Located in a residential community in the Corporate Area is a farm that is breaking the conventional standards of farming by eliminating soil from the growing process. The process is called aeroponics, and farm owner 35-year-old John Mark Clayton believes this is the future of the agriculture sector.
This method of farming uses a soil-less technique to grow crops in a controlled environment. It involves suspending the plant roots in a nutrient-rich mist, which helps to optimise crop growth and reduce water usage.
"I am able to farm commercially without having to go out and seek a full acre of land ... we are currently in the drought season now and there is no issue of me finding water because we save up 90 per cent water when using the vertical farms. It's on an intermittent system, we hold about five litres of water in the resovoir that comes up, comes on and it recycles ... farming of the future I'd say," Clayton said.He told The Gleaner that he has always had an interest in farming, and reared chicken and ducks as a child.
Two years ago, he along with his business partner, Kerrie-Anne Gray, established Tower Farms, a vertical aeroponics farm that Clayton said aligns with global standards for more sustainable efficient agriculture production. There are 100 aeroponic towers that can hold up 44 plants on a 600-metre square farm. He plants mainly scotch bonnet peppers, but there is also basil, escallion and pak choi.
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