Hong Kong businessmen make a discovery in agriculture as they establish a vertical farm

Once in Hong Kong drop in a supermarket and search for fresh greens from urban Farm66. It is a totally innovative, eco-friendly and no-waste enterprise that will change your idea of vegetable farming completely.

The city of skyscrapers, Hong Kong imports almost all food consumed from China mainland. The price of food is high, especially for the greens which are costly to transport and have a short lifetime. 

Farm66, established by two young entrepreneurs Billy Lam and Gordon Tam, was a lifesaver. At this urban ‘vertical’ farm crops grow on panels situated one above another. 

But it was only the beginning of innovations. Working on the productivity of plants, Billy and Gordon found out that various colours of light made the greens develop differently. The blue light made the leaves grow faster while the red light made stems develop quicker and higher. On the basis of this discovery, the businessmen developed a wavelength technology which helps to boost the production of greens. 

The company was the first to use energy-saving LED lighting as well as a symbiotic system of fishing and planting, which was patented by it. Actually, it is a circulation of resources: fish produce waste which is used as a plant fertiliser in an aquaponic system while the plants filter the water that serves as a home to fish.

Nowadays the vertical Farm66 produces 7 tons of greens per month on the territory of 22,000 square feet, but its staff only counts to 15 people. In their innovative style, the founders use robots and IoT sensors to plant and collect the crops leaving to people the fields of science and engineering.