Brief: UAE’s Madar Farms partners with UK vertical farming startup IGS

• UK vertical farming tech provider Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) has partnered with Madar Farms, which cultivates a variety of indoor crops with the objective of enhancing food security in the Middle East. [Disclosure: IGS has received investment from AgFunder, which is AFN‘s parent company.]
• The Abu Dhabi-based startup aims to address local water scarcity by using IGS’ plug-and-play vertical farming platform, allowing it to grow leafy greens and herbs before expanding to other crop types.
• Madar Farms is installing five of IGS’ Growth Towers, providing a growing space of 1,500 square meters. with the capacity to produce up to 30 tons of crop each year.

Why it matters:

Much of the Middle East experiences high daytime temperatures and little rain, making it a challenging environment for crop cultivation. Indoor farming has emerged as a possible solution for increasing plant production in the region without overburdening an already severely limited water supply.

Covid-19 and shifting regional relations have put agrifoodtech top of mind for the UAE – read more here

Last year, the UAE announced a $100 million investment in indoor farming to tackle the fact that it imports 80% of the food that residents consume. Madar Farms was among four startups included in the project alongside US vertical farm operator AeroFarms – which just announced a SPAC deal that’ll see it go public – Dubai-based fertilizer firm RNZ, and US irrigation provider Responsive Drip.