Bringing the farm inside

Bringing the farm inside

Growing more produce while using fewer resources. See how Grodan is helping Farminova Plant Factories to meet ambitious goals.

Looking up at the rows of lettuce in his company’s first vertical farm, Kerem Bozkurt is optimistic about his company’s role in shaping the future of food production.

Farminova Plant Factories is a new venture from Turkey’s CANTEK Group. This one, in Antalya, Turkey, is the first of many the company plans to build to meet a growing global demand for sustainable food production.

“Field farming agriculture alone cannot meet the world’s food demands in the coming decades", says Bozkurt, Business Development Director of Farminova Plant Factories. “We need alternatives that use fewer resources to produce healthy food, year-round, and that can be placed anywhere”.

Using LED lights, hydroponics, and Grodan’s growing media and sensor technology, the factory produces 4,000 heads of lettuce per day in its 1,000 m2 space. It’s a yield that would require 45,000 m2 on a conventional farm according to Farminova, and it does this with no soil, no pesticides, and 95 percent less water.

This first Plant Factory currently produces a variety of leafy greens, which are well-suited for vertical farms since they are small and grow fast. Soon, Farminova expects it will begin growing strawberries and mushrooms as well as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.

So while Bozkurt doesn’t expect vertical farming will replace conventional farming, he sees it as an important alternative that will help humanity meet its food needs with a lower impact on the planet.

“Whether it’s in the United States or Europe where more consumers are increasingly looking for food with certain traits – locally produced, fresh, organic – or it’s in Africa where there is a significant food access problem, vertical farming will be part of the solution and we’re excited to be a part of that”.

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