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e-BioAgri

Urban Agriculture

Excerpt from the publication of “Casa del Futuro”

from Giorgio del Forte

ISBN #: 978-1-4478-3991-0

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Introducon to e-BioAgri project

BEL1254 / AED / QS 09/01/2018 - pages 29

e-BioAgri

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Project:

e-BioAgri

he United Naons Organizaon predicts that the world’s

populaon should increase and reach about two and a half

billion in 2050 and the 80% of the world’s populaon will live in

cies or urban centers. However the 80% of the land dedicated to the

producon of food is already being exploited for current needs, which,

as we know, is not enough. For the farmers ancipate the urban growth

becomes more complex; the extreme weather condions and polluon

that devastate crops around the world cause increased costs food;

ever more conscious consumers demand eco-sustainable producon

and quality, by solicing a market more responsible and aenve. This

smulates and imposes the innovave use of agricultural technologies

for development and culvaon in enclosed environments, close to

cies or even integrated inside urban fabric like the e-BioAgri project.

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he e-BioAgri project provides for the creaon of

an independent system for the aboveground and

vercal culvaon of a hundred dierent plants

culvars, from leuce with to basil, to strawberries, to owers.

Some crops or livestock :

Artichoke

Avocado

Bass

Barramundi

Basil

Bean

Blackberry

Bok choy

Cabbage

Carrot

Catsh

Celery

Chard

Chervil

Chili pepper

Chive

Coriander

Cucumber

Dill

Eel

Eggplant

Endive

Fennel

Flowering plants

Freshwater shrimp

Goldsh

Grass carp

Kale

Kale cabbage

Koi Carp

Lemongrass

Lettuce

Marjoram

Melon

Mint

Nasturtium

Ocinal herbs

Onion

Oregano

Parsley

Passion fruit

Pepper

Perch

Persian sh

Pineapple

Potato

Raspberry

Salads (dierent types)

Seaweed (various types)

Shiso (Japanese basil,

Chinese)

Spinach

Spirulina

Strawberry

Tarragon

Tench

yme

Tilapia

Tomato

Trout

Watermelon

Zucchini

Etc.

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t comes from hydroponics, bioponics, aquaponics, aeroponic and

ultraponic techniques and then evolve in a producon system assisted

by a digital device that performs a specic and rigorous control on

each phase and operaon, dierent for each culvar. This method

allows real-me analysis not only of the product but, more important,

of resources used to produce. The culvaon can be carried out in

various environments, from the desert to the Alps, from the city to the

countryside, from a parking to the basement of a house, from a

industrial abandoned building, to a very heavily polluted ground etc.

(sanitaon of highly polluted environments). This infrastructure can

be easily transported by truck, train, helicopter, boat and others. It

does not require any parcular prior installaon and can be moved

at any me with or without culvated products inside. Even if the

infrastructure is moved, the producon or culture contained does

not undergo any stop, any damage or alteraon during its growth

cycle. Internal culture is in no way inuenced by external condions,

indeed it allows, even under weather extreme condions, to develop.

Whether in Antarcca or in the desert, whether it is snowing or there

is drought, you can grow basil or strawberries or other culvars.

This method guarantees, even with extremes condions external

environmental, to create an ecosystem adapted and opmized for

each type of culvar. This allows a me-limited development while

maintaining and guaranteeing superior nutrional and organolepc

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qualies. This system makes it possible to establish with the maximum

precision the properes and the specic characteriscs of plants or

other culvars that we propose to produce.

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System advantage

. Soil-less culture and a digitally controlled environment consent

to harvest a BIO product that maintains the organolepc qualies,

food properes, richness of principles nutrients and, importantly, the

eliminaon of the use of harmful pescides and ferlizers (e.g. the

harvested salad does not even need to be washed and the fruits can be

tasted with their skin; the basil leaves should not be washed so as not

to lose any substance present on the leaves).

. Crops, by type of food, are obtained from one to seventeen

mes faster than tradional crops.

. Reduced water consumpon from 90% to 98% and exclusion

of any pescides with reduced monthly management costs.

. Reduced space: e.g. for the culvaon of a salad, in the most

crical condions, we manage to produce during a period of one

year 4.84 mes the producon of a eld of a surface of one acre in a

volume of 76m³ corresponding to a surface of 28m². In this way on one

acre, with UCR units (Fast Culture Unit), we can produce, in one year, a

quanty equivalent to that of 240-320 UCR/acre.

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. Each Unit is equipped with a computer and remote controlled

with digital technologies such as smartphone, internet and intranet,

WIFI etc. The management of these units does not require the presence

of permanent and qualied sta. The daily presence for an aendant is

esmated from zero to two hours depending on the operaons and the

execuon phases. Each UCR (Fast Culture Unit) is equipped with more

than 30,000 points of measurement and each plant is subjected to a

remote control.

. Producon can be managed in an eco-sustainable way by

following a calendar that can be modied according to the needs

encountered gradually. This avoids shortages and therefore increases

uncontrollable food costs. This fragmentary producon allows not

incurring in the shackles of monoculture.

. The imperturbability of the culture agrees the employees not to

be experienced farmers because every phase is directly managed by

present embedded computers in every infrastructure and by councilors

agronomists who can verify, remotely, the growth of the cultures. All

UCR units are connected between them and are directly connected to

our arcial neural network. Thanks to this arcial neural network,

whoever can exploit the units UCR even with no know-how. All tasks

and checks are carried out automacally and, if necessary, professionals

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can intervene remotely also. Without these network and informaon

exchanged, the UCR have no producon capacity within the 24 hours a

day.

. The necessary energy is reduced and, according to the

condions, it can be insured, parally or totally, by the renewable,

solar energy and/or windmill energy and/or hydraulic energy.

. It is important to remind two facts:

The properes of the used ground have no importance because

this one has only a funcon of space storing the units. Whether it is an

agricultural ground, a parking lot or garages their unique funcon is the

one to accommodate the various units on one or several oors.

Every unit can shelter various producons. In dierence of the

agricultural grounds no rest of the ground is necessary. Finished the

harvest of a culvar, the same or another one can immediately begin

just aer a simple cleaning.

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very unit is designed so, as to maintain the characteriscs

of transportability and at the same me to create inside an

environment adapted to the specicies of the culvar.

A mobile farm, autonomous and isolated from the external environment,

by using a strategy of management which introduces the new

technologies to be able to automate and control in a determined and

methodical way every process of any nature in the culvated zone:

precision farming

Inside are present all the necessary equipments for the reproducon of

the environment’s condions (light, temperature, humidity, venlaon

etc.). The water and the air are meculously micro-controlled ltered as

well as nutriments necessary for the culture. The vercal culture allows

raonalizing spaces. In the unit UCR are present the culvated plants

and the seeds in germinang phase for the successive producon. The

system is managed by a neural arcial network e-BioAgri. A capillary

and mul-purpose network of sensors raises, records, interprets and

transforms the uncountable data and the condions of the inside and

the outside of the agricultural unit by passing on them in the form

of commensurable elements decoded by the central processing unit.

A numerous robocs, pneumac, mechanical actuators etc. allow

acvang the necessary automac procedures for the opmizaon

of the culture of dierent culvars without any external or human

intervenon. The neural network allows increasing the basic external

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memory update regularly by a specic study for each culvar and by

an empirical experience recorded in the unit. Every operaon can be

observed, monitored from the outside and if an external and/or human

intervenon turns out to be necessary, this one will prime on any other

acon. The main innovaon is represented by this neural network,

connected with all inputs and outputs peripherals and supported also by

an external memory-data and one internal update regularly. The ulity

of this neural network model is related to its property of learning and

understand a state by extrapolang the intervenon procedures and by

using observaons of already exisng data in the archive. The diagram

summarizes, in an elementary and rough way, the interacons and

certain characteriscs of the system which remains the keystone of the

system e-BioAgri and can be only revealed briey.

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he UCR produce locally, not in km “0” but in meter “0”, foodstus

safe to consume. Each unit is equipped according to the needs of

the dierent culvars and the method that is in use (hydroponic,

bioponic, aquaponic, aeroponic or ultraponic). For aquaponics,

the culture goes with a sh farming. All infrastructures and equipments

are designed and manufactured by us. The project has been designed

so that it can be realized in any place and therefore the prerequisite

is to be able to manufacture, ourselves, the necessary equipment by

using easily idenable raw materials. From the soware to hardware

equipments (e.g. from pumps to computers, to conduits), everything

is realized by our own care. The substratum used for plants is designed

on the mathemacal model Voronoi, adapted according to the sowed

culvar.

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Bring the farm to the consumer.

The farmer harvests the fruits

of the ground (UCR Unit of

Fast Culture) according to the real

necessies of the consumer, at the

same moment of the sale and in the

same locaon of delivery.

The agricultural ground moves in town to reinvent the urban farming.

To evaluete the project e-BioAgri, it is essenal to make an excursus

on the detrimental specicies of the current farming sector and the

ecosystem in general; the project e-BioAgri proposes real soluons.

For example, from the producon point of view, the European Parliament

considers that the 88% of tons food is wasted in the Union, approximately

173kg “pro capite” yearly. The Belgians waste on average 345kg of

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food per year. At world scale only the 43% of fruits and the produced

vegetables is consumed, whereas the 53% is lost in the phases of harvest,

selecon, storage, transport, transformaon, rejecon by supermarkets

and consumers. Let us take in example an esmated producon of

leuce. Let us confront the yields on annual growth of a harvest of a

unique unit UCR with an acre of land.

Let’s nally consider an average an annual harvest per acre of land.

An acre of land corresponds to 4046m² compared to a unit UCR that

presents a surface of 28m².

But the culture in a UCR unit is of vercal type and so we must report

the surfaces to a volume of 76m³.

If in an acre of land is grown on average 35,000 plants, in a unit UCR

grown 11,400 per month and therefore 11,400 x 12 months = 136,800

plants.

Regardless of culture, maintenance and necessary treatments, we can

establish an average soil yield of 75% and of 93% in a UCR unit, therefore

we will have a producon of 26,250 plants in soil against 127,224 plants

in a UCR.

Even if the annual producon had been idencal, the used spaces would

anyway be considerably uneven. e-BioAgri

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f it was possible to make a monthly harvest on an acre of land, the

yield would anyway be lower than that obtained in the units UCR.

Indeed we would have, hypothecally, 35.000 plants (normally this

value should be revised downwards by the 15% of loss equal to 29.750

plants but by excess we maintain the value of 35.000) x 12 months =

420.000 plants a year far from the yields of 240 UCR distributed on the

only 3 oors either 11.400 plants a month x 12 months = 136.800 plants

a year x 240 UCR = 32.832.000 plants per year.

From this value we subtract the 7% of loss and thus 30.533.760 plants

compared to 420.000 plants in ground. To weaken our result, we apply

to our type of harvest only the 93% of eciency and maintain the 100%

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result for the harvest in ground. Coecient “I”, the imponderable, is

oen associated with a 30% value for the companies of innovave type

or start-up. By using the stascal data and by applying to 32.832.000

plants, not the 30% but a more rigorous and penalizing 60%, we shall

obtain a value equal to 12.213.504 plants of leuce. Obviously, this is

not an acceptable hypothesis seen the coecients of low yields applied

to our UCR.

The investment is important but pays o in brief deadline.

Producon of basil

The European market is not a single market. By considering the European

market, it is interesng to note as for example in Holland, in the big retail

chains, the price can easily reach 99,33€ / kg while a bouquet of fresh

basil of 100gr, made for the pesto of ORGANIC type is sold in Italy to

2,88€ - 3€. The UCR is predisposed in an urban area and thus they adopt

the concept of the urban agriculture, farming urban or gardening urban,

by reducing the sale price of farm produces in town while maintaining a

prot margin important and superior to the average of the urban market.

The main keys of success of the unit UCR are thus:

1. Compeve prices because they eliminate the intermediaries.

2. Compeve prices because they do not need a transport, as

installed in the zone of distribuon (farming in the places of sale).

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3. Compeve price because they do not have the spending of the

convenonal and tradional agriculture (in ground, in greenhouse)

during the growth.

4. Compeve price because the yield on the producon is

established in 93% product marketable.

5. Equally of the producon, the specic costs are lower.

These few points of the system e-BioAgri should not lead to forget

real movaons and values of the vision and the mission of the

project.

Within the framework of a producon of Genoese basil, we establish a

cycle of 8 weeks, which does not correspond to agricultural necessies

but only to commercial necessies.

Every week a unit UCR, in any environment and meteorological

condion engenders a harvest of 139,5kg with a 93% yield.

The sale price varies from village to village, from city to city, from

country to country, of period and of season. The possibility of

movement in any place, allows us to choose the locality more suited

contrary to the tradional farmers who cannot transport their

greenhouse or elds. Besides, the locaon is not denive, but can be

modied at any me and without one necessary advance noce.

The costs of travel are similar to those of a transport of shipping

container of 40’.

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One of the important aspects is the mes of growth. If in a

greenhouse, they can be long and dierent, according to the summer

or wintry season, in the units UCR, they are constant and they can be

established, not according to the yield on the plant but according to

the request of the market.

We can reach mes of harvest of 3.6 weeks all year long unl 8 weeks

according to the requirements. By taking in example the sale price in

chains of stores as Colruyt or sll AH, we can nd two typologies:

A package of basil of 15gr. at the price of 1,49€ from which it is

necessary to subtract the VAT 6% with a nal price 1,40€

A package of basil of 40 gr. at the price of 1,99€ from witch

it is necessary to subtract the VAT 6% with a nal 1,87€

ith 139,5kg weekly, if sold only in these two typologies, we

obtain a weekly takings 9.085€, 436.080€ annually.

As regards the monthly expenses, we calculate +/- 5.003€

and thus 60.036€ annually.

It is necessary to highlight that several spending were

overesmated to weaken the yield on the system e-BioAgri.

In the case of energy expenditure, we also introduced the expenses

of amorzaon for solar panels, which have, actually, a long-term use

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and allow decreasing the overheads and thus should be considered

investments. In this, it is necessary to add the costs of amorzaon of

the unit UCR esmated averagely at 25.000€ more inial expenses and

the 6.000€ travel.

This spending can be paid o in 60 monthly payments, that is 553€

monthly for a period of 5 years. In conclusion, we shall have a gross

earnings 258.587€ decreased in a 30% of risk factor “I” the imponderable

and nally subjected to the tax system of the head oce.

One of the innovaons introduced into the system e-BioAgri is the

possibility being Mobilis in Mobile.

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he margin of earnings is such as it allows to compete, in a

pragmac way, and to acvate any commercial operaon to

outstrip the traps of the market. If from the nancial point

of view, the unsold product can be perceived as a lack of earnings, it

should not be considered a loss. The product was not collected and

thus he pursues his growth unl the next sale. Develop an agriculture

that exploits the technology to produce a real BIO without pescides,

free GMO, reducon of the CO

impact, direct sale to the consumer

of the product really necessary. An eco-sustainable urban agriculture.

It is also necessary to consider that the producon in the units UCR

can be diversied and thus dierent culvars can be together sheltered,

compable with their specicity of growth.

An agricultural robozaon, that reduces the working hours and the

physical eorts by favoring the quality work. The product with surprising

organolepc qualies is authenc, it maintains and increases the

nutrional characteriscs. Agriculture becomes a precise and methodical

cra that expresses itself through a master who exalts the qualies of the

product by nuancing them through the control of each factor or variable

of the process. The farmer is no longer at the mercy of Mother Nature’s

moods. e-BioAgri is commied to bringing the farm in urban centers.

It is easier to oer a fresh product than curled up in a supermarket fridge.

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