What is a plant factory?
Plant factory is a commercial plant planting facility. These facilities are closed cropping systems that allow farmers to grow crops continuously throughout the year.
When farmers plant in factories, light, moisture, carbon dioxide and temperature can be controlled. Plants grown in plant factories usually grow vertically in hydroponic systems.
As a new mode of agricultural production, plant industrialization has been widely used in many countries in the world. It can be used for the cultivation of flowers, vegetables, medicinal materials and edible fungi. It is a modern agricultural sustainable production system created by high technology.
In this production system, the controllable agricultural environment can realize annual production. The output of agricultural products is dozens or even hundreds of times that of traditional agriculture. The vertical shelf stacking system makes full use of the scarce land resource space and realizes the factory production in specific areas.
Plant factories are regarded by many as the future of agriculture. The increasing implementation of planting methods such as vertical agriculture and urban agriculture has increased interest and investment in plant factories and related technologies. In addition, it is believed that plant factories can provide more effective food for the world’s growing population.
Factories are usually high-tech and highly automated. They can grow crops year-round compared to traditional planting methods that depend on the growing season. In addition, plant factories are extremely efficient because they produce four times faster than traditional open-air agriculture