The annual Texas A&M AgriLife Urban Agriculture: Controlled Environment Conference will be held December 9-10 at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Dallas, Water and Land at 17360 Coit Road Held in the Resource Building.
This year is the third year of the conference, and the conference was actually held last year. The event will be held from 1-6 pm on December 9th and 8 am on December 10th. The event is led by researchers and experts from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Texas A&M AgriLife Research, who welcome new and potential controlled environment growers for this online learning event.
"The conference will be held as a hybrid conference that provides face-to-face and online participation," said Dr. Joe Masabni, associate professor in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Department of Horticultural Sciences at AgriLife Extension, said vegetable gardener, Dallas. "Virtual participants will be able to listen to all presentations and even take a virtual tour of the hydroponic greenhouse."
Pre-registration is required at https://tx.ag/UACEC21. The fee for in-person participation is US$60, and the fee for virtual participation is US$40. On-site participants’ activities include a dinner and social time on December 9th.
"This conference should attract anyone interested in commercial environmental agriculture or CEA, including commercial growers, novice farmers, hobbyists or enthusiasts, as well as researchers and educators," Masabuni said.
The conference is designed for those interested in the production of specialty crops in controlled environments, such as highland tunnels, greenhouses or indoor vertical farms
He said that on the first day of the conference, in addition to the latest research on hydroponic production, the CEA vision, opportunities and challenges in Texas will also be focused.
"On the first day, we invited Dr. Gene Giacomelli, the chief engineer and professor of CEA from the University of Arizona, to talk about his new nutrient delivery system for hydroponic production," said Masabni. "The next day, we invited CEA industry leaders Hoogendoorn, Eden Green Technology and Hort Americas to share their experience and knowledge."
This year, exclusive sponsorship opportunities can be used to support the event. Contact Masabniat jmasabni@ag.tamu.edu or visit the registration link for more information.
On-site registration will start at 11:30 am on December 9th, and the meeting will start at 1 pm. After the visit to the greenhouse, there will be a dinner and social time. The topics and speakers are:
——Welcome, Center Vision and Research Update——Dr. Daniel Leskovar, Interim Director, Texas A&M AgriLife Center, Dallas.
— Automation and Artificial Intelligence in Controlled Environments — Dr. Azlan Zahid, Assistant Professor of Controlled Environment Agricultural Engineering, AgriLife Research, Bryan-College Station.
— Opportunities and challenges of controlled environment production in warm climate — Genhua Niu, PhD, AgriLife Research Professor of Urban Agriculture in Dallas.
— Microgreens Research at the Dallas Center — Ling Sun, Research Assistant at AgriLife Dallas.
— Nutrient Delivery System: A unique pipeline to meet plant water and nutrient needs — Dr. Gene Giacomelli, University of Arizona.
The second day of the event will start with doughnuts and coffee at 7:30 in the morning, followed by the first speaker at 8:15 in the morning on December 15th. The topics and speakers are:
— Data-driven growth — Luis Trujillo, Hoogendoorn US Sales Manager, Ontario, Canada.
— Controlled Environment Strawberry Production — Brian Harris, Americas Regional Sales Manager, Frisco Hort.
---Introduction to Eden Green Technology-Aaron Fields, Head of Horticulture Department, Eden Green Technology, Cleburne.
-Basic light and media test in communication-field.