台灣的植物工廠

Plant factories: the future of farming?
http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=143927&CtNode=427

....Despite all these advantages, in Taiwan this new way of farming is developing slowly and sporadically, on a small scale, due to higher initial equipment investment, Fang said. Other concerns include higher energy costs, inadequately developed cultivation technology, a limited range of crops and blander-tasting vegetables than those grown by more traditional methods.

NTU has established two plant factories on campus to improve farming technology and increase the number of crops that can be produced by plant factories. “As the nation is developing sources of renewable energy, it will also be possible to power these facilities with green energy, making them more environmentally friendly,” Fang said.

Aside from NTU, only a handful of firms, including LED manufacturers Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd. and Genesis Photonics Inc., have built plant factories in Taiwan, and these are designed only for testing their lighting products for export to plant factories overseas.

“The primary motivation for these enterprises is selling farming equipment rather than growing vegetables,” he said.

Fang admitted that high setup costs are the biggest drawback of the plant factory system, but the potential return could be well worth the investment....

※ 台灣政府應該重視這一塊。相關報導：

＊ 糧荒新解：科技、地產大亨瘋植物工廠
http://www.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=5043185&page=1

....鑽研植物工廠十九年，台大生物產業機電工程學系系主任方煒，已是當紅名師。他的農學院學生一畢業，就被科技公司搶走，擔任植物工廠廠長。

....「科技業界還在死守那最後的三～二％毛利，但是農業的毛利率都是兩位數，」台大生農學院副院長林達德，點出關鍵。

＊ 全球糧價飆漲 窮人斷糧威脅升高