The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) will invest US$100 million to four agri-tech companies to set up high-tech agricultural facilities in Abu Dhabi including the world’s largest vertical farm for R&D and other production farms to solve the challenge of local food production. The ADIO partners include AeroFarms, Madar Farms, RNZ and Responsive Drip Irrigation (RDI).

AeroFarms from the U.S. will build a new 8200 square meter indoor vertical farm focusing on R&D and commercialization of relevant local crops by leveraging its expertise and proprietary indoor vertical farming technology that uses up to 95% less water and zero pesticides compared to traditional field farming.

(Image: AeroFarms)

Madar Farms, a home-grown UAE AgTech innovator, will set up a commercial-scale indoor tomato farm using only LED lights. The company is also set to scale up the commercialization of micro-green growing to help provide a consistent and predictable local food supply that responsibly uses the region's natural resources.

RDI will develop irrigation system to support the production and research while RNZ is going to launch a R&D center for formulate and commercialize ‘agri-input’ solutions.

According to Arab News, Gulf states imports 80-90% of food for local demands and the food supply chain has been disrupted due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. ADIO’s agri-tech projects also aim to tackle the problem of short local food supply.

Vertical farming for food production has attracted more attention with the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic as many are searching for options to minimize reliance on imported food during worldwide lockdowns. With the rising of vertical farming, the applications of horticulture LED lighting will increase and become a growth momentum for the LED lighting market.