Challenges of Pod farming and how SPFS can help you solve them.

Vertical - Aeropinic - Aquaponics - Hydroponic and EBB and Flow farming and indoor growing systems are the future of agriculture due to the need to produce more food with fewer resources in order to feed the growing world’s population. At SPFS Ltd, we are passionate about being part of a revolution that is already a trend, and we are inspired to be part of the daily lives of thousands of people that are looking for better quality and high nutrition veggies.

Even so, our team has identified some challenges that Alternative farming projects are facing:

Limited lifetime on lighting equipment

LED lighting technology for plant growth is one of the components that is in constant evolution, companies are investing to increase the efficiency in energy consumption and light intensity. The lamps have a limited lifespan between 6 and 8 years, which represents a problem for growers that have already fulfilled this lifetime on their alternative farming system.

Our team has identified that it is difficult to find the right replacements because sometimes technical adjustments have to be made to their farms and/or it becomes complex to choose the lamps that best suit the grower’s needs. This process can end up interrupting the farm’s production and forcing the grower to look for other types of solutions that can end up not finding the right lights, spend more money and even look for an alternative to its actual SPFS growing systems.

Lack of specialized support and monitoring of projects

Growers seeking to grow on a larger scale need tailored technological solutions that allow them to be more efficient in their operations. There are configurations specially designed for certain crops and specialized grower support to help growers be up-to-date in equipment, components and best practices so that they can achieve better results in their business and even allow them to diversify with different crops such as micro-greens or mushrooms.

High capital demand to scale up

To start and scale up in any type of Alternative farming industry, it is necessary to have access to capital and this can be the main concern for any project. Generally, farming systems require maintenance and personalized monitoring, which represents high costs for operation and scalability.

Therefore, it is important to consider the following elements for alternative farmers to have a successful project:

• The first key element is to be able to have the highest productivity per ft3 in relation to the capital invested. For this reason, it is important to make a good choice of the farming system, considering that it has reliable, productive and efficient technology.

• The second key element is to have access to markets that can pay for the added value of the vegetables that are going to be grown on the farm. It is important to understand that the vegetables that are produced with indoor Alternative farms must reach the highest quality in terms of flavor, color, aroma and freshness, since they grow under the best conditions all year round and are harvested the same day of delivery.

Having these two elements on every indoor Alternative farming project will generate enough cash flow to scale your business and even be able to start with a lease that can be covered by the same operation.

At SPFS Ltd, our mission is that you can have a successful project, that is why our Alternative systems were designed to be a farm that reaches the highest levels of productivity at an affordable cost.

Taking into account the challenges mentioned before, we at SPFS Ltd. mission is to be a technological support for all those growers who seek to start or scale their projects, offering the following:

1. Free support during the first 8 months using our Alternative farming systems.

2. Customized support programs, especially to help growers looking to make their operations more efficient.

3. Custom design of our Alternative  farming systems so projects can be more efficient, productive and help growers expand their operation under their actual needs.

4. Supply of inputs and spare parts for farms, such as LED lamps to replace those that have already completed their life cycle, seeds, nutrients, substrates, and others depending on the type of system