Aerofarms, a leader in indoor vertical farming has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary in the UAE, AeroFrarms AgX LTD has commenced the construction of the company’s state-of-the-art research centre which will focus on indoor vertical farming, AgTech, and innovation.
In a partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), AeroFarms AgX will focus on advancing sustainable controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and vertical farming, helping address global agriculture supply chain issues on a larger scale.
H.E. Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, said, “This important milestone for AeroFarms AgX is another step in the realisation of Abu Dhabi’s mission to ‘turn the desert green’. In line with this goal, ADIO is supporting innovative technology that has the potential to impact farming practices across the globe and improve the food production value chain worldwide.”
With 54,000 square feet, AeroFarms AgX will be the largest indoor vertical farm in the world. Employing 60 highly skilled engineers, scientists, and horticulturists, the site will provide high-tech laboratories that conduct precision phenotyping, phytochemical analysis, organoleptic research, and advanced speed breeding. Furthermore, it will also conduct robotics, automation, machine learning, and machine vision.
In addition, the vertical farm will be equipped with tehcnology that can control light exposure amongst other factors to explore speed breeding. This will ensure supply of crops throughout the year.
Futhermore, it will cultivate local agritech talent by collaborating with numerous universities.
David Rosenberg, Co-Founder and CEO of AeroFarms, commented, “AeroFarms has been the global leader for controlled environment agriculture since 2004, and we will utilise this cutting-edge R&D Centre to conduct the latest research in plant science, vertical farming and automation, accelerating innovation cycles and commercialising products.”
“Our vision has always been to leverage our expertise in plant biology and build on our successful history of collaborating with government, universities, industry and major international companies. We are pleased to take this step forward and proud to be a catalyst for helping to establish the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as a global hub for AgTech innovation,” he added.
