Source: Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper
Publication date: 19-10-2022
“Farmed here” .. A phrase written on a refrigerator in a store, provides fresh crops grown inside the store itself, and aims to save the largest percentage of water by using a system called “hydroponics” which is an alternative to natural agriculture that depends on the presence of fertile soil, sun and air.
Engineer Malek Taj El-Din, director of development at the Shadouf company, which is responsible for the project, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the company has been working on the project in general since 2010, noting that they had previously cooperated with the International Organization for Migration, noting that the project “Farmed here.” » The company has been working on it for 11 months, and the experiment was conducted last March, and the experiment was very popular with the public.
Hydroponics saves 90% of water compared to normal farming
Engineer Malik revealed that the hydroponics experience has many advantages, the first of which is that it saves water by 90% compared to traditional agriculture, noting that the name of this mechanism is “vertical indoor agriculture”, and it is relied on water only without resorting to soil, and the refrigerator light works as well. The sun’s rays, and the water used in agriculture is reused in the same refrigerator, noting that it will benefit in the future if the idea is popularized because it will avoid shopkeepers the expiration of leafy vegetables, which the experiment has actually been applied to until this moment.
Eng. Moatasem Mostafa, director of operations implementation in the same company, confirmed to “Al-Masry Al-Youm” the vision of Engineer Malik, as the refrigerator bearing the phrase “Farmed here” has the main goal of a sustainable hydroponic cultivation that saves water by 90%, because the Water Department Closed, it gives the plant its necessary needs of water, and the excess water is stored in the designated place in the refrigerator, and it does not result from the experiment wasting products, and reducing the interference of the human element, which is sometimes wasted in the use of water, and all that has to be regulating the temperature is to run the irrigation cycle on time.
“We tried lettuce and watercress, and we could try tomatoes and strawberries.” Engineer Moatasem explained many details about the experiment, noting that the refrigerator that had already been tested contained leafy greens, and perhaps in the coming period we will work to grow new products, where it is possible to use The same technique with certain types of tomatoes and strawberries, which is the first time that it has been applied in Egypt that the place of cultivation and sale are unified, and this technology provides a relatively long shelf life for agricultural products if the product is placed in a watery medium.
As for the quality of the products, Engineer Moatasem explained that the products grown with hydroponics technology are more fresh, have a more palatable taste, and have no side effects at all, and our plan is to develop our idea more and spread it more widely.
