In 2017, the Japanese company Spread will open the world's first fully automated agricultural plant, with robots working the whole process: from seed to harvest.
Spread, headquartered in Kyoto, explained that this plant will start operating regularly by mid-2017. Mechanization will allow it, among other things, to produce 30,000 heads of lettuce a day, as noted on their website.
This figure falls short of the firm's expectations, as its goal is to produce half a million heads of lettuce a day within five years. Furthermore, the new automation technologies will reduce labour costs by 50% and energy use by 30% and will recycle 98% of the water used.
The farm, of about 4,400 square metres, follows the growing trend of vertical farming, where producers cultivate indoors, without natural sunlight. Instead, they rely on LES lighting and the crops are grown in racks that stack the vegetables on shelves, on top of each other.
In addition to increasing the production and reducing waste, indoor vertical farming also eliminates the need for pesticides and herbicides, chemicals which are used in traditional open ground agriculture and which can be harmful to the environment.
Source: Europa Press
