Background
Traditional farming in developing countries is the main technology used by farmers pertaining to various constraints such as: climate change affecting the season, inefficient water use, limited leverage towards technology resulting in lower yield and uncompetitive offer. On the other hand, smart greenhouses improve all the above and represent more environmentally friendly practices for the sector. A smart greenhouse employs modern agricultural technologies including sensors, actuators, and control systems that communicate through a network to optimize plant growth environments. These greenhouses aim to maximize efficiency by reducing labor and resource waste while increasing precision in environmental control.
XPR Consulting was approached to assess the market potential for smart greenhouses in a developing country following the key leading questions for the engagement.
Key leading questions
- What is the status and potential of smart greenhouses? What are the pros and cons compared to other farming practices?
- Which crops are most suitable in a smart greenhouse venture? What markets are most profitable for specific crops? Propose a market-product fit analysis
- What farming technology is most promising (efficiency and effectiveness of the investment)?
- Which markets/players should be targeted at different stages of farm development? Which market entry strategies to use?
- Where to find and develop the talent during inception and implementation of the project?
Our intervention
To assess the feasibility of this engagement three dimensions were analyzed in detail: technical, economic, and people, each critical to the successful implementation of smart greenhouse farming.
Technical Aspect
Our recommendations for the technical aspect were formulated based on insights from interviews with relevant industry stakeholders and desk research. We identified the current state of technology usage in agricultural farming and the potential for introducing new technologies through smart greenhouse techniques. We evaluated the benefits that such advancements could bring to the sector, ensuring that our strategies are aligned with the latest innovations.A smart greenhouse will utilize renewable energy sources like photovoltaics (PV) and energy-efficient LED lighting to minimize environmental impact. Irrigation hydroponics and drip irrigation systems are expected to significantly reduce water consumption and waste, while ensuring optimal plant growth conditions
Economic Aspect
This analysis focused on providing an overview of the current agricultural economy, assessing the existing value chain, and identifying key players in the domestic and international markets. Furthermore, apart from the market assessment, crop selection analysis was conducted. A top seven list of crops were presented resulting from the analysis outlining the key markets/customers to be targeted.
People Aspect
We aimed to identify existing skills gaps that could hinder the establishment and operation of a smart greenhouse in a developing country of such a sizable investment. Mapping the current supply of qualifications available from the educational system both formal and in-formal was assessed. On the other hand, linking the new venture with the currently local and regional hubs is seen as mandatory, leading to a compressive list of already settled organizations, pool of international experts, start-ups, incubators/accelerators, education institutions with whom the client could initiate linkages and start building the team as well as long-term supply of qualified workforce.
The final output highlighted the roadmap for launching the smart greenhouse venture. In doing so, a set of opportunities was presented on key crops to be cultivated, most suitable farming technologies, providers of technologies for the setup of the operation, key market entry modes, and talent management strategies.