Abu Dhabi to invest $41 million in firms to develop tech to grow food in deserts & space

Abu Dhabi is looking to boost desert agriculture with three Agtech companies, who are set to develop cutting-edge projects in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) on November 10 announced alliances with Pure Harvest Smart Farms (Pure Harvest), FreshToHome, and Nanoracks, which will see the companies receive financial and non-financial incentives of $41 million. The partnership is the continuation of the ADIO's efforts to accelerate growth in the agriculture technology sector. 

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"Abu Dhabi is pressing ahead at full steam with our mission to ‘turn the desert green’ and solve long-term global food security issues. We have created an environment where innovative ideas can flourish and this has enabled the rapid expansion of our AgTech sector. Innovations from the companies we partnered with earlier this year are already propelling the growth of Abu Dhabi’s 24,000 farms. Partnering with Pure Harvest, FreshToHome, and Nanoracks adds a realm of new capabilities to the ecosystem across land, sea, and space," Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, said in a statement. 

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Research in space

The partnership with the three companies will build on the successful alliance of ADIO with seven other AgTech firms earlier this year. ADIO had partnered with AgTech pioneers like  AeroFarms, Madar Farms, RNZ, and RDI. The new partnership will see ADIO working with companies that use the International Space Station (ISS) for research purposes in studying food production in space and extreme climates such s desert. 

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One of the firms that use the International Space Station for research purposes is Nanoracks. The US-based company is one of the largest commercial users of the ISS and recently opened its first office in Abu Dhabi. Nanoracks is building the first-ever commercial AgTech space research programme, the ‘StarLab Space Farming Center’, in Abu Dhabi as a commercial space research facility focused on advancing knowledge and technology for organisms and food produced in space and in equally extreme climates on Earth, ADIO informed. 

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(Image Credit: AP)