Research Centers for Intelligent Plant Production Systems in Japan
(5) National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, Tsukuba Plant Factory

Abstract

The technical features of NA RO plant factory in Tsukuba consists of three main objectives. (1)Investigation of cultivars for hydroponics: productivities of tomato, cucumber and paprika cultivars are investigated with hydroponics. (2)Environment control system for low carbon emission: newly developed ubiquitous environment control system (UECS) is installed to investigate the effectiveness of integrative environment control and demonstrate the effective use of heat accumulation from sunlight. (3)Improvement of work environment by use of automation and ICT: comfortable environment for workers is established and efficient improvement using automatic conveying system is tried.
Four consortiums of the efficient vegetable production are conducted in Tsukuba. Con-sortium 1 is concerned with long and middle term cultivation with high yielding tomato cultivar. Consortium 2 is concerned with short term and year-round cultivation of early tomato cultivar. Takii Seeds Co.Ltd. is the leader of these consortiums.
Consortium 3 is concerning high yielding cultivation of paprika. Consortium 4 is concerning high yielding cultivation of cucumber. Kaneko Seed Co.Ltd. is the leader of these consortiums.
This research system with the targets will lead to the innovation of Japanese greenhouse production including the plant factory.