Non-toxic farming is water ploughing? What is the air cultivation method? what are the advantages of the planting method?

According to a report released by the United Nations, 70% of people will live in cities today in 2025. The result of high urbanization will lead to the reduction of cultivated land and environmental pollution, and then lead to the food crisis.

Inspired by NASA's planting experiment, Taiwan's start-up team Airtree uses IOT intelligent agriculture technology to develop a vertical standing air farming method, which uses mixed nutrient solution instead of water and soil to cultivate vegetables that meet EU nitrate standards. And under the same area, the yield of air ploughing is 5-10 times higher than that of soil ploughing. Plants can also use photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide to purify the surrounding air and contribute to the environment.

The pyramid-shaped air ploughing planter has several holes in which the seedlings covered with sponge are placed in the early stage of crop planting, and the softness of the sponge allows the crop to grow naturally without hindrance. The foggy nutrient solution sprayed by the pipeline plays a key role, especially developed in cooperation with Japanese nutrition experts to extract nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other components from the soil, which can purify water quality, increase the oxygen dissolved in water, and put an end to diseases and insect pests.

The planter developed by the team can replace water and soil. With the advantages of energy saving, easy planting and high yield, ploughing has changed from water ploughing to gas ploughing.

When it comes to non-toxic agriculture, many people will first come up with "hydroponic farming". As a matter of fact, Futian Technology also invested in the research and development of hydroponic technology in the early days of its business. However, it is found that the temperature in Taiwan is too hot, and the roots of plants are easy to rot if they are soaked in hot water for a long time. If you want to maintain a proper temperature, you need to invest a high cost to build air conditioners and LED lighting equipment. On the contrary, air-ploughed crops are less affected by temperature because they are not in contact with water, as long as the greenhouse air is ventilated. And the electricity is only used to run the motor for spraying nutrient solution, which greatly reduces the electricity cost of users.

Team members also mentioned that water-ploughed crops lack the flavor of ordinary vegetables due to the lack of natural sunlight. And easy to corrupt and discolor, not suitable for making salad.

In addition, unlike hydroponics, which use water as a culture medium, lesions are easy to spread to the whole area. The planter developed by the team allows each air-ploughed vegetable to grow independently, and if something goes wrong, a single crop can be removed directly, which can effectively reduce farmers' losses.

Build a complete industrial chain and expand revenue with multiple channels

Futian Technology has developed different business models based on the three aspects of technology, consumption and joining. For teams with a number of patents, the supply of raw materials such as culture medium, air-ploughed vegetable seedlings and pH meters is a direct way to make a profit. In addition, in order to allow air-ploughed vegetables to reach consumers' tables directly, apart from actively discussing cooperation with major channels, a "landlord club" has also been launched, which adopts the mode of land lease instead of ploughing. Users can receive non-toxic crops on a regular basis as long as they pay 1500 yuan per month.

The team also plans to set up a "Sky Tree Cafe" to provide health and light food and provide franchise, initially charging a franchise fee of NT $2.5 million and a 20% share share, and helping operators build container fields, coffee shops, and other business equipment. The team also mentioned that in order to maintain the quality of Sky Tree Cafe, like most franchise mechanisms, all raw materials have designated suppliers.

In terms of overseas expansion, Futian, who won the first prize of the New York Accelerator Lair East Labs (Laiyi Accelerator) in October last year, is optimistic that the United States has a huge market for lettuce salad and hopes to bring the technology of gas farming to the United States through contacts with local venture capitalists.