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Smart Acres CEO on The launch of The UAE’s Latest Vertical Smart Farm
The launch of Smart Acres, the UAE’s latest addition to the hydroponic vertical farming industry, this week means that a line of the freshest, most nutrient-dense greens for UAE residents and businesses alike is now being produced in containers on the Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi, with the aim to expand across the UAE
Smart Acres Is Here With Lettuce At The Helm. In An Exclusive Interview With Abu Dhabi World, Smart Acres CEO Abdulla al Kaabi Reveals What This Means To Abu Dhabi And The Farming Community On The Whole.
words Derek Issacs
If you love healthy produce, and who doesn’t, then this news is going to please you and your tastebuds no end. The only draw back at the moment is they’re not for sale in supermarkets just yet, but it won’t be long before they are.
The launch of Smart Acres, the UAE’s latest addition to the hydroponic vertical farming industry, this week means that a line of the freshest, most nutrient-dense greens for UAE residents and businesses alike is now being produced in containers on the Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi, with the aim to expand across the UAE.
So we headed over to the St. Regis Abu Dhabi to meet Smart Acres CEO Abdulla al Kaabi to find out more.
Tell us about your background?
I am from tech and farm background. My father has a passion for farming and gardening; he’s very strict about anybody who messes around with his garden or farm. My father has a few farms across the UAE, where he grows crops and dates. When he heard that I was pursuing a project in the agriculture sector he got excited and actually gifted me a farm, which I am grateful for and will keep. However, Smart Acres, rather than the farm my father gifted me, is an urban farm.
How was Smart Acres first developed?
CEO Abdulla al Kaabi (centre)
Smart Acres was founded in 2017 and local testing began in July 2019. Smart Acres was developed by a team of experts, including myself, Director Sean Lee and Lead Project Manager, Aphisith Phongsavanh with the aim of improving food security within the United Arab Emirates and developing the country’s farming capabilities, providing a solution to potential socioeconomic threats such as pandemics and climate limitations the Middle East currently endures.
Tell us more
We planted lettuce and after a few harvests, we decided to expand from two containers to eight containers. From the two insulated containers the yield was 3.5 tons annually, which was our proof of concept. For the proof of concept, our target weight for each lettuce head was 140g. However, we have reached an average of 200g per head. I don’t think any other vertical farm here reached that quality or weight in terms of vegetables at this size.
How would you describe Smart Acres?
It is a one-of-a-kind agriculture system that is designed to produce some of the highest yields of crops within the UAE’s vertical farming industry, while introducing a new future for clean foods and allowing both business to business (B2B) and business to consymer (B2C ) sectors to locally source produce.
Tell us about the containers
We invested heavily in the containers, not just financially, and it took us a while to partner up with n.thing, a South Korean vertical farming technology company, to bring the best vertical farm here in the UAE. We had talks with other companies before and we decided to go with this one, in terms of risk, in terms of technology they are using. And the system we are using in the containers is hydroponics (growing plants without soil) which has been used by growers for hundreds of years. Techno advancements means we were able to implement the Internet of Things for operations, which helps us to monitor the entire farm in terms of humidity, temperature, and even the nutrients that goes inside the plants. Now we have our expansion plan from eight to 78 containers, which eventually will produce more than 140 tons of produce annually. We are currently in talks with private and public entities in terms of the expansion. We are also planning to have a research and development centre in order to start growing our own potato seeds in a controlled environment.
Will Smart Acres just be growing lettuce?
In our current eight containers, we grow four types of lettuce; Lolo rosso , green glace, oakleaf Batavia, but we are able to grow 30 types of lettuce. Currently we are testing new methods to improve quality and weight of the existing lettuce. The results of last month’s test resulted in lettuce whose individual heads weighed more than 200 grams on average. However, we aim to grow more than just lettuce. We have plans to eventually grow baby spinach, mature spinach, and baby arugula. Smart Acres’ vision is to expand to meet the demand of popular produce in the region such as strawberries, and, as I previously mentioned, a shift and emphasis on cultivating potato seeds.
Where can we buy your smart lettuces?
We are now supplying restaurants and hotels for free to get ourselves known, and we have had great feedback from them. We have also partnered with several restaurants and cafes around the country including Inked and Fae Cafe, and have plans to have our produce in the kitchen of dozens of other F&B outlets. The recent initiative by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs, and Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), stating that all major grocery stores in the capital must allocate space for local produce means we are perfectly poised to enter local supermarkets. We have had lots of offers from Abu Dhabi Holding and other government entities that are members in the food security committee to buy our whole produce. Currently we are focused on our actual produce itself, in terms of quality, weight.
Posted in Features, Food, Life, News
Tagged agriculture system Abu Dhabi, CEO Abdulla al Kaabi, Clean foods UAE, food security UAE, SMART ACRES Abu Dhabi, st regis abu dhabi, UAE Climate Change Risks and Resilience, UAE farms, UAE’s vertical farming industry, vertical farming Abu Dhabi
UAE, Israel Both Expect To Benefit From Agricultural Ties
The regional government in the capital, Abu Dhabi, announced in April that it was investing approximately $100 million in vertical farming
TARA KAVALER
08/23/2020
Emiratis will have access to Jewish state’s agritech while Israelis will gain financially
The United Arab Emirates, where less than 1% of the earth is arable, is set to reap major growth from its agricultural sector with the help of Israeli technology after the two countries normalize relations.
Israel, a world leader in agriculture under conditions with little water and high heat, will sell its expertise to farmers in the desert nation where the average temperature in August is 43°C (109°F) and the average annual temperature is 30°C (86°F). Israeli growers also plan to export food to the UAE, from where it may be re-exported to currently unreachable markets.
The UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries have been trying to become more self-reliant in food, most of which they import. The UAE has already seen an explosion in agricultural growth, particularly in vertical farming and other next-generation planting techniques. It plans to start using hydroponics, soil-less crop cultivation, before the end of this year. The regional government in the capital, Abu Dhabi, announced in April that it was investing approximately $100 million in vertical farming.
“Any food production here requires a technological solution,” Nicholas Lodge, a UAE-based agricultural expert, told The Media Line.
“It doesn’t make sense to grow almost anything in terms of arable crops, except for higher-value crops like tomatoes that are grown in greenhouses, with the latest technology, like hydroponics, where minimal water is needed,” Lodge said.
Dr. Yaron Drori, an Israeli agronomist and co-owner of Etza Agriculture consultants, told The Media Line: “There are very sophisticated greenhouses all over the world, especially in northern Europe, but what is special about Israeli equipment is that we know how to deal with the excess of heat in the structures.”
“Most of the year in our greenhouses, we are trying to avoid overheating. This is the opposite of what you are trying to do in Europe, where you are trying to gain heat,” added Drori, whose company specializes in desert farming in southern Israel.
The greenhouses in Israel use shade nets that can be turned on automatically with a “smart” control system that monitors temperature, radiation, and humidity.
The system also activates cooling sprinklers, or a “curtain” of water, which brings outside air into the greenhouse to change the high temperatures and low humidity that make desert agriculture difficult.
The device also irrigates plants without wasting scarce resources. Saving water is one of the centerpieces of Israel’s “advanced innovation” in agritech, Drori said.
Associate Prof. Zvi Peleg of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem spoke to The Media Line about his work at the university’s Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture to reduce the amount of water plants need.
“We are working now on how to improve water-use efficiency, meaning the plants will produce more biomass by using less water.”
“We are trying to change the plant … so it will be more suitable for the climate,” Peleg said. “We are changing the root system to become deeper … to get to the water more easily and reduce the size of the root architecture so it will not take so much water from the soil because it’s a very limited resource.”
He also explained some of Israel’s latest agricultural technology.
“By using sensors to check the water status in the soil and the plant, you improve productivity because you irrigate whenever the plants need water, not whenever you feel they need water,” Peleg said.
“We are also using thermal imaging to see if a plant needs water or nutrients. There are a lot of techniques now related to drones and different kinds of cameras to detect the plant’s growth, as well as diseases and other problems the plant has,” Peleg said. There is “a lot of technology that can benefit many regions, including the UAE.”
Meanwhile, the UAE is doing high tech agricultural research of its own. Dr. Mohammed Abdul Mushen Salem Alyafei, an associate professor at The College of Food and Agriculture at United Arab Emirates University, said studies are being done in the Emirates on an “open-top chamber,” which encircles a plant to examine the impact of carbon dioxide levels and an “aeroponic control unit.” Aeroponic devices grow plants in the air in a moist environment.
Israel’s successful efforts to make its own desert bloom have resulted in exports of its desert produce.
Some “60% of Israel’s [agricultural] exports, which include tomatoes and watermelon, come from the Arava [in the southeast], which is very similar to the UAE, with bad soil and poor [quality] and limited amounts of water,” Shafrir Godel, an agricultural business expert, told The Media Line.
“Everything is against the farmer, and yet it is the major export region for Israeli produce [sent] to Europe and America,” said Godel, founder and managing director of Israel-based AgriQuality, an international consulting company.
Long-distance exporting is very expensive, but Israel has figured how to do it profitably; this know-how could help the UAE.
“The chain from the seed to the supermarket shelf abroad is something that Israelis do well and cost-effectively: starting with the variety [of crop] to plant, the methods and technical solutions for growing, sorting, picking, the plastic you are using to extend shelf-life, and getting them to the right companies that have a hold on the main markets.”
Israeli growers are also looking for new markets.
“Over the years, Israeli farmers have grown with a capacity that is way beyond Israelis’ ability to eat. We need other markets. It is a new market, and it could be a transit station to places that we normally would not sell to,” Godel said.
The UAE is one of the world’s top three re-export hubs.
Agricultural expert Lodge noted that “the UAE has built a reputation as a transport hub serving many countries.” “It’s quite interesting what you might be able to do with that mix of location, technology, and capital for certain crops.”
Both countries’ agricultural businesspeople are excited about the potential for the new alliance.
“The UAE has a history of looking at where it can forge partnerships, where it can make investments where there’s a mutual benefit,” Lodge said. “Israel is an acknowledged leader in arid farming and the application of technology to make farming possible. I’m sure it’s one of the areas that could and should benefit both parties.”
Etza Agriculture’s Drori said: “If you bring the practical and academic knowledge and all the technology that we have to the UAE, we can all benefit from it, both the Emirati and the Israeli companies.”
“Israel gets business, so it benefits financially. But beyond that, it would be fascinating to work there. It’s a new place, you learn and see new things,” he said. “It’s a new world for us.”
Lead photo: Dr. Effi Tripler, a soil and water scientist, stands next to a solar-powered sensor that helps a drip-irrigation system know when and how much to water a crop of sorghum at the Central and Northern Arava R&D facility on May 21, 2015, in Hatzeva, Israel. The soil and water R&D facility tests and produces various crops in the dry, harsh climate of the Arava, near the Jordanian border. (Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)
Farming In The Desert: Are Vertical Farms The Solution To Saving Water?
When I told people I was going to grow tomatoes in the desert, they thought I was crazy," Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, told DW
Jul. 23, 2020
By Isabelle Gerretsen"
When I told people I was going to grow tomatoes in the desert, they thought I was crazy," Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, told DW.
With just an average 12 days of rain a year, less than 1% arable land, a desert location, and an 80% import rate for food, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seems an unfavorable place to set up a farm.
Kurtz is one of several entrepreneurs using high-tech farming techniques to boost crop production in the Emirates. Pure Harvest built the first climate-controlled greenhouse in Abu Dhabi in 2017.
Prompted by arid conditions and a desire for greater food security, the country is investing millions in technologies — such as vertical farming — that could make it an unlikely agricultural pioneer.
Vertical farms can grow a rich variety of different crops by stacking them in layers under LED lighting in climate-controlled greenhouses and watering them with mist or drip systems. The process is tailored to each crop's specific needs, resulting in high-yield, year-round harvests."
It takes 30 to 40 days to grow leafy greens out in the field. We can grow that same crop in 10 to 12 days," says Marc Oshima, co-founder of Aerofarms. The company received funding from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to build the capital's largest indoor vertical farm, with 800 different crops, by 2021.
Water Scarcity and Fossil-Fuel Reliance
The technology uses minimal land and up to 95% less water than conventional agriculture.
The hydroponics system places the plants' roots directly into a water-based and nutrient-rich solution instead of soil. This "closed-loop" system captures and recirculates all the water, rather than allowing it to drain away — useful for a country like the UAE suffering from extremely high water stress.
Globally, agriculture accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and UAE is extracting groundwater faster than it can be replenished, according to the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA)."
Water is very expensive over in the UAE, but energy is cheap as it is subsidized," says Jan Westra, a strategic business developer at Priva, a company providing technology to vertical farms.
The artificially controlled environment is energy-intensive because the air conditioning and LED lights need a constant source of electricity.
This bringing forth of life in the desert could come at a high environmental cost. Most of that energy comes from carbon-emitting fossil fuels, even as the Middle Eastern country feel the effects of climate change.
By 2050 Abu Dhabi's average temperature is predicted to increase by around 2.5°C (36.5 F) in a business-as-usual scenario. Over the next 70 years, patterns of rainfall are also expected to change.
Integrating Renewable Energy
Although Pure Harvest is building a solar-powered farm in neighboring Saudi Arabia, its UAE operations get electricity from the carbon-intensive national grid.
Investing more in renewables "is a goal of ours," Kurtz told DW. He said the company has not set a clean energy target but is working on various green power projects, including a plan to integrate solar power generated in UAE into its operations.
However, Willem van der Schans, a researcher specializing in short supply chains at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, says sustainability and clean energy should be "inherent in the technology and included in plans when starting a vertical farm."
He argues that many vertical farming companies are not sustainable in terms of energy as they still view clean power as an optional "add-on."
Ismahane Elouafi, director-general of the government-funded ICBA in Abu Dhabi, acknowledges that vertical farming has some way to go before achieving "real sustainability," but she believes the innovations are "promising."
Improved battery storage, increasingly efficient LED lights, and cheaper solar panels will help, she adds.
Local Solutions
By 2050, the UAE government wants to generate almost half its energy from renewable sources.
Fred Ruijgt, a vertical farming specialist at Priva, argues that it's important to factor transport and refrigeration into the energy equation. Vertical farming uses more energy to grow crops than traditional agriculture, but because crops are grown locally, they do not have to be transported by air, sea, or truck over long distances."
The energy-saving is difficult to calculate exactly, but the advantages of locally grown crops are huge," he says, adding that those grown in vertical farms not only use less water and pesticides but that they also have a longer shelf life due to minimal transportation time.
Food Security and Coronavirus
In 2018, the UAE set out its vision to become a hub for high-tech local food production.
Companies and investors have flocked to the region, attracted by the 0% corporate tax rate, low labor costs, and cheap energy. With their help, the UAE aims to reduce its reliance on imports and make its food system more resilient to shocks like climate change and pandemics.
Oshima from Aerofarms says the coronavirus pandemic has brought "greater appreciation of how fragile the supply chain is and raised questions about food safety and security."
When the UAE went into lockdown in April, imported supplies of perishable goods like vegetables fell and business boomed for local suppliers.
ICBA's Elouafi said they have helped keep the UAE well-stocked during the pandemic."With the help of local food production and adequate imports, there has been absolutely no shortage of food in the UAE," Elouafi told DW.
Climate change, however, poses an altogether more complex threat to the country in the long-term. Given climate change's likely impact on food production, she says vertical farming has shown it is "an economically viable proposition even with harsh climatic conditions."
Reposted with permission from Deutsche Welle.
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UAE: Smart Acres Plans To Open R&D Lab For Local Produce Amid AgTech Growth
Abu Dhabi vertical farming start-up Smart Acres is looking to raise at least Dh20 million to fund a research and development center to produce a local variety of potato as agriculture technology gathers pace in the UAE
Vertical farming start-up aims to raise as much as Dh20m to fund the project
Abu Dhabi vertical farming start-up Smart Acres is looking to raise at least Dh20 million to fund a research and development center to produce a local variety of potato as agriculture technology gathers pace in the UAE.
“The future is green. The Hope probe has headed to Mars, why shouldn’t the UAE be the first to put a container farm on the planet?” Abdulla Al Kaabi, founder and chief executive, told The National.
The entrepreneur is part of a team of three working in partnership with a Korean AgTech platform called N.thing, to adapt the technology to the harsh arid climate of the Emirates on an Abu Dhabi farm gifted to him two years ago by his father.
Smart Acres has designed vertical farms in shipping containers using the IoT-based technology system that monitors water, carbon dioxide, and nutrient levels. The system sends a push notification to one of the team's iPhones or iPads if levels need to be adjusted, but it allows the process to happen largely unmonitored. The farm is empty most of the time, Mr. Al Kaabi said. The growing process also consumes up to 90 percent less water than traditional farming methods and grows premium and cost-competitive lettuces.
Food security and innovation in agriculture is a priority of the Abu Dhabi government, which has earmarked Dh1 billion for an agri-tech incentive program as part of the government’s Ghadan 21 accelerator initiative.
In April, Abu Dhabi Investment Office (Adio) invested $100 million (Dh367m) to bring four agriculture technology companies to the emirate as part of government efforts to attract high-skilled talent and cutting-edge research. The country’s 24,000 farms are set to benefit if new technology can be applied to drive efficiencies in crop yield and water usage.
The Covid-19 pandemic has only underscored the need to achieve greater food security in the UAE. Between 80 and 90 percent of the food in the GCC is imported, according to Chatham House.
While the figure is high, UAE residents are starting to see signs of progress: locally-harvested tomatoes and greens at the market or on dining menus are now a common sight. All of this has sprung up in the last several years as vertical and hydroponic farming ventures and research, as well as cloud-seeding, bear fruit.
Mr Al Kaabi wants the Smart Acres Institute of Food Security & Agriculture “to have Emirati hands” build the project. He is looking to attract recent graduates in environmental sciences and technology to the R&D lab to customize seeds to grow in this region in a controlled environment.
Potatoes, one of the most common crops in the world with consistent growing demand year-on-year, will be his first target. The team also wants to develop robots to help with harvesting and packing.
In addition to the R&D lab, Mr. Al Kaabi is aiming to increase the annual yield capacity at the farm more than tenfold, from the 40 tonnes of lettuces that it currently produces.
Mr. Al Kaabi was well-versed with the food industry even before he struck out on his own. His family owns the exclusive distribution license for a popular Korean ramen brand called Samyang Noodles as well as Tom’s Farm almonds.
While he learned a lot from the family trading business, his father encouraged him to build something on his own. After seeing how difficult the last several months have been on the imported food business, he is glad he did so.
With Smart Acres, Mr. Al Kaabi said, "I'm finally doing something right. Now my father asks me every two weeks what is going on at the farm”.
Updated: July 21, 2020 06:52 PM
Lead Photo: Farming via smartphone in Abu Dhabi. Courtesy Smart Acres
UAE To Launch Hydroponic Vertical Farming in 2020
Set to launch in Q3 of 2020, the vertical farming company Smart Acres will be set up in Abu Dhabi, with an aim to expand across the UAE
With a mission to improve food security and support UAE local farms
Darragh Murphy
June 03, 2020
With the UAE making strides in agriculture, and now competing globally by marketing fresh local produce, it’s now adding to this by launching a new hydroponic vertical farm.
Set to launch in Q3 of 2020, the vertical farming company Smart Acres will be set up in Abu Dhabi, with an aim to expand across the UAE.
The new systems aim to develop the UAE’s farming capabilities, along with improving food security to potential socioeconomic threats, such as pandemics, and to help businesses locally source food produce from UAE farms.
The company has designed farm modules using an IoT-based technology system to grow and monitor their produce, a system that consumes less resources and generates ultra-high quality crops.
Smart Acres’ vertical farming method completely reduces water waste, depletion of nutrients in soil, and infestation of insects, along with the elimination of any pesticides.
Currently, the company is producing a variety of lettuce and herbs, such as green glace, oakleaf, lollo rosso, and shiso, with plans to eventually grow baby spinach, mature spinach, and baby arugula.
Looking for locally sourced greens and can’t get enough fresh fruit, vegetable, and more? Check out these organic markets to shop at.
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