With the help of technology, vegetables can grow in unlikely places
In the Dubai desert, Norwegian startup Desert Control is working on an innovation -- made from just water and clay -- that turns desert sand into farmland. Scroll through to see more state-of-the-art farming technologies.
Desert Control
Desert Control says when its Liquid Nanoclay mixture is sprayed on sand, it forms a sponge-like layer in the soil that retains water and provides many plant-essential nutrients. Here, workers are harvesting a test crop of watermelons grown in the Dubai desert.
ICBA
"Smart" farms are increasingly popular field in the Middle East, such as the joint venture between agri-tech firm Crop One Holdings and Emirates Flight Catering to build the world's largest vertical farm.
courtesy Crop One Holdings
Crops in vertical farms are grown in controlled environments with a nutrient solution instead of soil, and LED lighting instead of sunlight.
courtesy Crop One Holdings
Another UAE startup, Pure Harvest, uses high-tech smart greenhouses that maintain a controlled climate and optimal conditions for growing crops year-round.
Pure Harvest
The company established a proof-of-concept facility in the Abu Dhabi desert last year and produced several varieties of tomatoes.
Justin Codrai/Pure Harvest
This concept design for a solar-powered smart farm in the Tunisian desert is an initiative of the Sahara Forest Project. The Norwegian social enterprise uses technologies that convert abundant resources into scarce ones. For example, it uses seawater to cool greenhouses and allow year-round crop cultivation.
SFP
Japan adopted vertical farm technology relatively early. Spread, founded in 2006, says it shipped 7.7 million factory-grown heads of lettuce across Japan in 2015.
Euan McKirdy/CNN
Based in Brooklyn, New York City, Square Roots grows food in shipping containers placed in a parking lot.
Square Roots
Located in Strasbourg, France, in a converted gunpowder warehouse, this organic farm grows oyster mushrooms.
Frederick Florin/AFPGetty Images
Micro greens and salad leaves are grown year-round in an underground tunnel in Clapham, London, which was originally built as an air-raid shelter during World War II.
