Nemo Garden, a vegetable farm under the sea

Nemo Garden Project

It was originally an exploration project that started at the whim of Sergio Gamberini, founder and owner of Ocean Reef Group, then Sergio started to develop it into a project on how to plant trees on the bottom. sea ​​in 2012.

Their original aim was to use Italy’s marine resources to discover how to grow plants in a particular environment, while providing farming solutions for some arid regions near the sea in the future.

Sergio Gamberini.

As promised, in 2013, Sergio and his son got to work wearing wetsuits to start construction. Their approach was to immobilize a number of plastic balls at a depth of 8 meters under the sea, about 100 meters from the coast, forming a small biosphere within the ball and growing a variety of plants, including vegetables, flowers, and plants. other plants.

This seemingly scientific endeavor didn’t get off to a good start, given the regulatory hurdles first. For the sake of environmental protection, the Italian government does not allow any company to build permanent structures underwater. After much reconciliation, Sergio was finally allowed to build an underwater farm, but the farm’s facilities could only be maintained underwater for three months a year.

Accordingly, although it solved the legal problem, it brought greater difficulties for the design. Because these undersea farm buildings must withstand the pressure of sea water and the impact of currents, in addition, they must be able to be disassembled at any time. The results after many failed tests have resulted in a design of an underwater farm shaped like “eco balls”. They built six “eco balls” out of steel frames and plexiglass, then fixed them to the seabed at a depth of eight meters with steel frames.

Since the project started, it has been asked a lot of questions by society, many people think that this is the project of people who have a lot of money, are too idle with nothing to do or do jobs like this. completely meaningless and detract from the natural beauty of the sea. Some even think that this is a project designed to launder money for certain officials…

But Sergio still did not move and affirmed his original intention, he said that his project has great significance for the expansion and sustainable development of agriculture in the future, especially for areas adjacent to the area. the sea, the land is barren and difficult to cultivate.

Problems to be solved when planting trees under the sea

The first problems raised for this project are the lighting and irrigation systems.

In fact, the sea selected by Nemo Garden has a lot of sunshine, even at a depth of 6 to 8 meters, there is still enough light to meet the needs of photosynthesis of plants, inside the spheres are also installed systems. LED lights for additional lighting.

The fresh water needed for irrigation is automatically supplied by the evaporation of seawater inside the “eco balls”. These fixed spheres on the seafloor are filled with air. The seawater inside the spheres will evaporate due to the temperature difference and condense on the surface of the spheres. Plants inside will rely on water condensing on the inner wall of the sphere to meet their moisture needs.

In addition, sensors are located inside the sphere, allowing the manager to capture information about humidity, pH value, temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, etc. inside the eco balls.

However, when growing plants on the seabed, in addition to the difficulties, there are also certain advantages, that is, the temperature difference between day and night in seawater is very small. On the continental shelf north of the Mediterranean coast, the water temperature in late June is about 25 degrees Celsius, and the temperature in the sphere can reach 29 degrees Celsius, this is the most suitable temperature for the growth of vegetables. and other plants; The second is pest-free.

Of course, in order to guarantee the second advantage, the seeds and soil must be carefully treated before planting. However, due to current regulatory constraints, Nemo Garden can only conduct trials from May to September every year, and the plants that have been successfully grown in the greenhouse are basil, lettuce, mulberry. west, beans, etc.

Prospects and development trends

The success of Nemo Garden has aroused widespread concern and heated discussions in the international community, with which several investors have offered to join, but Sergio is cautious. In July 2021, Nemo Garden reached a partnership with Siemens AG of Germany, which greatly enhanced the strength of this business. The cooperation began with the formation of an international group of scientists, engineers and divers with the mission of improving existing technologies and gradually realizing industrialization and cost optimization to form the The world’s first facility for sustainable food alternatives.

Now, Nemo Garden has started planning to increase the number of greenhouses and try to increase the crops grown, such as tomatoes, green beans and mushrooms; In addition, a number of tourism and underwater projects in combination with the Nemo garden are also being implemented.

In this way, the Nemo garden of the future has the potential to gain economic benefits and become a business model the world can learn from.

In the long term, climate change on Earth is on the way to worsening, and the greenhouse effect is becoming more and more obvious, which will bring a lot of instability to terrestrial agriculture. And the ocean on Earth accounts for 70%, underwater can filter radiation and many other difficult problems on land. If we can really use this vast space to grow crops, it will certainly be a great benefit to the people of Earth.

Duc Khuong