Capital eyes sustainable greenhouses

posted on 23/05/2011: 115 views

The Abu Dhabi Farmers' Services Centre (FSC) has entered into an agreement with consultancy firm Anexo Emirates on Sunday for the testing and gradual implementation of G-Earth, an innovative technology for self-sustainable greenhouses.

The initiative is aimed at reaching significant water and energy savings for hundreds of farmers in the UAE.

G-Earth is an innovative combination between renewable energy and water extraction technology. The concept shows an independent, all-embedded greenhouse, where fresh water is obtained by condensation from the humidity in the air, and electricity is generated by solar panels.

Within the same programme, hydroponic and off-soil cultures are introduced to grow traditional national produce such as tomatoes, cucumber and capsicum on a fully sustainable basis. The system will allow farmers to be self-sufficient and less dependent from the power or the water grids.

Christopher Hirst, chief executive officer of the FSC, expressed hope that this memorandum of understanding will improve agricultural productivity and will enhance the farmers' technical capacities to develop agricultural practices relying on renewable energy and to achieve self-sufficiency for farms in terms of water and electricity in a way to contribute to sustainable agriculture and environment.

Anexo is a Swiss consultancy firm specialised in technology transfer, active as advisor to different government entities in the UAE since 2008. It fosters programmes on issues like renewable energy, green building and waste-to-energy recycling.

Hirst further stated that the development of ways aiming at the achievement of efficiency in the use of water resources has become a world trend due to the scarcity of water. The search for ways to benefit from saline water has also become an environmental necessity, which helps to overcome desertification and contributes to the increase of the agricultural outputs as well, he added. – The Gulf Today

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