Development of Plant Factory

Abstract

In Japan diffusion of the present plant factory system is slow, because the high cost of production in vegetables, and the wholesale prices being about 2 times than the ordinary cultivation. In a plant factory system which is 1500m², we made set-points of cost for equipment, cost for fluctuations and production output based on average wholesale price for vegetables in all Japanese markets. After we culculated the cost using these set-points, the plant factory system was built and tested. Therefore, we could obtain an economic prospect of the plant factory.
We have a perspective to apply a moving cultivation bed using a sprayer, making a total production system using a robots. It was indispensable to increase production by reducing the span of production, increasing planting density for effective practical use of planting area, increasing plant weight and yield, decreasing cost of cooling system, as well as personnel expenses, in order to decrease the production cost. The characteristics, equipment and business at the plant factory tested in Sanbu is commented below.