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Sensors Applied to Plant Leaves Warn of Water Shortage
Forgot to water that plant on your desk again? It may soon be able to send out an SOS.
MIT engineers have created sensors that can be printed onto plant leaves and reveal when the plants are experiencing a water shortage. This kind of technology could not only save neglected houseplants but, more importantly, give farmers an early warning when their crops are in danger, says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study.
“This appears to be the earliest indicator of drought that we have for agricultural applications,” Strano says. “It’s hard to get this information any other way. You can put sensors into the soil, or you can do satellite imaging and mapping, but you never really know what a particular plant is detecting the water potential.”
Strano has already begun working with a large agricultural producer to develop these sensors for use on crops, and he believes that the technology could also be useful to gardeners and urban farmers. It may also help researchers develop new ways to engineer drought-resistant plants, he says.
Volodymyr Koman, an MIT postdoc, is the lead author of the paper, which appears in the Nov. 8 online edition of the journal Lab on a Chip.
Printable sensors
When soil dries out, plants slow down their growth, reduce photosynthetic activity, and suffer damage to their tissues. Some plants begin to wilt, but others show no visible signs of trouble until they have already experienced significant harm.
The new MIT sensor takes advantage of plants’ stomata — small pores in the surface of a leaf that allow water to evaporate. As water evaporates from the leaf, water pressure in the plant falls, allowing it to draw water up from the soil through a process called transpiration.
Plant biologists know that stomata open when exposed to light and close in darkness, but the dynamics of this opening and closing have been little studied because there hasn’t been a good way to directly measure them in real time.
“People already knew that stomata respond to light, to carbon dioxide concentration, to drought, but now we have been able to monitor it continuously,” Koman says. “Previous methods were unable to produce this kind of information.”
To create their sensor, the MIT researchers used an ink made of carbon nanotubes — tiny hollow tubes of carbon that conduct electricity — dissolved in an organic compound called sodium dodecyl sulfate, which does not damage the stomata. This ink can be printed across a pore to create an electronic circuit. When the pore is closed, the circuit is intact and the current can be measured by connecting the circuit to a device called a multimeter. When the pore opens, the circuit is broken and the current stops flowing, allowing the researchers to measure, very precisely, when a single pore is open or closed.
By measuring this opening and closing over a few days, under normal and dry conditions, the researchers found that they can detect, within two days, when a plant is experiencing water stress. They found that it takes stomata about seven minutes to open after light exposure and 53 minutes to close when darkness falls, but these responses change during dry conditions. When the plants are deprived of water, the researchers found that stomata take an average of 25 minutes to open, while the amount of time for the stomata to close falls to 45 minutes.
“This work is exciting because it opens up the possibility of directly printing electronics onto plant life for long-term monitoring of plant physiological responses to environmental factors, such as drought,” says Michael McAlpine, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota, who was not involved in the research.
Drought alert
For this study, the researchers tested the sensors on a plant called the peace lily, which they chose in part because it has large stomata. To apply the ink to the leaves, the researchers created a printing mold with a microfluidic channel. When the mold is placed on a leaf, ink flowing through the channel is deposited onto the leaf surface.
The MIT team is now working on a new way to apply the electronic circuits by simply placing a sticker on the leaf surface. In addition to large-scale agricultural producers, gardeners and urban farmers may be interested in such a device, the researchers propose.
“It could have big implications for farming, especially with climate change, where you will have water shortages and changes in environmental temperatures,” Koman says.
In related work, Strano’s lab is exploring the possibility of creating arrays of these sensors that could be used to detect light and capture images, much like a camera.
The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Swiss National Science Foundation, and Singapore’s Agency for Science, Research, and Technology.
Everlane Is Using Black Friday Sales To Bring Farm-Fresh Food To Garment Workers
In a new move, Everlane is partnering with Freight Farms, a Boston-based ag-tech startup that makes ready-to-go hydroponic farms in shipping containers, to bring three of their Leafy Green Machines to the Saitex International factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which makes Everlane’s denim clothing.
By Andrew Amelinckx on November 22, 2017
There's a farm in that shipping container. Freight Farms
Everlane, a San Francisco-based e-commerce clothing retailer known for ethical, sustainable fashion and transparent pricing, is using its Black Friday sales to provide container farms—and farm-fresh produce—for its garment workers in Vietnam.
The fashion industry is pretty well known for having a crappy record when it comes to sustainability and ethical issues—things like wasting natural resources and not paying garment workers a living wage. But Everlane has made sustainability a priority, working with ethical factories around the world and being super transparent about what it costs the company to make its clothes (even going so far as offering “Choose What You Pay” pricing that labels how much goes to cover manufacturing costs vs company profit).
In a new move, Everlane is partnering with Freight Farms, a Boston-based ag-tech startup that makes ready-to-go hydroponic farms in shipping containers, to bring three of their Leafy Green Machines to the Saitex International factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which makes Everlane’s denim clothing. And the company is using money its Black Friday sales to fund the effort, which is part of its ongoing program to improve the lives of its workers.
What Is The Leafy Green Machine?
We’ve written about Freight Farms a few times since the company launched back in 2011. It’s Leafy Green Machine comes in a 40-foot-long upcycled shipping container and is operated remotely via smartphone by a computer system that controls temperature, moisture, humidity, and nutrient levels in the hydroponic system. The LGM uses LED lights for its vertical grow towers, doesn’t require pesticides or herbicides, and uses about 90 percent less water than conventional farming the same crops, according to the company.
The inside of one of the Leafy Green Machines. Freight Farms
The container farms will be used to supply the cafeteria that serves the 3,900 employees at the LEED-certified denim factory (LEED means the facility meets stringent environmental requirements having to do with energy and natural resource conservation). Everlane reps tell Modern Farmer the container farms will be used for growing lettuce, herbs and root vegetables—like onions, carrots, and radishes—with a portion of space reserved for experimenting with tomatoes and other crops. The three LGMs, depending on what vegetables are being grown, can produce somewhere in the range of 1,500 heads of lettuce, 135 to 240 pounds of herbs, and 180 to 300 pounds of leafy greens—a week. That comes to between six and 12 tons of produce a year. The farms, which cost around $75,000 each, are scheduled to be delivered this coming spring.
Everlane decided on this project due to the widespread unregulated use of highly toxic pesticides in Vietnam’s farming sector and wanted to provide pesticide-free produce for the garment workers there, according to the company.
3D Printed Connectors Make This Startup's Sustainable Indoor Garden Grow
3D Printed Connectors Make This Startup's Sustainable Indoor Garden Grow
by Sarah Saunders | November 22, 2017, | 3D Design, 3D Printing, Business
The first time we planted a garden in our backyard, I couldn’t get enough of watching the vegetables grow. I would go out in the yard and gently move aside the leaves to get a glimpse of the tiny green beans that were getting bigger every day. We had an abundance of tomatoes that year – so much that the cages were starting to bend from the weight. At the time, I had friends who lived in an apartment and were unable to garden outside, so they grew tomatoes indoors in one of those hanging garden set-ups. Hexagro Urban Farming, an Italian startup, is working to innovate urban farming, and this same kind of hanging garden, using 3D printing technology.
The Milan-based startup works to develop scalable, sustainable and sharing economy-based solutions, so customers can improve their production and supply of fresh, healthy, home-grown food. Last month, Hexagro launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Katana platform, which runs through New Year’s Eve, for its sustainable Living Farming Tree – an attractive, maintenance-free indoor garden, complete with 3D printed connectors.
The Living Farming Tree aims to bring nature from the outside to the inside of any workplace, like businesses, hotels, and restaurants, where its air-cleaning plants and healthy vegetables can enhance the well-being of the people there.
Irish 3D printing company Wazp, which worked with IKEA this summer on its first mass-produced 3D printed collection of home objects, also announced a partnership with the Hexagro startup for the Living Farming Tree, in order to provide a sustainable, socially responsible solution that could work in the catering industry.
“This partnership is a notable example of how 3d printing can facilitate innovative companies, like Hexagro, scale; by enabling stock-purchasing to be critically managed at the early stage of a business, so that essential capital is not tied up in stocks, while also giving a long-term option for commercial production,” said Wazp Product Development Manager Daniel Barrett. “Working with the Hexagro team is an exciting opportunity for us, to be a part of a new and innovative approach to a more sustainable farming future for countries around the world, which will be a global success.”
The Living Farming Tree is available in three size options:
- 4 Module Kit with 24 vases
- 7 Module Kit with 42 vases
- 13 Module Kit with 78 vases
The connectors for the modules are 3D printed, so that the design of the Living Farming Tree system is adaptable, modular, and scalable – thus making it possible for any person to bring nature into their own space, whether it’s at work or home.
L-R) Hexagro Urban Farming Team: Felipe Hernandez, Alessandro Grampa, Milica Mladenovic, Arturo Montufar
“We are glad to have found a partner that can help us in developing our 3D printed parts for prototyping and early fulfillment,” said Alessandro Grampa, CMO and Business Development at Hexagro. “This will allow us to maintain a dynamic product development, adapting to customer needs and feedback. Thanks to Wazp high-quality technology, we can provide our clients with the best modular and scalable farming systems adaptable to any of their indoor environments.”
By utilizing 3D printing technology to manufacture the module connectors, they can be scaled up to increase production, making the system adaptable to different kinds of crops; they also have a modular design, so the system can be customized to fit in any space. The system includes an automated monitoring device, which uses data analysis and dedicated crop planning software to adapt the Living Farming Tree to individual environmental conditions; it also comes with LED lights and an automatic irrigation system. According to the startup, the best crops for the Living Farming Tree include herbs like basil, mint, and oregano, and leafy green vegetables like kale, spinach, and lettuce.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen 3D printing technology used to augment urban gardens, and by taking advantage of the benefits that 3D design and scalable production that Wazp’s supply chain solution offers, Hexagro will be able to bring the Living Farming Tree to the market faster, while also improving the system by listening to, and implementing, customer feedback and needs.
Speaking of customers, there are still super early bird rewards left on the Living Farm Tree’s Katana campaign – a pledge of €549 (a 30% discount from the retail price) will get you one of the first small configurations of the system, which includes a water pump, nutrient container, monitoring system, irrigation system, four LED lamps, four farming modules, 11 3D printed global connectors, and one app, with included user credentials.
The Living Farm Tree has been shortlisted for the Katana Opencircle Project, part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 initiative.
Let us know what you think about this, and other 3D printing topics, at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.
Valoya Launches a New Line of State-of-the-Art LED Grow Lights
Valoya Launches a New Line of State-of-the-Art LED Grow Lights
Since its entrance to the LED grow lights market in 2009 Valoya has been dedicated to producing the highest quality horticultural LED lights for its customers which include 8 out of 10 world’s largest agricultural companies. Countless crop science companies, research institutes, universities, vertical farms etc are equipped with Valoya’s existing series (L, C, B and R). The range is now complemented with a new a line that brings significant improvements and pushes the LED grow lights industry forward.
The BX-Series is the next evolution step of the existing B-Series, the high intensity bar shaped luminaires widely used in growth chambers and similar applications demanding high light intensity. With the intensity of up to 2,1 µmol/W and a dimming feature these luminaires can produce the micromole output for the widest range of plants. The spectra include Valoya’s already available, patented wide-spectra such as NS1 (sunlight spectrum widely used in research) and AP673L (vegetative growth spectrum, widely used by vertical farmers and other growers). These adhere to Valoya's Spectrum Quality Standards which define the permitted wavelength variations among production batches as well as over time of the fixtures' usable life. This is a quality guarantee for researchers and growers ensuring them that the spectrum will remain consistent with minimal variation over a long period of time as well as when they acquire luminaires produced in more recent batches. The BX-Series, like all Valoya products, has been designed with GMP compliant production facilities in mind.
Boasting an Ingress Protection rating of IP67 the BX-Series is entirely dust and humidity resistant and can even withstand water submersion. These fixtures are passively cooled without fins thus they do not accumulate dirt over time and can be easily cleaned and if needed sterilized with harsh chemicals like peroxide, alcohol etc. Another innovation that the BX-Series brings are the GORE-TEX components in its end-caps that push the hot air and moisture out of the luminaire preventing condensation and overheating. This means the luminaires can function in high temperatures (up to 40°C / 104°F) and thus the LED chips inside last longer than in a typical LED grow light. Furthermore, their high Impact Protection (IK) rating (IK08) makes them robust and allows them to keep functioning consistently even when getting dropped or hit. All of this comes in an only 2,6 kg / 5.7 lb heavy luminaire that consumes 132 Watts (model BX120).
These are heavy duty, research grade luminaires designed to produce high and uniform light output over a long period of time. Combined with Valoya’s patented spectra and the support of a team of photobiologists, BX-Series is a smart choice of LED grow lights.
To learn more about the BX-Series, please download the brochure.
About Valoya Oy
Valoya is a provider of high end, energy efficient LED grow lights for use in crop science, vertical farming and medicinal plants cultivation. Valoya LED grow lights have been developed using Valoya's proprietary LED technology and extensive plant photobiology research. Valoya's customer base includes numerous vertical farms, greenhouses and research institutions all over the world (including 8 out of 10 world’s largest agricultural companies).
Additional information:
Valoya Oy, Finland
Tel: +358 10 2350300
Email: sales@valoya.com
Web: www.valoya.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valoyafi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/valoya
Autogrow Launches Cloud Application To Grow Anywhere And On Any Device
Global ag-tech company Autogrow has further revolutionized indoor agriculture with an API-enabled cloud application giving growers access to grow anywhere, on any operating system and viewed on any device.
Autogrow Launches Cloud Application To Grow Anywhere And On Any Device
22 November 2017, San Francisco, U.S.
Global ag-tech company Autogrow has further revolutionized indoor agriculture with an API-enabled cloud application giving growers access to grow anywhere, on any operating system and viewed on any device.
“With our growers now in 40 countries; our new IntelliGrow application can seamlessly support their crop production via the cloud, giving them the ability to access their Intelli controllers, change and set new data points and monitor and manage their crops – from anywhere and on any device,” says CEO Darryn Keiller.
The ability to control the devices remotely is due to the IntelliGrow API (Application Programming Interface) that Autogrow created for the IntelliDose and IntelliClimate control systems.
“Our IntelliGrow utilizes an open API which means it can integrate with any third-party systems including lighting, HVAC, sensors and machine vision systems,” explains Chief Technology Officer Jeffrey Law.
“We have also ensured enterprise-level data security of our cloud platform for peace of mind. We have had a great core group of growers as beta testers, so we have designed IntelliGrow with growers, and for growers.”
Alongside real-time data, IntelliGrow also captures unlimited historical data enabling data-driven decision making. Current language features on the user interface have also been enabled for English and Chinese with Spanish and Arabic rolling out over the next few months, reflecting Autogrow’s core customer markets of the Americas, Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
"Being cloud-based, we enable a significantly better, more flexible and highly scalable growing experience. Growers have historically been tethered to their growing operations and we're now removing the need to be physically present onsite. Not only that, we're empowering them with real-time data, so they're more informed, more agile to changes in their growing environment, enabling better crop management and more profitable operations," notes Mr. Keiller.
To find out more about IntelliGrow visit www.autogrow.com/intelligrow
Farmers Sign Up to Run World’s First Floating Farm in Rotterdam
Farmers Sign Up to Run World’s First Floating Farm in Rotterdam
October 5, 2017 - By Senay Boztas
The world’s first floating farm, to be built in Rotterdam, has recruited two dairy farmers and a herd.
Image: Beladon
Albert Boersen and Myrthe Brabander will be the faces of an experimental Floating Farm and their Montbéliarde cows its moos.
The AD reports on Thursday that the grass is already growing for Dutch floating projects developer Beladon, which plans to build a 1,000 square meter floating platform on the harbour.
The aim is to produce 800 litres of milk a day and, potentially, yogurt or Comté-style cheese. Urban farming
It follows a trend of ‘urban farming’, in which food production is brought back to cities where people live – for example, the UrbanFarmers project cultivating fish and salad greens in an empty Philips office block in The Hague. Boersen told the AD: ‘People often don’t know where their food comes from, and I’d like to show them close up. But I also want to create awareness among farmers so that they know where their produce goes. My parents sell their milk through [dairy collective] FrieslandCampina so it’s an anonymous project. I think that’s a shame.’ Applying for the job after studying in Leeuwarden, he added he expected his cows to be very curious and sniff around the structure.
Robots
According to Beladon plans, it will be built in concrete, with galvanised steel frames and a membrane floor that lets cow urine soak through; robots will top up food stations and mop up dried cow dung. The cows will also be able to cross to a pasture on real land, which is already growing. Brabander has experience in cheese making, although the initial plans are to start with pasteurised milk and yogurt. She added to the AD: “Don’t be afraid that the cows will be seasick. They are used to it.’ The project is due to cost more than €2 mln and is financed by private cash. It was inspired after Peter Beladon, chief executive of the developer, visited New York during Hurricane Sandy, saw the disruption to food supply, and decided to build an urban farm. He has previously developed other floating projects. Minke van Wingerdon, partner at Beladon, told DutchNews.nl: ‘We are very pleased that in addition to our information centre [now built], at the end of the year, we will start construction on the site.’
‘Drool-y and uncertain’
Andrew Cobner, junior vice president of the British Cattle Veterinary Association, told DutchNews.nl that cows might feel the effects of a sea voyage, according to a 2015 article on vehicle motion and animal welfare. But ‘in a sheltered harbour, it seems unlikely that any effect would be seen.’ However if the cows do feel bad, he said, they would ‘look a bit drool-y and uncertain’.
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The Solar Panels Of The Future Are Invisible And They Could Power Your Home
The startup Build Solar is producing solar power units encased in glass blocks, which can be used like windows and seamlessly integrate into a building's facade,
Source MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
The Solar Panels Of The Future Are Invisible And They Could Power Your Home
BY TESSA LOVE
October 26, 2017
It's no secret that solar energy has the potential to completely disrupt our reliance on fossil fuels and lead to a cleaner, more sustainable planet. But the design of the solar panels you see out in the world today come with a few problems: They're big, they're expensive, they're not aesthetically pleasing and because for the most part they have to be stationary, they can only power homes and buildings.
Luckily there is a lot of innovation in this area. The startup Build Solar is producing solar power units encased in glass blocks, which can be used like windows and seamlessly integrate into a building's facade; Audi is working on solar panels that integrate into the roof of a car; and Tesla is creating panels that look just like the shingles on a roof. Now, in the latest innovation, researchers at Michigan State University have had a breakthrough in solar technology that has led to a completely transparent solar material, which could turn your windows—or even your smartphone—into energy-producing, emissions-cutting devices.
The glass-like solar material is made with proprietary molecules developed by the MSU researchers. The molecules absorb invisible wavelengths of light but still allow visible light to pass through. This generates power via near-infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths while providing an unsuspecting window or screen.
“Highly transparent solar cells represent the wave of the future for new solar applications,” lead researcher and associate professor at MSU Richard Lunt said in a press release. “We analyzed their potential and show that by harvesting only invisible light, these devices can provide a similar electricity-generation potential as rooftop solar while providing additional functionality to enhance the efficiency of buildings, automobiles and mobile electronics.”
Source MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Indeed, the potential for these see-through panels to disrupt the solar space is massive. Electric cars will be able to implement them on their windows and sun roofs; mobile gadgets will be able to generate their own power via their own screens; urban buildings that are too tall to use normal solar panels can integrate them into their facades; even airplanes could potentially utilize this technology to generate power passively without even being noticed.
The highly transparent solar material will never be quite as efficient as their opaque counterparts. While they are recording efficiencies above 5 percent, traditional solar panels typically are about 15 percent to 18 percent efficient. Still, the transparent ones offer the potential to be applied to a lot more additional surface area, which could end up being even more disruptive than the opaque ones will ever be.
The researchers estimate there is as much as 7 billion square meters of glass surface in the United States alone. If they can take over even a fraction of that surface area, our fossil fuel consumption could take a massive hit.
“That is what we are working towards,” Lunt said. “Traditional solar applications have been actively researched for over five decades, yet we have only been working on these highly transparent solar cells for about five years. Ultimately, this technology offers a promising route to inexpensive, widespread solar adoption on small and large surfaces that were previously inaccessible.”
Here’s Why Technology Could Be a Double-Edged Sword for Agriculture
MUCH HAS BEEN MADE of the impact of technology and its capability to drive high growth and amazing results in short periods of time, but there’s a big question mark as to whether or not everyone should be jumping in to incorporate the latest and greatest technologies promising the sun and the moon for their bottom lines.
By Samantha Cheh | 13 October, 2017
MUCH HAS BEEN MADE of the impact of technology and its capability to drive high growth and amazing results in short periods of time, but there’s a big question mark as to whether or not everyone should be jumping in to incorporate the latest and greatest technologies promising the sun and the moon for their bottom lines.
This was especially true when you think about some pretty expensive systems, such as machine learning and automation programs meant to take off the slack on human employees. These are great systems that can have a real monetary cost to them that might not necessarily be beneficial to the company if it results in driving up costs.
Executives and decision makers in companies need to really focus on what tech will work positively for their companies, especially if there isn’t any significant ROI to speak of.
A farm in Singapore drew particular focus on the issue, as the owners battle with whether or not to bring in technologies that could potentially benefit their business. The Jurong Frog Farm, the only place in Singapore that breeds American bullfrogs, is weighing the wisdom of integrating a new recirculating aquaculture system that could help them continue their business should they be moved off their current land when their lease ends.
The problem at the heart of it is that the Singaporean government is implementing a new policy that would weight farmers’ adoption of sustainable and productivity-boosting technologies as a factor in the land-lease bidding process.
Some farms in Norway and overseas are experimenting with indoor farming. Source: Shutterstock
A tender released in August will evaluate bids partly on the basis of these farmers’ ability to harness innovation and sustain production, a challenge for many small, independent farms that may not be able to afford such investments.
According to the farm directors, the aquaculture system – which relies on a single stock of water that is repeatedly treated and recycled – could cost hundreds of thousands of Singaporean dollars as it’ll need to be refitted to suit the needs of a frog farm. Estimates and initial sums indicate that the small farm would not be able to afford such an investment, and it could actually set them back, according to Chelsea Wan who is the director of Jurong Frog Farm.
“Even with government subsidies at implementation, the running cost of such a system might force us to eventually pass on costs to customers, who may simply turn to other farms in the region, which have plenty of land and water,” she said to the Straits Times.
As the only American bullfrog suppliers in Singapore, the loss of Jurong Farm could affect sources of live frogs and frog meat to consumers in the nation state. Wan said that she was looking into other low-tech solutions, including relying on sources in other countries with the necessary land and resources.
Regardless, her story is emblematic of a little-discussed problem: what happens when tech doesn’t work?
Let’s set the record straight first: technology can make a huge difference for many players in many industries. It’s worked wonders for the financial industry, as well as those in logistics. However, not all industries are made the same, and agriculture is a particularly sensitive one especially since it deals with food sources.
However, as with the Jurong Frog Farm example, the swift introduction of technology into an important and fragile industry could prove dangerous especially since outcomes have significant impacts on livelihoods and welfare. For instance, the introduction of new production management systems or new fishing cages may have affected fish supplies.
According to Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), local fish stocks fell from 5,272 tonnes in 2015 to 4,851 in 2016.
All things considered though, technology could still bring massive improvements to agricultural output in the long run. AVA said that the fish farms will likely see improved results in the future once snags in the system have been smoothed out.
A spokesperson for the agency said that the new technology could see the implementation of sensors and robotics that will be able to automate menials tasks such as net cleaning, which will boost efforts to increase fish farming system threefold sometime down the line.
The integration of technology into farming may also not be a matter of personal choice anymore, though, as climates globally shift, thus creating havoc in our natural ecosystems and disrupting agricultural production.
“Agriculture is sensitive to weather conditions. Climate change may impact food supplies,” said climate scientist Benjamin Grandey to tge Straits Times. Heworks at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.
Technology may be a way to fend off the harsher effects of climate change on our food sources. Farms in countries like Norway are already introducing new best practices such as closed containment systems and indoor farming systems the mimic natural environments without the dangers of being exposed to extreme weather.
“We cannot control the weather. But we can control how we want to manage the risks,” said a senior minister for National Development, Dr. Koh Poh Koon, in a Facebook post.
“I urge all our farmers to work together with government agencies to transform our farming sector into a more resilient and productive one. Your long-term viability and our food security are intertwined.”