Researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences: Three to five years later, a large number of commercial plant factories will emerge
Since the 1940s, the application and promotion of nutrition liquid cultivation technology based on the theory of "mineral nutrition" and the first artificial plantation established by the American plant physiology and horticulturalist FWWent in Pasadena, California in 1949 The revolutionary breakthrough in the "artificial simulated eco-environment" triggered by the climate chamber has given rise to mature conditions for the emergence of plant factories. 1957 Denmark was born the world's first plant factory. After Japan and other countries have followed.
The term "plant factory" was first proposed by Japan and in the narrow sense refers to artificial light-type plant production systems.
In a workshop-simulated environment, nutrient solutions replace the soil and deliver enough nutrients to the plants. In the process of plant growth, the temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration is also controlled by the computer in a controlled range.
In June 2016, Zhongke San'an Bio-Plant Plant, located in Huntou, Anxi County, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China, officially started its operation and covers an area of 10,000 square meters. It is currently the world's largest plant factory. As a rising star, China's plant in this action can not be underestimated.
At that time, San'an Group, a leading enterprise in the domestic optoelectronics industry, found the Chinese Academy of Sciences and expressed the idea of wanting to build a plant factory. Hope that with the advantages of Sanan optoelectronics industry, and plant science institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the development of this photobiology industry. Li Shaohua, a researcher at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was about to retire when he felt that this was a worthwhile challenge to try and serve the country's strategic needs. He finally accepted the invitation and came to Fujian to serve as president of the Plant Research Institute.
Speaking of the prospects of the plant factory, Mr. Li Shaohua excitedly talked about his "Mars Rescue" experience while flying. He believes the method of establishing food reserves in space in the film is close to what the plant factory is doing. He believes plant plants, with their productivity and food safety advantages, will be more competitive and benefit more people than the traditional field cultivation in the future with rising labor costs.
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences researcher: Li Shaohua
What is plant factory?
Q: Why do you think plant factory is a big development direction? Can you talk about the significance of building a plant factory?
Li Shaohua: In the last century, there was an American (Note: U.S. international observer Lester Brown) asked: Whoever will feed the Chinese people from all over the world? Why, Chinese too much, the land area is small. Judging from the current development trend in the world, the increase in population is affirmative. With more than 7 billion people now in the world, it may be another 20 years or 30 billion in 30 years. Earth's ability to carry will be getting worse. How do so many people survive? First, we must solve a food issue.
For the time being, as a plant factory, the first goal is to solve the food security problem in the world. To make a simple example, we now make plant factories, all the food or vegetables are produced indoors. It does not depend on how much your land area is. It can take a bunch of tall houses above it and plant it on each floor. Under this condition, the grain that can be produced in the same area may be 100 times, 1,000 times or even more than that produced on traditional soils now.
Second, with the development of industry, the quality of soil environment is getting worse and worse. Pesticides and fertilizers are many, and food safety has become a focus of attention all over the world. In the plant factory production, all the environmental conditions are controllable. In particular, we strictly control diseases and pests and no heavy metals enter the production system.
There are other major strategic implications. You may have seen a movie called Mars Rescue. After humans have moved to space, how to establish a food self-contained circulatory system? This is one of the goals that our plant factory may achieve. In addition, our border guards and islands, in some very harsh conditions, plant factories can meet the demand of the defense personnel for food at the border.
Q: What do you feel when you see the scene in Mars Rescue?
Li Shaohua: When I saw that movie, I was on the plane. After reading, I was impressed Feeling that the experiments and studies we are doing now may turn the present science fiction into a real reality at some time in the future.
If mankind one day wants to leave the earth and go to extraterrestrial life, it is sure to face such a situation. It may not be as they do, after all, it combines with the current technology is less. But the idea is basically this: In one place, it is possible to truly realize the cycle of everything, whether water or fertilizer, to achieve plant growth.
This "light" is not "light"
Q: Besides water, there is light that is very important to nature in the production of plants. Does plant plant's light completely replace natural light, or does it simulate natural light?
Li Shaohua: not like this. From the point of view of plant growth, sunlight is the whole spectrum, from infrared to ultraviolet, and even longer bands have energy distribution. For plants, some wavelengths of light are necessary for growth. It does not mean that we need to place the entire sun in it.
Our light, from intensity, from the point of view of the use of plants, can meet this requirement even better than natural light. For example, we do lettuce, cellulose content is not as high, but the taste instead of selling vegetables on the contrary better. We study to get a special spectrum. Depending on its intensity and the wavelength of light it needs, different plants use different spectra to do it.
Q: In other words, in a plant factory, the control of environmental conditions can control the growth of the plant. Does this help us to plant some environmentally demanding plants?
Li Shaohua: Under the conditions of artificial field cultivation, some more difficult crop cultivation may be realized through plant cultivation.
Why plants or animals are endangered? Because the cultivation environment is not suitable for its growth. For example, gold lily, the traditional aniline is wild. About twenty years ago began artificial cultivation, many are now cultivated.
However, you will find that in the wild conditions, rarely found gold aniline. Under artificial cultivation conditions, the biggest problem is that diseases and pests are rather serious. In plant factory conditions, we not only produce some new foods, but also have an important goal: the production of our products, especially the production of medicinal plants, whose quality will be guaranteed to be very consistent, because under controlled conditions The standard production.
In the past, it was often mentioned that one of the biggest problems in the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine was the relatively poor stability of medicinal herbs. The authenticity of medicinal herbs is one of the products produced in one place, which is of better quality than the medicinal herbs produced elsewhere. In addition to geographical differences, the same region, different years, different months of the same year, it produced a great difference in products.
Plant All plant production and growth of the environmental conditions are exactly the same. At different times, different workshops produce the same product to ensure the consistency of raw materials.
In addition, we will use some manual measures, including lamps or other equipment, to increase the amount of functional compounds needed. Why does each kind of medicine work? Functional compounds are at work. Through the manual measures to promote the synthesis and accumulation of effective compounds. The quality of medicinal herbs provided may be higher and better cultivated than in traditional artificial cultivation.
Technical breakthrough: modular integrated cultivation system
Q: Now your plant factory, the control of the environment mainly through what equipment to achieve it? Is it different from the plant factory in the past?
Li Shaohua: past plant plants to do is a few cultivation plant. The most commonly used cultivation, we now say that the aluminum and the like, to be a cultivation layer, put a little water inside, the production of vegetables or other things. Here is a big problem, first, the high cost of construction, the second is the flexibility is small.
Now for such a problem, Zhongke Biology made a device, we call it a modular integrated cultivation system. It integrates power systems, water nutrition systems and cultivation support systems. You may have seen it in our factory, it takes an industrial modular equipment, you can remove any piece of equipment, and then re-installed, it is easy. The cost of construction is also relatively low, practicality is very wide.
This equipment should be said that the current international leader. We have also applied for an international patent and are exporting to foreign countries. Last year it exported to the United States and is in talks with several countries such as Japan and Singapore this year.
Q: Regarding the research and production of plant factories, what is the level of China in the world?
Li Shaohua: In the recent ten years, the development of plant factories is very fast. Such as Japan, China's Taipei, the United States, as well as the Netherlands and other European countries, they do plant factories, research and production practices are long, far more than China. China is a rising star.
But one of the biggest features of other countries is the fact that there are few technical studies that really engage with plant factories. As a company of Biology, we are really doing related research from an industrial perspective. Although we have not published many articles, we have made some achievements in practical application through the research conducted in the last three or four years.
For example, the cultivation of medicinal plants is currently done in the world, but the industrialization of the company has not yet. Our lotus will soon be put into mass production at the end of July. This should be at a leading level in the world.
In addition, we are now in a leading position in the world in the production of plants such as lettuce, Chinese cabbage and ice carambola. Japan now plant plants to make lettuce production, from sowing, budding began to harvest, thirty-five days, probably in seventy or eighty grams, we are now 120 grams to 150 grams.
Q: Now that the role of plant factories in shortening plant growth cycle and increasing plant yield is clear, what next breakthroughs are there in technology?
Li Shaohua: We are now doing a module called high-performance cultivation module. The efficiency of plant light utilization is double the efficiency of light energy use than we now have in traditional modules or traditional cultivation methods.
Whether now or in the future, our research is closely integrated with the needs of the plant industry. In addition, we are about to launch the first fully intelligent cultivation module, to be verified soon.
Three to five years later, a large number of commercial plants appear
Q: At present, compared with traditional agriculture, plant factories still have relatively high production costs and selling prices. How do you think about its future application market, how to benefit the common people and the pressure on human land?
Li Shaohua: Now the cost of plant plants is relatively expensive, but we will see these issues.
First, there are limits to how long it will take to produce vegetables or other crops under natural conditions. For example, to produce lettuce now, if you go to Xiamen, it may be the winter season, the other time can not produce lettuce is not produced delicious, the output will be low. If produced in a plant factory, in addition to the above mentioned, under the same area conditions, the output is far more than the current field production, the production is relatively stable throughout the year. One year may produce 20 games or more. In this case, we have a lot of advantages in production capacity.
Second, the cost of labor. I was in France in the 1980s, when the first thing the Chinese were going out was eating chicken legs. why? Chicken is very cheap ah. But vegetables are very expensive in foreign countries. Summer cucumbers are three or four francs. In these countries, the cost of labor-intensive industries like vegetables can become more expensive as labor costs rise.
With the development of agriculture in the future, China's labor costs will also be higher and higher. Even so, not many people are willing to let their children go to agriculture, you can not find anyone looking for it.
One of the directions we are looking at is the fully automated cultivation module. Under such conditions, it requires very little labor.
I believe that with the progress of science and technology, the cost of plant factories will be getting lower and lower, and product prices will become cheaper and cheaper. On the contrary, in the field conditions, labor productivity costs will be higher and higher.
Over time, our products will become more competitive with traditional agriculture. We eat is a very safe food, but the price is not expensive. So that it benefits the people's face will be more and more widely.
Q: In your opinion, what are the possible trends for the future development of the plant factory?
Li Shaohua: At present, three to five years later, the country's plant factories will spring up like mushrooms.
In the past, many plant factories were twenty square meters, one hundred square meters, and two hundred square meters in size. They could not be commercialized, and some things could be given away. Engage in 50 square meters, how many kilograms can produce a year? However, in the next few years there will surely be a large number of plant factories of several hundred square meters and over a thousand square meters. There will be more and more truly commercial plant factories.
Second, the type will increase dramatically. Now used for the production of plant plant species is very small, because it requires production, cost, to find a suitable balance point to produce. The vegetables you see at our plant factory, such as lettuce, cabbage, and cabbage, are relatively easy to be economically profitable. But in the next three to five years, the type will be more and more. Tomato, pepper, eggplant, may be produced in the plant factory. Even fruits and vegetables.
Third, prices will certainly be cheaper and cheaper prices will be smaller with traditional agriculture.
link by :www.likeyli.com
The term "plant factory" was first proposed by Japan and in the narrow sense refers to artificial light-type plant production systems.
In a workshop-simulated environment, nutrient solutions replace the soil and deliver enough nutrients to the plants. In the process of plant growth, the temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration is also controlled by the computer in a controlled range.
In June 2016, Zhongke San'an Bio-Plant Plant, located in Huntou, Anxi County, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China, officially started its operation and covers an area of 10,000 square meters. It is currently the world's largest plant factory. As a rising star, China's plant in this action can not be underestimated.
At that time, San'an Group, a leading enterprise in the domestic optoelectronics industry, found the Chinese Academy of Sciences and expressed the idea of wanting to build a plant factory. Hope that with the advantages of Sanan optoelectronics industry, and plant science institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the development of this photobiology industry. Li Shaohua, a researcher at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was about to retire when he felt that this was a worthwhile challenge to try and serve the country's strategic needs. He finally accepted the invitation and came to Fujian to serve as president of the Plant Research Institute.
Speaking of the prospects of the plant factory, Mr. Li Shaohua excitedly talked about his "Mars Rescue" experience while flying. He believes the method of establishing food reserves in space in the film is close to what the plant factory is doing. He believes plant plants, with their productivity and food safety advantages, will be more competitive and benefit more people than the traditional field cultivation in the future with rising labor costs.
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences researcher: Li Shaohua
What is plant factory?
Q: Why do you think plant factory is a big development direction? Can you talk about the significance of building a plant factory?
Li Shaohua: In the last century, there was an American (Note: U.S. international observer Lester Brown) asked: Whoever will feed the Chinese people from all over the world? Why, Chinese too much, the land area is small. Judging from the current development trend in the world, the increase in population is affirmative. With more than 7 billion people now in the world, it may be another 20 years or 30 billion in 30 years. Earth's ability to carry will be getting worse. How do so many people survive? First, we must solve a food issue.
For the time being, as a plant factory, the first goal is to solve the food security problem in the world. To make a simple example, we now make plant factories, all the food or vegetables are produced indoors. It does not depend on how much your land area is. It can take a bunch of tall houses above it and plant it on each floor. Under this condition, the grain that can be produced in the same area may be 100 times, 1,000 times or even more than that produced on traditional soils now.
Second, with the development of industry, the quality of soil environment is getting worse and worse. Pesticides and fertilizers are many, and food safety has become a focus of attention all over the world. In the plant factory production, all the environmental conditions are controllable. In particular, we strictly control diseases and pests and no heavy metals enter the production system.
There are other major strategic implications. You may have seen a movie called Mars Rescue. After humans have moved to space, how to establish a food self-contained circulatory system? This is one of the goals that our plant factory may achieve. In addition, our border guards and islands, in some very harsh conditions, plant factories can meet the demand of the defense personnel for food at the border.
Q: What do you feel when you see the scene in Mars Rescue?
Li Shaohua: When I saw that movie, I was on the plane. After reading, I was impressed Feeling that the experiments and studies we are doing now may turn the present science fiction into a real reality at some time in the future.
If mankind one day wants to leave the earth and go to extraterrestrial life, it is sure to face such a situation. It may not be as they do, after all, it combines with the current technology is less. But the idea is basically this: In one place, it is possible to truly realize the cycle of everything, whether water or fertilizer, to achieve plant growth.
This "light" is not "light"
Q: Besides water, there is light that is very important to nature in the production of plants. Does plant plant's light completely replace natural light, or does it simulate natural light?
Li Shaohua: not like this. From the point of view of plant growth, sunlight is the whole spectrum, from infrared to ultraviolet, and even longer bands have energy distribution. For plants, some wavelengths of light are necessary for growth. It does not mean that we need to place the entire sun in it.
Our light, from intensity, from the point of view of the use of plants, can meet this requirement even better than natural light. For example, we do lettuce, cellulose content is not as high, but the taste instead of selling vegetables on the contrary better. We study to get a special spectrum. Depending on its intensity and the wavelength of light it needs, different plants use different spectra to do it.
Q: In other words, in a plant factory, the control of environmental conditions can control the growth of the plant. Does this help us to plant some environmentally demanding plants?
Li Shaohua: Under the conditions of artificial field cultivation, some more difficult crop cultivation may be realized through plant cultivation.
Why plants or animals are endangered? Because the cultivation environment is not suitable for its growth. For example, gold lily, the traditional aniline is wild. About twenty years ago began artificial cultivation, many are now cultivated.
However, you will find that in the wild conditions, rarely found gold aniline. Under artificial cultivation conditions, the biggest problem is that diseases and pests are rather serious. In plant factory conditions, we not only produce some new foods, but also have an important goal: the production of our products, especially the production of medicinal plants, whose quality will be guaranteed to be very consistent, because under controlled conditions The standard production.
In the past, it was often mentioned that one of the biggest problems in the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine was the relatively poor stability of medicinal herbs. The authenticity of medicinal herbs is one of the products produced in one place, which is of better quality than the medicinal herbs produced elsewhere. In addition to geographical differences, the same region, different years, different months of the same year, it produced a great difference in products.
Plant All plant production and growth of the environmental conditions are exactly the same. At different times, different workshops produce the same product to ensure the consistency of raw materials.
In addition, we will use some manual measures, including lamps or other equipment, to increase the amount of functional compounds needed. Why does each kind of medicine work? Functional compounds are at work. Through the manual measures to promote the synthesis and accumulation of effective compounds. The quality of medicinal herbs provided may be higher and better cultivated than in traditional artificial cultivation.
Technical breakthrough: modular integrated cultivation system
Q: Now your plant factory, the control of the environment mainly through what equipment to achieve it? Is it different from the plant factory in the past?
Li Shaohua: past plant plants to do is a few cultivation plant. The most commonly used cultivation, we now say that the aluminum and the like, to be a cultivation layer, put a little water inside, the production of vegetables or other things. Here is a big problem, first, the high cost of construction, the second is the flexibility is small.
Now for such a problem, Zhongke Biology made a device, we call it a modular integrated cultivation system. It integrates power systems, water nutrition systems and cultivation support systems. You may have seen it in our factory, it takes an industrial modular equipment, you can remove any piece of equipment, and then re-installed, it is easy. The cost of construction is also relatively low, practicality is very wide.
This equipment should be said that the current international leader. We have also applied for an international patent and are exporting to foreign countries. Last year it exported to the United States and is in talks with several countries such as Japan and Singapore this year.
Q: Regarding the research and production of plant factories, what is the level of China in the world?
Li Shaohua: In the recent ten years, the development of plant factories is very fast. Such as Japan, China's Taipei, the United States, as well as the Netherlands and other European countries, they do plant factories, research and production practices are long, far more than China. China is a rising star.
But one of the biggest features of other countries is the fact that there are few technical studies that really engage with plant factories. As a company of Biology, we are really doing related research from an industrial perspective. Although we have not published many articles, we have made some achievements in practical application through the research conducted in the last three or four years.
For example, the cultivation of medicinal plants is currently done in the world, but the industrialization of the company has not yet. Our lotus will soon be put into mass production at the end of July. This should be at a leading level in the world.
In addition, we are now in a leading position in the world in the production of plants such as lettuce, Chinese cabbage and ice carambola. Japan now plant plants to make lettuce production, from sowing, budding began to harvest, thirty-five days, probably in seventy or eighty grams, we are now 120 grams to 150 grams.
Q: Now that the role of plant factories in shortening plant growth cycle and increasing plant yield is clear, what next breakthroughs are there in technology?
Li Shaohua: We are now doing a module called high-performance cultivation module. The efficiency of plant light utilization is double the efficiency of light energy use than we now have in traditional modules or traditional cultivation methods.
Whether now or in the future, our research is closely integrated with the needs of the plant industry. In addition, we are about to launch the first fully intelligent cultivation module, to be verified soon.
Three to five years later, a large number of commercial plants appear
Q: At present, compared with traditional agriculture, plant factories still have relatively high production costs and selling prices. How do you think about its future application market, how to benefit the common people and the pressure on human land?
Li Shaohua: Now the cost of plant plants is relatively expensive, but we will see these issues.
First, there are limits to how long it will take to produce vegetables or other crops under natural conditions. For example, to produce lettuce now, if you go to Xiamen, it may be the winter season, the other time can not produce lettuce is not produced delicious, the output will be low. If produced in a plant factory, in addition to the above mentioned, under the same area conditions, the output is far more than the current field production, the production is relatively stable throughout the year. One year may produce 20 games or more. In this case, we have a lot of advantages in production capacity.
Second, the cost of labor. I was in France in the 1980s, when the first thing the Chinese were going out was eating chicken legs. why? Chicken is very cheap ah. But vegetables are very expensive in foreign countries. Summer cucumbers are three or four francs. In these countries, the cost of labor-intensive industries like vegetables can become more expensive as labor costs rise.
With the development of agriculture in the future, China's labor costs will also be higher and higher. Even so, not many people are willing to let their children go to agriculture, you can not find anyone looking for it.
One of the directions we are looking at is the fully automated cultivation module. Under such conditions, it requires very little labor.
I believe that with the progress of science and technology, the cost of plant factories will be getting lower and lower, and product prices will become cheaper and cheaper. On the contrary, in the field conditions, labor productivity costs will be higher and higher.
Over time, our products will become more competitive with traditional agriculture. We eat is a very safe food, but the price is not expensive. So that it benefits the people's face will be more and more widely.
Q: In your opinion, what are the possible trends for the future development of the plant factory?
Li Shaohua: At present, three to five years later, the country's plant factories will spring up like mushrooms.
In the past, many plant factories were twenty square meters, one hundred square meters, and two hundred square meters in size. They could not be commercialized, and some things could be given away. Engage in 50 square meters, how many kilograms can produce a year? However, in the next few years there will surely be a large number of plant factories of several hundred square meters and over a thousand square meters. There will be more and more truly commercial plant factories.
Second, the type will increase dramatically. Now used for the production of plant plant species is very small, because it requires production, cost, to find a suitable balance point to produce. The vegetables you see at our plant factory, such as lettuce, cabbage, and cabbage, are relatively easy to be economically profitable. But in the next three to five years, the type will be more and more. Tomato, pepper, eggplant, may be produced in the plant factory. Even fruits and vegetables.
Third, prices will certainly be cheaper and cheaper prices will be smaller with traditional agriculture.
link by :www.likeyli.com
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