SMART FARMS BUILT IN UNCONVENTIONAL SITES

[Anchor Lead]

Smart farms refer to agricultural facilities that adopt information and communication technology to remotely control the operation of farms. They are usually operated on farming fields. However, here is a farm built on an unconventional site. This smart farm was created inside a closed, abandoned expressway tunnel.

[Pkg]

Lettuces grow in piles of cylinders. Stems are heavy with strawberries, a spring delicacy. Unseasonal vegetables and fruits are growing inside an expressway tunnel, which was closed down back in 2002. The abandoned space measuring roughly 66-hundred square meters was converted into a smart farm last year. LED illuminations are used to provide light necessary for photosynthesis. Cutting-edge devices were applied to maintain temperature and humidity at an appropriate level for farming. Thanks to these cultivation conditions, leaf vegetables like lettuce can be harvested in 21 days after planting, about 70 days earlier than the conventional method. The annual production comes to 1,800 tons, which is equivalent to the amount grown on a field measuring 1.15 million square meters. Another benefit is to adjust to market changes quickly, as they can be produced any time around the year. The smart farm is relatively free from soil and water pollution, since it was built in an abandoned space and doesn't use agricultural chemicals.

[Soundbite] LEE SANG-HYUK(CHUNGBUK PROVINCIAL GOV'T) : "The smart farm is meaningful, as it creates jobs for locals and contributes to boosting the local economy."

A remaining task is how to lower product prices, which result from the high production costs to install state-of-the-art farming facilities.