Agricola BioFarm

This interview details Agricola BioFarm, an indoor farming company based in Venezuela. The interview is with Diógenes Infante, Ph.D., Director of Agricola BioFarm.

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What is the origin story of Agricola BioFarm?

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I am a plant biotechnologist and for several years I worked on plant propagation using Somatic Embryogenesis. I was able to propagate Cassava, Cocoa, Coffee, and Agaves. During my research work, I found asexual genetic variability and I was able to develop a system for genetic improvement of asexually propagated plants.

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After I got interesting results in Cocoa and Cassava, I started working in a facility for massive plant propagation, especially cassava, an important and neglected tropical crop.

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An important point is that for somatic embryogenesis we also use racks and artificial lights.

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During this process, I found information about indoor vertical farms and I quickly realized the advantages of this system, compared with the more traditional procedure I was using.

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Thus, I wrote a project and I found a partner interested in investing in this new technology.

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We started with a pilot project inside two containers, one mainly for office and the second for production. 40 m² (431 ft²) each.

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After a successful pilot project for two years, we learned how to handle this technology, working alone here in Venezuela, we decided to increase our capacity and opened a new facility in the basement of a commercial Mall.

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During the pilot project not only I learned how to handle the technology, but I also realized the limitations of the commercial racks we were using, therefore I worked in better racks systems using aeroponic as a hydroponic system to feed our plants.

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I used my previous experience improving asexually propagated plants, to improve our process of selecting seedlings before the first transplant, to avoid the differences in size we observed during the initial work, especially in lettuces.

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I worked also on a prototype of a multispectral camera visible-infrared, which can measure two variables in our lettuce’s seedling: size and photosynthetic capacity, therefore we can select better performer plants.

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This camera has an AI program and in the future, it will be able to command a robot to perform transplantations. Work in progress.

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What are some of the biggest challenges facing Agricola BioFarm in the future?

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The big challenge we face is profitability, as any vertical farm in the world.

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We decided to create our own commercial channel, selling directly to customers, restaurants, and supermarkets. We found the best clients are restaurants, with better prices and fewer complaints, compared to commercial resellers.

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My country is overcoming a big economic crisis; therefore we need to determine our prices carefully and try to keep costs as low as possible. We are optimistic about the future of BioFarm and our country.

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What is unique about Agricola BioFarm compared to competitors?

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We are the first vertical farm in Venezuela, and so far the only one. We compete with traditional agriculture, but we have a unique set of products in the Venezuelan market today: vegetables with three Fs, (L in Spanish). Free of pesticides (Libres de pesticidas), Free of microbial contamination (Libres de contaminación microbiológica) and Free of pre-washing (Libres de lavado previo). You can consume our products directly from the package to your dish.

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In addition, we keep everything under control, we measure many variables in our production process, including the growth curves of our vegetables, which allowed us to improve our process shortening two weeks in the case of lettuces. We still have more room for improvement.

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Lastly, we implemented flow control software to monitor our process.

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What is the current size of your growing area?

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In our new facility, we have 172 m²(1,851 ft²) cultivation room area and 430 m (4,628 ft²) total area. We have offices, bathrooms, storage, a small kitchen, a sowing room, a separate room for harvesting and packaging, and a washing room, as well as a room for our water treatment and storage system.

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Do you use CO2 in your operation today -- if so, how much and what do you pay for it? What are your thoughts in CO2 usage in indoor farms?

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Yes, we use it and it is by far the most expensive reagent in our process. We pay $100 for a 50-pound tank, which lasts for 3-4 days. Our control system can measure the CO₂ level and keep it within range.

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Because of the prices, we measure our consumption carefully and keep track of the effect on our plants.CO₂ should be between 800 -1200 ppm and improves photosynthesis and plant growth, according to our experience.

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We also installed two burners to produce CO₂ using natural gas, cheaper than commercial CO₂ tanks, but the burners produce ethylene as a byproduct and they induce rotting in our plants, so we stopped their use.

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Energy is a big topic in indoor farming right now. How much do you pay for electricity (kWh)? Is it mainly from the grid or renewables?

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Electricity is cheap here because it is produced mainly in the dams in southern Venezuela. We get it from the power grid and we have a backup system to avoid problems in case of power failures, which unfortunately happens frequently.

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How can people connect with you or learn more about Agricola BioFarm?

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Well, we have an online store that includes a description of our products and our technology. The pages are in Spanish, but it is possible to get a translation to English from some browsers.

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Also, I can be contacted by email: dinfante@agricolabiofarm.com

I will be glad to share our experience.

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