural expert Grahame Dunling, aims to provide a substitute for importing fruits and vegetables into the region from countries thousands of miles away.
Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, officially inaugurated Badia Farms, describing it as an “exceptional example of how the UAE’s agricultural industry can thrive while protecting our environment for future generations”.
Dr Al Zeyoudi said the hydroponic technology used for the farm would be a major contributor to agricultural sustainability, food diversity and security, as it enhanced crop production and lowered costs.
“Growing crops in the region has always been a challenge due to the hostile climate and this is where Badia Farms offers a viable solution,” Mr Al Jundi said.
“Not only can we grow the freshest greens with no pesticides or chemicals, but we actually do this in the most eco-friendly way possible, using minimal recycled water.”
The vertical farm will provide a positive effect for food security while reducing the carbon footprint and costs of transporting imports, said Jeffrey Culpepper, founder of Agrisecura Partners.
“It will have a positive impact on food security because here almost 100 per cent of food is imported,” Mr Culpepper said.
“Badia is doing a great job by moving agriculture away from greenhouses because in them, you don’t only use tremendous amount of water to grow, but the plants then need to be washed of dirt and pesticides.”
When plants are grown in coconut husks instead of soil, the produce is much safer to eat because most food-borne diseases come from dirt.
“It is a step in the right direction,” Mr Culpepper said. “It is so small right now that it will have no impact on our import dependency, but the more people do this the more people are educated and will look at different ways to get food. Once people find out the tremendous costs of transporting fruits and vegetables from Europe or Jordan or Morocco, people will be looking at food in a very different way.”
Currently, the government takes care of transport costs and the water regular farmers use to grow their crops is subsidised. Alternative farming methods provide a much cheaper solution if the subsidies stop.
In the West and Asia, vegetables are grown using a tremendous amount of recycled water, Mr Culpepper said.
He said the amount of electric power vertical farming used to control the pressure inside the houses could be a downside, but “you are saving on not using water because water costs more than power”.
And the money spent on powering vertical farms is a fraction of the cost of buying greens and shipping them from other countries.
“When you go to Spinneys you find food from California,” Mr Culpepper said. “That is ridiculous. Why buy something from 10,000 miles away?”
He sees a bright future for vertical farming in the UAE. The produce will be fresher than imported goods because the farms will be producing all year round. Imported goods take two weeks to arrive “in a box placed on the back of a ship”.
Agrisecura and its partners, Van Der Hoeven, have been providing similar vertical farming methods in Dubai since 2012, but Badia is the first to provide it on a large commercial scale.
When plants are grown in coconut husks instead of soil, the produce is much safer to eat