DUBAI — In a report for CNN’s Dubai Tech, the series examines how the city is at the forefront of urban farming through a startup utilizing software which enables communities to grow fresh produce on their doorstep.

CNN speaks up to Stuart Oda, the CEO and founder of Alesca Life, who outlines how the company operates: “Alesca Life is an agricultural technology company and we build indoor farms. The indoor farms are hydroponic, so we grow in the absence of soil and then they're also indoor, which means that we grow in the absence of sunlight.”

Alesca Life transform old shipping containers into localized farms, which cuts the economic and environmental costs associated with importing food. The containers are also fitted with various sensors to monitor and track the growth of the produce.

Based in Dubai’s Sustainable City, one of the benefits of Alesca Life is the quantity of water required to grow their crops. Oda explains to the program that they currently have 4,000 plants growing at the same time which require an amount of water equivalent to one shower.

Oda tells CNN he hopes this technology could allow anyone to become a farmer – with a little training.

“You can be anywhere in the world with a Wi-Fi connection and you can understand how well the plants are growing and doing.”

“What's really exciting for us is that by doing these things, we can get an individual to be a commercial quality or a commercially experienced farmer. What would take typically maybe a couple of years of training, we can get them up to speed in less than six weeks,” he said. — CNN’s Dubai Tech