Additional Resources
The Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort is located at 257/1-3 Charoennakorn Road, Thonburi, Bangkok, 10600 Thailand; visit their website at: http://bangkok-riverside.anantara.com/. Watch the 2:39 Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort Rooftop Hydroponic Farm – Project of the Week 9/19/16 video from Greenroofs.com on the greenroofsTV channel on YouTube. Greenroofs.com Project of the Week video photo credits: Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort.
Watch the 3:06 video Anantara Bangkok Riverside Resort & Spa – Tropical serenity in an urban oasis by Anantara Hotels Resorts & Spas on YouTube. Read the July 16, 2016 Anantara opts for locally grown by Sukhumaporn Laiyok in the Bangkok Post. For more information on the Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort, contact Elizabeth Dass-Brown, Director of Marketing Communication: 02 476 0022 ext. 1915 and edassbrown@anantara.com or Nattinee Wiseschaisilp, Food & Beverage Marketing Manager: 02 476 0022 ext. 1734 and natinee_wi@anantara.com. To learn more about Bangsai Agricultural Centre, visit their website at: http://en.bangsaiagro.com/.
Set on the banks of the grand Chao Phraya River, Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort is a thriving luxury oasis offering a unique way to experience Bangkok, the City of Angels. The Anantara hotel won the Asean Green Hotel Award 2015 and was recently granted GOLD Certification by Green Growth 2050, the global sustainability certification standard for travel and tourism. The Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort partnered with Bangsai Agricultural Centre to offer its guests a locally grown, certified organic, freshly harvested selection of Western and Asian herbs, vegetables and salads in the hotel’s 2,800 square-meter rooftop Hydroponic Farm.
Anantara is a luxury hospitality brand for modern travellers, connecting them to genuine places, people and stories through personal experiences, and providing heartfelt hospitality in the world’s most exciting destinations. The collection of over 30 distinct, thoughtfully designed luxury hotels and resorts provides a window through which to journey into invigorating new territory, curating personal travel experiences. Situated on 11 riverside acres of verdant gardens, Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort seamlessly blends the thrill of urban living with the serene charms of tropical luxury. Imparted with Thai tradition and legendary Anantara service, this exotic retreat offers a respite from the hustle and bustle of busy Bangkok.
Perched on the third floor overlooking the Chao Phraya River, the hydroponic rooftop farm partnership was sealed out of the passion both the Anantara Riverside and the Bangsai Agriculture Centre have in common, the commitment to providing fresh, healthy and non-toxic products to today’s demanding lifestyle as well as to educate and improve the local community’s competency and knowledge on the benefits of locally produced vegetables.
The Resort is committed to continuing a tradition of offering its guests a taste of ‘local experiences,’ which are a viable and important part of the Resort’s legendary custom; and this would include providing incredibly fresh, healthy and high-quality products from its kitchens, which is now possible with the foundation of the hydroponic farm.
The Hydroponic Farm offers the Resort’s chefs a variety of Asian vegetables, Western vegetables and salads, herbs and melons including organic tomatoes, green zucchini and cucumbers, mixed greens, rocket salads and micro greens; with a daily production of between 12 – 50 kg for each product. The partnership allows the Resort to create a greater access to clean, fresh, certified organic produce containing the highest possible nutrition per calorie with up to seven times more rich nutrient compared to produce found in local supermarkets while using no soil, 90 percent less water, 70 percentage less land and 50 percent less fertilizer.
Hydroponic Farming is an ancient method of farming that is best described as growing plants with nutrients and water without soil. In weather controlled greenhouses, water and nutrients are delivered to the root system. Seeds are planted in a soil-like substance, which has excellent water holding capacity to encourage plant growth. Because of the ideal growing conditions, plants are able to grow robust and rapidly regardless of the season outside. Hydroponic farming provides for reliable, predictable, and repeatable, safe food production all year round.
Bangsai Agricultural Centre is a family owned Thai business managed by second generation family members Mr. Makavan Horsuwan and his son Mr. Chauphan Horsuwan, and one of the very few companies certified with credentials in hydroponic farming. The company has been researching and developing the practice of soiless culture for more than 6 years and have successfully developed specialized forms of planting, identifying type of plants, planting equipment and technology.
The systems that have been developed by the company allow all kinds of vegetables to be grown under any condition, climate or location; with a simple and manageable maintenance process.
Bangsai Agriculture Centre has made tremendous strides towards improving nutritional content in the organic produce for the country’s agricultural farming, which is now exercised in the Resort’s 2,800 square meters of farm space. The Resort’s farm consists of well planned designer Small Green Houses, Sprouting Rooms, Green Houses and Green Tunnels; and the method involving growing plants in a mineral-rich solution on specially constructed growing platforms under controlled temperature and lighting conditions. The techniques used for the Resort’s unique rooftop space include:
– The Dynamic Root Floating Technique System where the system pumps the nutrient solution from the water source to a container that supports the plants, with the roots fully submerged in the solution; a system suitable for Thai vegetables.
– The Nutrient Film Technique where nutrients are pumped from the water source into a tray to form a thin film of nutrients constantly flowing with the roots of plans dipped through; a technique suitable for smaller quick growing plants.
– Hydroponic Drip Irrigation Bucket System relies on a regulated flow of nutrient solution top fed to the plants and is a system with very little wastage of water, releasing just the right amount of nutrient solution the plant requires.
– The installation of the Water Fogging System where water is sprayed on top of the Green Houses, Sprout Rooms and Green Tunnels.
Anantara Riverside and Bangsai Agricultural Centre are meticulous “farmers” with great integrity, with plans to take this project to another level by initiating educational seminars, training and talks with agricultural universities on the goodness of Hydroponic Farming, educating children, institutions and hotel guests alike on how conducive this method of farming is for the future and promoting sustainable efforts in sharing a healthy lifestyle through this rewarding initiative.
The Hydroponic Farm further strengthens the Resort’s Corporate Social Responsibility objectives with the effects on the environment and social well being being of utmost importance. Through the efforts with the farm, the Resort is able to do its part effectively as this is the best way to produce the highest quality, nutritious produce in any type of climate and foremost it is a method of farming that is used to overcome global food and water shortages.
Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort is currently serving daily fresh locally produced greens from its hotel-based Hydroponic Farm, and discriminating guests can now taste the difference and value the idea to super fresh being important to their health, as it does not get any fresher than having freshly grown greens ‘straight from the farm to the table in a day.’