Jan 9, 2023

Agritecture Designer Has Officially Launched: What’s New with Our Farm Planning Platform?

January 6, 2023

After two years of beta-testing with nearly 5,000 users from more than 100 countries, Agritecture is excited to expand our offerings with the official launch of Agritecture Designer, a data-driven solution to the economic uncertainty of the controlled environment agriculture industry.

Through this online platform, users have already been able to learn CEA best practices, model commercial-sized farms, and connect with relevant vendors — all in an effort to accelerate planing timelines and avoid common planning mistakes that cost time and money.

Now with our official launch, several new platform features have been added based on user feedback.

#1: Learn CEA insights from industry experts in our new Advanced Educational Lessons

Agritecture’s Food Systems Consultant, Christian Kanlian, discusses plant health and genetics in one of Agritecture Designer’s Advanced Educational Lessons.

If you’re not one of the many who have already completed our Commercial Urban Farming course through the platform, this is the best place to start for newcomers looking for a realistic business approach to urban farming or indoor agriculture.

For those ready for more specific and advanced content: Agritecture is releasing the first 7 of several new video modules, taught by a combination of our own Agritecture staff and equipment suppliers from our Partner Network. Topics include sustainability best practices, ESG reporting, yield predictions, and HVAC design considerations.

Pro users will be able to watch all videos via the platform’s new Knowledge Hub section and will also be informed as soon as new modules are released.

#2: Get CapEx estimates in less than a minute with the new Ballpark Estimate Tool

Curious what it would cost to build a highly automated vertical farm to grow microgreens, or a low-tech greenhouse to grow tomatoes, but don’t need more details than that? With our new Ballpark Estimate Tool, you can get an immediate budget estimate for any type of controlled environment farm with just 4 inputs – facility type, crop type, automation level, and size – and our algorithm will give you a realistic cost range that you can expect to set your farm up and get it running.

#3: Get farm model results faster with our new “basic” modeling input form

Want to model an indoor farm but not quite sure how to fill out certain inputs? Lite and Pro users can now utilize a “basic” form with just 6 inputs in order to create financial projections. This version of our model uses more assumptions than our standard form, but still allows you to make adjustments to these assumptions by “editing” your model. Pro users can still use the standard form which allows for more control of the model’s key assumptions.

#4: Container Farms are now a distinct modeling option!

Agritecture has been working closely with our equipment partners LettUs Grow and Urban Crop Solutions to come up with an all-new container farm model, which will be distinct from the vertical farm option that assumes a warehouse-style environment. The CapEx, OpEx, and yield estimates in all container farm models are fed by real-world data from Urban Crop Solutions and LettUs Grow, which have been vetted by the Agritecture team. Furthermore, when you create a container farm model in Agritecture Designer, our system will automatically create two models - one from Urban Crop Solutions and one from LettUs Grow, as long as both meet the criteria you have laid out for your farm.

#5: Weigh the tradeoffs between automation level and labor in our updated farm models

Automation is a key factor in driving down the operating cost of indoor farms and the ability to achieve price parity with conventional field production. But it means adding even more upfront cost to farms that already have a high CapEx. Agritecture Designer users can now weigh these tradeoffs by selecting from low, medium, and high levels of automation when creating their farm models, and can then adjust corresponding labor estimates using the custom override function within the OpEx breakdown. This is thanks to in-depth research performed by our team in 2022 on how automation levels affect labor requirements for various crop categories. Look out for a more detailed article on automation and labor coming later this month.

#6: Request quotes from premium equipment suppliers in Agritecture’s Partner Network

Ready for the next step? Take your models one step closer to reality by researching suppliers and requesting quotes directly from relevant equipment suppliers as part of our Partner Network!

We’ve released new details on each of our equipment partners and compiled them into “transparency profiles” which delve into these suppliers’ market history, level of customer support, certifications, sustainability commitments, and more. These profiles can save you months of research and outreach time, with the goal of also setting a higher standard for transparency across the industry.

Furthermore, Pro users can utilize support from our Client Success Team, led by new Agritecture team member Luc Lalire, for further guidance on farm modeling, market research, financing options, as well as equipment selection and the supplier quoting process. With the help of our team, you can make the most educated decision for your specific goals.

Agritecture currently has 16 equipment partners, all of whom have been pre-vetted, and new partners are being added frequently.