Building Soil-less indoor Eco-farms in Nigeria, the Panacea for food self sufficiency, using the Japanese model

Building Soil-less indoor Eco-farms in Nigeria, the Panacea for food self sufficiency, using the Japanese model

Although farming makes less than 2% of the GDP of Japan, it’s gross agricultural production totals about $100billion today which is sadly a sharp decline from 7.84trillion Japanese Yen in 1992.

Agriculture in Japan has outclassed the Agricultural practice anywhere in the world because of Technological advancement and because of Governments readiness to food self sufficiency for her about 85million Japanese population.

Technology in Japan has helped build Soil-less indoor farms with hydro gel technology or the use of LED lights that emit wavelengths optimal for plant growth. Imagine having a completely controlled, clean room level environment in which pests, weather and pollution don't interfere with production or quality.

This model reduces up to 90% water consumption and 80% fertilizer use; vegetables grow 3 times faster than outdoor farms, reduce loss by over 60% and boosts productivity by 50% with the ability to control Photosynthesis.

This Technology allows us to farm in a sustainable manner commercially and in turn producing nutritionally superior and safe food while reducing the use of harmful chemicals in the food supply chain.

This Farm in Kanazawa province in Japan is one of the over 400 privately owned commercial indoor farms in Japan and these tomatoes you see have 10 times more beta-carotene and 5 times the Vitamins, Calcium and magnesium than those grown on normal soil.

If Nigeria must become self sufficient in the future, we must start thinking in this direction where we employ the use of Technology to boost our agriculture capacity, this would create an avalanche of investment and job opportunities for millions as the period from planting to harvest is about half the normal time .There's a catastrophic shortage of Tomatoes production in Nigeria today because of the invasion of pest eating tomatoes in our farms who have become resistant to pest control. As we try to grapple with that disaster, we must begin to adopt other safer, and more efficient farming models to serve as buffers going forward