UAE: Inside the vertical farming revolution that’s taking root in the Middle East
Climate change is making conventional agriculture more difficult. With food sustainability and security looming large, entrepreneurs are find
By Jack Board
CNA
Dec 13, 2023
Excerpt:
DUBAI: If you have flown into Dubai in recent months, you would likely have consumed some of the vegetables grown by Bustanica, the biggest vertical farm in the world.
Its products form part of the menu on Emirates flights and the companies that the airline’s flight catering arm caters for. Bustanica’s vegetables can also be found in UAE supermarkets.
Its 10,000 square metre facility in Dubai produces three tonnes of mostly leafy vegetables daily in an environment where temperature, humidity, waterflow and nutrients are controlled. The farm uses a fraction of the water and land required by a conventional farm.
“If you want to produce the same amount of leafy greens, you would require almost 470,000 square metres of land, about twice the size of Dubai International Airport,” said Mr Feras Al Soufi, the general manager of Emirates Crop One, which operates the project.
The farm, which has been operating for less than a year, uses 95 per cent less water compared to conventional farming. In water-scarce United Arab Emirates, which derives most of its supply from energy-intensive desalination, less water means reduced power generation and lower carbon emissions.
