'Niche' market will bring good prospects for LED Agricultural lighting

With the continuous development of modern agriculture, the demand and energy consumption of agricultural lighting are continuously expanding, which also poses new challenges to the traditional agricultural lighting technology. As a new generation of light source, LED is not only environmentally friendly and energy-saving, but also compared with artificial light sources such as fluorescent lamps or high-pressure sodium lamps commonly used in traditional agricultural fields, it has the characteristics of adjustable light quantity, adjustable light quality, low cooling load and allowable increase of cultivation quantity per unit area, and has great application value. It is foreseeable that the application of LED will bring more innovation to agriculture. With the continuous development of modern agriculture, the demand for agricultural lighting is continuously expanding, followed by a substantial increase in power consumption. This not only challenges the traditional agricultural lighting technology, but also provides a very good opportunity for the development and application of new agricultural lighting. Yan Jun, executive deputy secretary general of the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering Research and Development and Industry Alliance, said. LED Agricultural lighting is a niche market. In Dr. Ruan Jun's view, the development of LED lighting technology in the past two years has become more mature than before, and it has also begun to gradually introduce agricultural lighting applications. Plant factories that use LED light sources and environmental control characteristics have become niche markets that major manufacturers are eager to enter in recent years. In such a market, the enterprise chooses a very small product or service field, concentrates its strength to enter and become a player, and establishes various barriers at the same time, which is expected to form a lasting competitive advantage. Yan Jun believes that the market potential of LED light sources in the agricultural field is huge. First of all, based on the huge demand for agricultural lighting, taking greenhouse light supplement as an example, light supplement facilities are the basic necessary components of modern glass greenhouses. At present, China has glass greenhouses 0. 350 thousand hectares, while the total area of glass greenhouse reached 4. 90 thousand hectares. In fact, the combination of LED lighting and modern agriculture can bring multiple benefits. It can shorten the harvest period of crops, plants or flowers. In addition, appropriate environmental control can not only prevent pests, and avoid the use of pesticides or reduce the use of pesticides, check for food safety, and increase the added value of agricultural products. Forward-looking technology is an investment aimed at the future. In Ruan Jun's view, although China's LED industry has initially formed a relatively complete industrial chain, among the current enterprises producing LED agricultural lighting lamps, small and medium-sized enterprises that produce low-end products account for the majority, lacking core independent intellectual property rights and systematic research, and few leading enterprise groups can participate in international competition. LED Agricultural lighting products are mixed, without the same standard, the scale of the enterprise is still relatively small. In such a market pattern, enterprises that master core independent intellectual property rights are even more valuable. From the perspective of policy, the state has gradually increased its emphasis on the production and application of LED plants. For example, during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, a project was set up through the 863 Plan, and several LED agricultural research projects were also supported during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. One of the main factors in the application of idle LED light sources in agricultural lighting is still cost. Yan Jun said. In spite of this, Ruan Jun believes that with reference to the 200 annual decline in the price of LED light sources in recent years, with the improvement of technology maturity and the expansion of application scale, considering the gradual increase in government support and subsidies in research and development and sales, the cost will be closer to the traditional light source. Moreover, because LED light source has obvious advantages over traditional light source, it is still a very forward-looking technology in China, and there is huge room for growth in application and promotion, which is an investment in line with the future industrial trend.