A floating farm built by a Dutch company, Beladon, is expected to open in the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, by the end of the year, reported BBC. The world first offshore farm has been built in the middle of Merwehaven, aiming to serve as a sustainable food source for the city.

The project includes the installation of four or five vertical farm growing plants under LED lighting for raising livestock. According to the report, 40 cows will be kept in the farm and they will be milked automatically by robots, providing about 800 liters of milk daily for the residents in Rotterdam.

(Image: Floating Farm)

The farm will be built into a three levels architecture anchored to the ocean floor. The cows will be roaming freely on the top level with robots used for milking them and cleaning up their manure. The ground level will be the space for producing dairy products and recycling waste while the lowest level will be used for storage.

Beladon intends to establish a self-sufficient farm with circular production by recycling its nutrient, energy and water as much as possible. The ultimate goal of the idea of floating farm is to solve the problem of continuous growing urban population in the world.

Peter van Wingerden, an engineer at Beladon who proposed the project, and his wife, Minke van Wingerden believe floating farms have great potential for cities near water and they are open for opportunities to build more floating farms around the world. "We hope to make many more floating farms, but also welcome others copying us or coming up with concepts contributing to these goals," said Mr. van Wingerden.