Greater Bay Area potential

In the view of CUHK scholar Lam, the first- and second-tier cities in Guangdong province follow the development path of Hong Kong, where agricultural farmland is sacrificed for residential and industrial development. The 11 cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area could collectively learn to apply and share new technologies for urban agriculture.

Lam recommended coordinated cross-border research in agricultural technology for scalability. "If joint research can be applied within the Greater Bay Area, then university professors will have more incentive to conduct the research. It will attract more young postgraduates to join the research team."

"Artificial intelligence and automation technology can be leveraged by pooling data across the Greater Bay Area. The data collected at the regional level can predict crop yields and estimate costs as well as the feasibility of scaling technology. When there is scalability, it can attract investment and talent. Then we can evolve an ecosystem of agricultural technology," Lam said.

As with so many other regional cooperation initiatives, without forceful overall supra-regional leadership to drive results, things can get mired in processes, meetings, hierarchies, and multiple bureaucracies. Effective orchestration and guidance toward desired outcomes can unleash the full power of the Greater Bay Area.