One of the greatest challenges in the 21st century is how to sufficiently and sustainably feed the world population with nutritional and safe food. Plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL) is a closed plant production system. Regardless of environments outside, PFAL is considered as an alternative technology for food and feed production with high efficiency, high quality and low risk to health of customers. Therefore, the aim of this review is to provide the basic information on the current situation, direction, government policy and support and challenges of PFAL technology in Thailand. PFAL was introduced to Thailand in the early 2000s for academic purposes. Several universities and research institutes have paid more attention to research and development on plant production in PFAL as well as developing new PFAL systems. Moreover, PFAL is now attracting great attention among plant producers because it creates new markets and business opportunities. The government has launched a policy of using advanced technology for strengthening the agriculture sector, and PFAL technology is considered as a frontier technology in the agricultural sector to be an engine driving BCG (bio-economy, circular economy and green economy) model including the establishment of large-scale plant factories as for The Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation of Thailand or EECi which have planned to establish large-scale plant factories for demonstration and training sites that is a part of technology implementation. The Board of Investment of Thailand or BOI has added the PFAL as a new activity eligible for BOI incentives to promote this technology. However, the challenges of this technology are high initial construction and production costs. Moreover, shortage of knowledge, know-how and best practices in plant production under controlled environments and lack of skilled operators may be the problems encountered on how to adopt this technology for plant production on an industrial scale. To ensure the sustainable growth of the PFAL industry, the government should support the business through research investment and subsidy for PFAL construction, PFAL and PFAL-related technology development as well as promoting the technology for commercial scale plant production.
Keywords: bio-economy, closed plant production system, environmental control, medicinal plant, plant factory
One of the greatest challenges in the 21st century is how to sufficiently and sustainably feed the world population with nutritional and safe food. Plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL) is a closed plant production system. Regardless of environments outside, PFAL is considered as an alternative technology for food and feed production with high efficiency, high quality and low risk to health of customers. Therefore, the aim of this review is to provide the basic information on the current situation, direction, government policy and support and challenges of PFAL technology in Thailand. PFAL was introduced to Thailand in the early 2000s for academic purposes. Several universities and research institutes have paid more attention to research and development on plant production in PFAL as well as developing new PFAL systems. Moreover, PFAL is now attracting great attention among plant producers because it creates new markets and business opportunities. The government has launched a policy of using advanced technology for strengthening the agriculture sector, and PFAL technology is considered as a frontier technology in the agricultural sector to be an engine driving BCG (bio-economy, circular economy and green economy) model including the establishment of large-scale plant factories as for The Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation of Thailand or EECi which have planned to establish large-scale plant factories for demonstration and training sites that is a part of technology implementation. The Board of Investment of Thailand or BOI has added the PFAL as a new activity eligible for BOI incentives to promote this technology. However, the challenges of this technology are high initial construction and production costs. Moreover, shortage of knowledge, know-how and best practices in plant production under controlled environments and lack of skilled operators may be the problems encountered on how to adopt this technology for plant production on an industrial scale. To ensure the sustainable growth of the PFAL industry, the government should support the business through research investment and subsidy for PFAL construction, PFAL and PFAL-related technology development as well as promoting the technology for commercial scale plant production.
Keywords: bio-economy, closed plant production system, environmental control, medicinal plant, plant factory