It's true that agriculture depends on the weather, but it doesn't depend on the weather alone!


Published time:

2023/08/17

The people are the foundation of the nation, and food is the lifeblood of the people. Food security is a fundamental issue concerning the survival and development of humanity. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to comprehensively consolidate the foundation of food security.

Currently, the global food security situation is severe and complex, with high international food prices fluctuating and the global number of hungry people continuing to rise. How to feed the growing global population has become a new challenge.


Although modern agriculture has more efficient fertilizers, pesticides, breeding, and agricultural machinery, it is still constrained by natural conditions such as day and night, seasons, rainfall, and land, just as it was 10,000 years ago. 
Is there a more modern agricultural production method that can free farming from the constraints of time and space, completely breaking away from the "dependence on the weather" of more than 10,000 years? 

In recent years, "plant factories" have received widespread attention both domestically and internationally as a new direction for modern agriculture. "Plant factories" are characterized by high knowledge and technology intensity and multidisciplinary innovation, subverting traditional farming methods and conditions.

It requires no soil, no pesticides, and is not affected by the natural environment. By simulating the light, temperature, and nutrients required by plants, and comprehensively using digital technology, biotechnology, and equipment technology, it continuously and stably produces plants under completely factory conditions, significantly improving production efficiency and resource utilization. 
"Plant factories" are a specific manifestation and advanced stage of digital agriculture, smart agriculture, precision agriculture, and vertical agriculture. They represent the potential space for agricultural productivity, and many countries regard them as a way to improve agricultural comprehensive benefits and international competitiveness.

In a typical modern plant factory, regardless of the changing seasons and day and night cycles outside, the optimal growth environment for plants is always maintained: central air conditioning provides temperature, sensors constantly monitor and adjust the carbon dioxide concentration in the air, water mixed with a specific proportion of nutrient solution is supplied to the planting trough holes through pipes, and LED lights on the racks simulate uniform light on each leaf.

Under this industrialized planting system, plants grow with the highest efficiency, and yields increase accordingly. Land can only grow 2 or 3 crops of vegetables a year, but plant factories can grow 10 or 15 crops a year. The yield of plant factories can reach more than 10 times that of land cultivation.

Plant factories use an intelligent control system to create an environment that meets all the growth factors of plants, thereby freeing humans from the constraints of the natural environment, no longer relying on the weather, and being able to grow vegetables at any time and in any place.

The significance of plant factories is not just to provide self-sufficiency for mankind in extreme conditions, like a "Mars rescue," but also to provide vegetables for the people regardless of region or season, ensuring stable meals, abundant food, and the best planting method for freshness.

Because the entire process is in a relatively controllable environment, the vegetables in plant factories are pest-free and pesticide-free. People can also customize the trace elements of vegetables by controlling the nutrient solution, growing higher-quality vegetables!