VERTICAL FARMING RISES IN KL
Modern farmers grow herbs and vegetables in office building
DEEP in the city here, a group of modern farmers can be found tending to their farm within four walls. They grow herbs and vegetables in vertical farms that use custom-fit rigs inside an office building with a 30 sq m space.
Calling themselves the Babylon Vertical Farming group, the idea behind the project is to promote sustainable farming and earn from it.
Founder Stuart Thomas, 23, said he stumbled upon an article on the farming method while scrolling through his handphone in his accounting class one day.
After a research on sustainable farming, Thomas decided to pursue his agriculture start-up with four friends.
He said it was an opportunity for him to start a vertical-farming business when land in Malaysia became scarce in the future.
In the agriculture industry, farmers use vertical farming to grow shiitake mushrooms and peppers.
What makes Babylon Vertical Farming unique is its sustainability process.
The company has an office, which doubles as a farm, that can fit two containers measuring 30 sq m, with pipes hung vertically, each bearing plants or herbs.
Thomas said his plants were exposed to fewer ecological harms, such as insects, that could bring diseases. The tools were customised by his team.
“Imagine your plants are given a five-star hotel treatment.
“They are harvested in an controlled-environment, in a room with a temperature of 22°C to 25°C, with LED lights to provide them nutrients, lights and carbon dioxide. This lowers their chances of getting diseases and the use of pesticides is eliminated.”
The company aims to grow and produce food that uses less space and water to maintain its sustainability mission.
“For now, the farm uses recycled water through reverse osmosis. The target is to reduce harvest time to less than six hours compared with the typical 18 hours.”
Thomas said his team had to produce their own tools like carving the pipes, such as the pipes inserted with industrial sponges to bear the plants vertically. They bought seedlings from local farmers, such as mint and parsley.
He said the 1-year-old Babylon Vertical Farm was up and running, but it was not without its challenges, such as having the right tools to install their farms and to sustain the business.
“You need to be reminded that it might be a power cut that could disturb the yield’s growing process, and to know which is the best solution to overcome this,” he said, adding that he aspired to start selling to restaurants and cafes here soon.