Readers, Do you remember these posts?
These are all posts made over a year ago on the tech4agri blog. At the time they were all ideas or in the testing stage of their design and intended implementation. Other items along with the aforementioned were simply conceptual but has the potential for great impact. Let’s have a brief recap of these technologies. Have they been updated?
To begin with each of these technologies are to be presented at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture to be held in Abu Dhabi early this February, heavily sponsored and truly ground breaking this event seeks to bring as many agri innovations as possible to one place for full dissemination to all. It’s quoted as the driving force for agriculture revolution
The GFIA website reports – “The Velella system, recognized by TIME Magazine as one of the Top 25 Inventions of 2012, is a mobile fish pen, or drifting fish cage, which is hooked to a barge that drifts with the ocean eddies. The mobile system, which is constantly moving over the ocean’s surface, in waters over 12,000 ft deep, solves the potential problems of impacts on water quality or impacts on the seafloor, and appears to improve fish health and growth. As the cage drifts, the highly automated system controls feeding from the barge and cleaning by a remote operating vehicle inside the cage. The system operates by integrating satellite communications, remote sensing data feeds, robotics, motor controls, and a specialized command & control and situational awareness software via its creator Lockheed Martin.”
Source: Thought for Food Movement
Over the course of the life of this blog the topic of vertical farming has been a trend. This is because it is the future of food production. We touched on this topic last year when one entrepreneur discovered a commercial method of vertical farming which uses less water and energy. See the post: The future lies in Vertical Farming.
Last year tech4agri was proud to meet the Agrilution One team at the Thought for Food Summit that seek to make vertical farming part of the home. They explained: “Our idea to uproot the status quo is to prototype an affordable small scale Vertical Farming system, at the size of a closet, which is fully automated and works in combination with an open source platform to share plant growing recipes.
Re-connecting people with the food they eat is an important role of this idea. “Inventing” your own plant-recipes and communicating your success to others will connect you to a global community of people who share your engagement in the idea of feeding the world in a sustainable way. Mass awareness will lead to more demand, which will lead to a faster implementation of full scale Vertical Farming.”
A technology which has the ability to enhance the condensation and precipitation phase of the natural water cycle will provide abundant supplies of fresh water on a controlled basis. Using a unique process, the proof of concept prototype of the Cloud Master technology has shown the ability to condense atmospheric water vapor to form clouds within minutes. These clouds then rapidly grow in size as they continue to absorb water vapor. A second impact of the effect emitted from a similar device downwind will induce precipitation over a targeted area for the duration that is required to meet a specific need for fresh water.
It may be hard to believe but it is possible according to partners of the Sky Tap Project based in Alberta, Canada. Though the explanation is simple, it doesn’t really show how the technology works. Where as similar technology such as cloud seedling (the process of spreading either dry ice into the upper part of clouds to try to stimulate the precipitation process and form rain) have backfired creating hail and snow rather than much needed rain. The full process is expected to be explained at the GFIA this year.
As you can see, anything worth creating takes considerable time, energy, thought, resources and excessive effort for it to become a realization.
Reblogged this on Sahel Green Food.