Special report: EMILY BRADFIELD, Rural Weekly

February 19, 2020

THE Darling Downs is at the forefront of agricultural innovation and is now home to Australia’s first educational modular farm.

This month, TAFE Toowoomba welcomed its first cohort of students to the new Rural Centre of Excellence.

The $2.7 million facility includes a groundbreaking indoor vertical farm, allowing farmers of the future to get their hands on new technology and help shape the future of Australia’s food supply chain.

The vertical farm is the first educational facility of its kind in Australia and one of just two modular farms in the country.

Modular Farms Australia director James Pateras said the training farm would help unlock potential in the Australian farming landscape.

INSIDE THE FARM

Mr. Pateras describes the farm as a “complete growing system” where plants are grown from seed to harvest inside the controlled growing environment.

The process of growing inside the pod starts with seeds planted in a host plug made from peat moss and allowed to germinate and grow into a seedling, which usually takes about two and a half weeks in most crops.

Plants are grown from seed, rather than seedling, to prevent pathogens or disease entering the pod.

From there the seedling is moved into a vertical tower on the growing wall, where it remains until ready for harvest.

Modular Farms pods are generally used to grow herbs and small leafy greens or even strawberries and blueberries.

The growing lights inside the pod were designed specifically for the system to promote maximum growth and are placed at an ideal distance from the plant canopy.

The farm is also much more water-efficient, using 95 percent less water than traditional crops, as well as the ability to recapture and recirculate water used inside the farm.

The pod is controlled by four indicators: lighting, climate, fertigation, and irrigation, and can be monitored and controlled remotely using an app.

“With a consistent environment, the plants mature much faster than those in a traditional crop.

“It allows us to create a very solid and clean environment for the plants to live in. There’s no cold one day, hot the next day, it’s a very steady environment inside,” Mr. Pateras said.

“A farm like ours can turn a basil seed into a harvestable crop in about five weeks, which is about half the time you’d see in a traditional greenhouse.”

The yield in the vertical farm is also significantly higher than that of a traditional crop.

Inside the 36sq m container farm, there are four growing walls with a surface area of about 65sq m. That 65sq m is able to produce the equivalent of 1000sq m in traditional crops, which equates to about one tonne of basil per year, or upwards of 45,000 lettuces.

IN THE CLASSROOM

Dubbed by students as the “farm of the future”, Mr. Pateras said the farm would give students the opportunity to learn about indoor growing technology as the way of the future.

“To be able to do what we do and use as little water as we use is a great opportunity for the kids to realize how we can save on the environment and still consume and grow food,” he said.

The Modular Farms installation at the TAFE campus is one farm with two growing environments, allowing students to experience two different nutrient programs side by side.

“It’s got a dual irrigation system which allows (students) to run experiments side by side but then really focus on the plant biology as well. They can run tests a lot quicker and faster from that set-up,” Mr Pateras said.

Mr Pateras hopes hands-on experience in the growing pod will get the students thinking about the future of food production.

“What I think it will do is create a huge awareness about where plants are going and also allows the kids to learn a lot more about growing plants indoors, which is not new but growing plants on a commercial scale indoors is obviously becoming a bigger factor in the agricultural landscape.

“So it will definitely teach them a lot about what the future may hold about growing food in Australia,” he said.

“The idea of getting in a tractor and plowing up a paddock will maybe one day be a thing of the past, time will tell.

“The technology right now isn’t going to replace the farmer tomorrow but the farm of the future is here now.

“It’s just a matter of more and more people realizing the benefits of what this type of farming can bring to the environment, the community and the people consuming the food.”

THE FUTURE

Mr. Pateras believes the future of indoor farming is bright, with the potential to completely change the food supply chain and provide fresher, locally sourced produce to communities.

“I definitely think the indoor agriculture space is growing in steam,” he said.

“With the technology improvements over the course of the last few years, we’re seeing reduced entry costs in that controlled system’s space.

“We’re even seeing a lot of the traditional farmers supplementing their traditional greenhouses with growing lights to try to fast-track the speed of growth of their normal traditional greenhouse.”

The container farm has huge potential for isolated communities and city landscapes in delivering clean, fresh produce and eliminating food miles.

“As our cities begin to grow … the opportunity to grow in those areas is huge,” he said.

“It’s probably just scratching the surface in terms of where these types of systems can live, how they can change the food supply chain and improve the quality of food.

“We’re a very lucky country in Australia, where we can grow a lot of our food year-round. What our system allows people to do is create that micro­economy and sense of community farming.

“These things can live anywhere, so the ability to grow fresh leafy greens in Mt Isa or Birdsville is quite powerful in itself.”

The farms also have the potential to eliminate any unnecessary food miles. Australia’s first modular farm is located at Brisbane’s Eat Street Northshore, supplying vendors with fresh produce.

“We harvest our crop on a Thursday, we walk it down 50m to the vendors who buy our crops and by the next night, the produce is on the plate.

“You won’t be able to get in any fresher than that, and in terms of food miles we’re talking 50m,” Mr Pateras said.

“If you can grow food locally with one of our farms, I think it will be a far better injection into the local economy than bringing food in from interstate or overseas.”