It is reported that the use of artificial light source (LED) and other artificial light sources for vegetable cultivation in Japan is likely to be popular in China. MIRAI, a new venture of plant plant in Japan, and its Chinese cooperative enterprises are striving to promote the technology in China. China has a population of nearly 1 billion 400 million, and it has always been a subject for the stable supply of grain to the people. For China, the cultivation techniques that are not affected by the weather seem to be being paid attention to.

Sales to the local supermarket

The future Zhi Nong (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. operates plant plants in China. It absorbed the technology of MIRAI and built first factories in Tongliao, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The seed of lettuce was sown in June 2017. It began to be harvested in late July and was being sold to local supermarkets and restaurants.

MIRAI plant plants plant lettuce (Chiba County Bai city) through LED

The location of this factory is a test equipment. In Japan, the botanical factory is considered to produce enough income by producing 10 thousand classes of lettuce every day, while the Chinese factory has an area of only 100 square meters, and its output is 500. It belongs to a small plant factory. Through the factory, the future Zhi Nong will master Tongliao's local production costs, logistics system, sales price and so on, and can also train operating staff. In the future, Bai Baosuo, chairman of Zhi Nong, said he hoped to provide equipment for enterprises interested in building plant factories, and provide support for the establishment of operation teams for factories, so as to create such a business mode.

The future Zhi Nong was founded by MIRAI's predecessor company in the name of "future field" in 2013. Bai Baosuo went to Japan to study abroad, serving in large manufacturers, taking the opportunity of future Da Tian to be the person in charge. However, as MIRAI's predecessor company applied for bankruptcy in 2015, the future of intellectual agriculture was led by Chinese capital. Under the banner of the wiring hood enterprise, and the reorganized MIRAI again hand in hand, restarted the business in China.

Unlike Japan, the use of artificial light source to cultivate vegetables is hardly popularized in China. In the future, Chi Nong first provided equipment to research institutions and universities, and plans to expand vegetable sales and attract businesses wishing to produce thousands to 10 thousand vegetables per day. In the fall of 2017, the future Zhi Nong was identified by the national vegetable engineering technology research center as "artificial light source plant plant R & D base". In cooperation with Chinese government institutions and universities, the environment for expanding business is also improved.

Plant plants are divided into 2 types that use the type of sunlight and the use of artificial light sources like MIRAI. Holland is in the forefront of the world in the field of solar light plant plants. The Wageningen University, known for its agricultural research, has developed a facility to accurately control indoor temperature and humidity, and to improve the production of tomatoes and red peppers. With Japan and South Korea as the beginning, the related technology in Holland is being promoted to the world.

In contrast, Japanese technology is considered to be internationally competitive in the field of artificial light source plant plants with LED and fluorescent lamps. Chiba University and other active plant plant research, MIRAI's predecessor company is to use the Chiba University technology to set up.

The study of plant plants in Japan began in 1970s. Over the years has always been in the research stage, for example, get what kind of wavelength of light shot kiyoteru plants to grow well. Until 2009, Japan's economic and industrial province and the agriculture, forestry and Fisheries province began to provide help, since then it has been developed as a business. In the restaurant chain stores and grocery store, factory planting lettuce and nine storey tower (BASIL) is widely used. At the same time, some supermarkets have set up a factory vegetable counter in the whole store.

The demand for plant factories in China is high

However, it is difficult to further increase the share of the vegetable market in the factory in Japan. Because of the abundant rainfall, the warm climate, the natural environment of planting crops is superior to Japan. Even without a factory, agricultural products can often be cultivated in farmland. In recent years, because of the persistent weather anomalies in Japan, the sense of existence of plant plants is increasing. But when it comes to a bumper harvest, if the price of vegetables falls, the factory vegetables will disappear from the store, which is not rare. Many vegetable factories have failed to make profit because of the rising cost of construction, electricity and labor.

In China, the western region is short of water and the northeast is cold. In many areas, the weather conditions are harsh and the crops that can be cultivated are limited. In addition, the excessive use of pesticides and heavy metal pollution in the soil, food safety is threatened. For plant plants, these factors will become huge business opportunities. If the plant is produced in the factory, the risk of disease and insect pest is small, the use of pesticides is not necessary, and the polluted river water can be prevented from mixing.

Unlike Japan, which has only 4 percent of the rate of self-sufficiency in food, it is impossible for a large population of China to rely on imports for most of its food. China has put forward the policy of realizing the self-sufficiency of rice and wheat and so on, so as to ensure that the domestic grain supply is a major issue for the government. A plant factory that can isolate and produce safe crops from the outside world is a powerful option to achieve the above goals. The Chinese government is also paying more and more attention to the production of vegetables in factories.

Bai Baosuo, a future intellectual, says many researchers at the plant factory related Chinese research institutions have been studying at the Chiba University. Through these connections, the technology that Japan has spent more than 40 years of cultivation is likely to grow in China.