In spite of its dry desert climate, the UAE has farms where leafy vegetables are successfully grown, although the methods used are often far from traditional agriculture.

Our students get to experience these future farming methods through the internship programme in the UAE.

The cultivation technologies being used are soil-less farming methods like hydroponics and aeroponics that involve growing crops without soil and with less water consumption, with the plants instead securing the nutrients they need from special solutions.

Advantages of these soil less farming methods are:

• Up to 95% of the water is saved in comparison to soil-based farming.
• Up to 90% of the space is saved with the aeroponic tower systems.
• With aeroponics, the roots are simply hanging in the air and have 100% oxygen availability.
• 35%–50% increase in crop yield through aeroponics in comparison to conventional farming