The future of food production has arrived in the form of a revolutionary 20-storey vertical farm in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. Developed by the Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA) under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), this facility is being hailed as the world’s first domestically developed unmanned vertical plant factory, relying entirely on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics.

This groundbreaking facility, often referred to as an “autonomous veggie factory,” operates without a single human farmer on the production floor. The entire process—from sowing and growing to harvesting—is managed by robots and a sophisticated AI-based control system.

• Height: 20 stories, making it the tallest vertical farm in the world.
• Location: Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.
• Annual Output: The facility can achieve an estimated annual output of over 50 tons of green vegetables. This yield is equivalent to the production of about 4 hectares (60 mu) of traditional farmland, showcasing a massive leap in land utilization efficiency.
• Rapid Growth Cycle: Thanks to precise environmental controls, the farm can grow and harvest a crop like lettuce in just 35 days, allowing for over 10 harvests of vegetables per year.

The key to this exponential efficiency lies in advanced technology that precisely mimics and optimizes nature:

• AI-Driven Plant Light Formulas: Researchers created a database of 1,300 light combinations tailored for 72 types of crops. The AI fine-tunes the mixture of red, blue, yellow, and near-infrared LED lights during different stages of the plant’s life cycle to accelerate growth and maximize nutrient absorption.
• Robotic Automation: Robots replace manual operations for tasks like moving trays, monitoring plants, and harvesting, ensuring meticulous and quantifiable management of the entire process.

This pilot project addresses critical challenges of modern agriculture, including limited arable land, water scarcity (using hydroponic systems), and unpredictable weather, positioning China at the forefront of sustainable and climate-resilient food production.