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Bucolic Kailash, An Agritech Startup, Brings “Computerized Farms” From The Future!
At the futuristic and smart agritech start-up “Bucolic Kailash”, a mission is becoming more real every day; the vision that soon in the very near future, starting and running farms profitably, will be as easy as downloading an app
July 6, 2021
At the futuristic and smart agritech start-up “Bucolic Kailash”, a mission is becoming more real every day; the vision that soon in the very near future, starting and running farms profitably, will be as easy as downloading an app.
Bucolic Kailash researches, manufactures and markets user-friendly life-growing computers. These computers are meant to enable economic and nutritional autonomy for its users. For example, one of the patented life-growing computers at Bucolic testing labs grows as much as Rs. 25 lakh worth of healthy produce annually in just 100 sq ft space with operational expenses of under Rs. 50,000/month for the user. Systems like these can be started with as low as 3 sq ft of space and scaled up with time.
Bucolic Kailash’s Vertical Garden and Vertical Farm System series are made to deliver super intensive and sustainable cultivation that is 100% organic, without soil and achieves more than 90% of water and energy saving. The smart agritech company has developed and acquired multiple patents on products and technologies that have shown promising results in the scope of personal, organized, and organic aquaponics farms. Their hydroponics computers grow up to 84 plants, vegetables, and salads in 1 sq ft. Their mushroom farming computers grow 50 Kgs of mushrooms in 3 sq ft every 45 days. Their fish-farming computer designs yield up to 800 Kgs of shrimps in just 10 sq mt every 150 days. All of this is achieved with IT, IoT and their custom developed life-growing AI. The Systems are engineered by closely working with its early customers and focusing on ease of use, AI & IoT powered automation and distribution. Engineering, Manufacturing, and IT has been the most guiding product shaper for the company’s early success.
Bucolic Kailash has unlocked a huge market for vertical farming, fish farming and hydroponic personal gardens.Their use of technological intervention empowers people to cultivate and harvest every day and in the comfort of their own homes through most efficient and effective ways. The company’s new offering under Vertical Garden system series ‘Tree of Wisdom – Eleganté’ is by far the most groundbreaking vertical hydroponics system the world has ever seen before. The product complies with ISO 9001:2015 for best in grade Quality Management and has been tested to meet the required hydroponics system parameter controls, as well as the state-of-art features. Tree of Wisdom - Eleganté has been doing well since its launch on 11th May 2021 at amazon.in.
The Company was founded by Mr. Utkarsh Sinha in March 2020 and now the company is a community of 18 carefully selected and nurtured members. During our interview with the founder, we found him very engaged and excited about the road ahead. Utkarsh graduated in MCIT-Computing from The University of Melbourne and B. Tech from MIT, Manipal. According to him, having worked with Godrej's R&D, Honeywell Aero HTS, Fagerhult OR Tech teams in India and Australia, helped him manage the company’s departments, processes, and make shipments possible from concept-to-product, even during the pandemic. The company runs its fully functional aquaponic devices manufacturing facility in Manipal on lean manufacturing and quality control principles.
On further talking with the founder, we found that the company’s mission with its life-growing computers is to ultimately enable community empowerment and economic development. The company believes that such life-changing science and technology should be available as user-friendly products. In the founder’s words, “It was a contrasting journey that I took back home to India in 2019 while having employment opportunities from companies in Australia that made me reflect upon my priorities and self-actualization needs. I wish to make communities exchange value through healthy food and money that can make coexistence wholesome.” We believe that Bucolic Kailash is a futuristic company that understands the needs of today's communities and a fast-changing world. They develop and market environmentally friendly agritech computers. The company has raised partial seed-funding after a year of setting up its manufacturing factory and distribution channels and they plan to expand their life-growing computers reach to a wider niche and the tap global market in the next 6 months.
Visit www.bucolic.ltd for more inspiration and information
A New White House Signals New Opportunities For AgTech Startups. Are We Up For The Challenge?
A radical new approach is needed, and startups have the agility to bring new technology to market at the pace which is required. So, are we up to the challenge?
February 9, 2021
Editor’s note: Ponsi Trivisvavet is CEO at Inari, a seed genetics startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The views expressed in this guest article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of AFN.
Much has been analyzed and debated as the new administration enters the White House, but President Joe Biden has made a number of appointments that clearly illustrate his commitment to addressing climate change and the critical role science will play.
He has elevated the role of Science Advisor to a cabinet-level position. It will be filled by mathematician, geneticist, MIT professor, and founding director of the Broad Institute, Eric Lander.
Biden has also created a new White House Office of Climate Policy. And one of his very first acts as president was signing executive orders to enable the US to rejoin the international Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation.
It’s also clear that agriculture will play a major role, with Biden saying, “we see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process.”
Invest with Impact. Click here.
Secretary of Agriculture nominee Tom Vilsack, who looks set to return to the post he held during the Obama administration, has indicated that he will quickly ramp up programs to combat climate change.
Simply put, “expect administrative actions aplenty from a variety of USDA [US Department of Agriculture] agencies to combat climate change,” he said.
The time is right
The need couldn’t be more pressing, or more clear. 2020 was one of the hottest years on record, tied with 2016 .Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU’s Copernicus service, noted it is “no surprise that the last decade was the warmest on record, and is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions to prevent adverse climate impacts in the future.”
Research reported by ScienceNews projects global farmland will need to grow 3.4 million square kilometers – approximately the size of India – by 2050 to meet the needs of a growing population. But, as the article notes, an overhaul of the global food system could drastically reduce the need for land while still feeding the world’s ever-expanding population.
The need to address climate change is nothing new, but the new White House is signaling new opportunities for agriculture to lead the way with science and technology.
Agriculture has an impressive history: the technology of recent times has allowed food producers to keep pace with the spectacular growth in the population, with approximately 6 billion more mouths to feed in the last 60 years alone. But agriculture currently requires more resources than can be replaced. This is clearly not sustainable.
A radical new approach is needed, and startups have the agility to bring new technology to market at the pace which is required. So, are we up to the challenge?
Leading with technology
The problem to date isn’t a lack of desire to address these pressing environmental issues. Simply put, existing practices and technology cannot sustainably feed a world of 8 billion people.
There is a great deal of focus being put on soil, which is critical; but let’s not forget the seed. Everything we grow begins with a seed – it holds all of the potential and determines the resources needed to grow.
The seed technology on the market today is primarily focused on pest and weed management. This was critical in meeting the demands of the recent past and will certainly continue to be relevant as we move forward.
However, in our efforts to address these issues, we inadvertently reduced the diversity in major crops – one of nature’s best survival tools – by selecting for traits that best met the needs of the day.
So, how can we bring back biodiversity without sacrificing productivity or growing crops that require more resources?
By designing better seeds.
At Inari, our SEEDesign platform aims to take on this challenge with the ambitious goal of satisfying demand while enriching the environment. Through predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing, we are developing seeds that generate a positive impact on the planet. This technology is capable of addressing any crop in any geography.
Advanced multiplex gene editing opens the door to new possibilities with seed because it can address very complex genetic challenges.
President Biden and the future of regenerative agriculture in the US – read more here
To make a significant impact on yield or dramatically improve a plant’s use of water, you have to make multiple changes within a single plant. Basic gene knockout is often too blunt of an editing tool to properly address all of the changes required. While you might need to knock out a gene in one part of the code, another might require only a slight adjustment; whereas another might need to be replaced altogether, all within the same seed.
These types of edits aren’t simple, but are possible with the right technology. By understanding the full potential of seed, we can unlock new possibilities and better address the specific needs of growers based on their land, creating more diversity in the seeds being planted.
It’s not that others have decided not to tackle these complex issues within a seed – it’s simply that the technology didn’t exist. As startups, this is where our agility comes into play. When you are small, it’s easier to be nimble and quickly pivot.
Value creation across the system
Despite historical advances, the people who grow our food have not always received their fair share of the value created by new technology. While Vilsack recently spoke of creating a “whole new suite of revenue streams” for farm income, it’s equally important to ensure value creation with new technology being brought to market.
Part of the struggle in the past is that regulatory hurdles associated with genetic modification of seeds added significant time and cost. This made it nearly impossible for anyone but the large industry players to compete. The added time and costs also played a role in driving competitive intellectual property and exclusivity strategies, which only contributed to further to cost.
Conversely, the regulatory environment for gene-editing technology in the US will enable a clear and efficient path to get the technologies in the hands of growers. This will also help to democratize the technology and let players of all sizes compete in the development of new solutions.
In order to ensure value creation across the food system, we’re going to have to work with the new White House to ensure clear paths to market. This will encourage competition at every level and bring more viable solutions to growers.
In sharing value creation with farmers, we not only protect their income, but allow their communities to benefit as well.
Making agriculture the climate hero
With clear signals from the Biden administration, now is the time for startups to show our leadership with truly innovative solutions.
Many of us have dedicated our work to finding more sustainable solutions for agriculture. We have been asking for the opportunity to show how agriculture can mitigate climate change and we’ve seen a number of organizations roll-out ‘net zero’ commitments. This is a great start.
I challenge my fellow agtech leaders – especially those in the startup space – to work towards a shared goal of positively impacting the environment with the technology we bring forward. We know our organizations are best suited to move at the speed which is required to meet the challenges ahead. Let’s work in cooperation to address the needs of our industry and the planet.
So, are we up for the challenge?
I believe we are.
Seattle Architect Is Helping The Fast-Growing Field of Indoor Ag Take Root
Seattle architect Melanie Corey-Ferrini is launching a controlled-environment business with assists from Sabey Corp., and Microsoft. The multifaceted, to-be-named enterprise includes a training program at Alan T. Sugiyama High School at South Lake in Seattle, where she is pictured in the cafeteria with a grow tower. Anthony Bolante | PSBJ
By Marc Stiles – Senior Staff Writer, Puget Sound Business Journal
January 16, 2021
Seattle architect Melanie Corey-Ferrini’s kiosk-style lobby pop-up concept called G2 is the ultimate in farm-to-fork dining. Protein-rich grains and greens are grown on-site in the unmanned, transparent kiosk and combined with other veggies, roots, spices and dairy to make custom bowls ordered on a mobile app. G2 last summer was named best pioneering food service concept in a national contest.
It’s one small example of the possibilities of controlled-environment agriculture (CEA), which is at the heart of Corey-Ferrini’s latest endeavor: a multifaceted, urban ag project largely centered in Tukwila, where Sabey Corp. is providing warehouse space for hydroponic growing equipment that Microsoft donated.
Corey-Ferrini will use space at Sabey’s Intergate East data center campus to build and launch CEA education and business development programs this year.
CEA is a technology-based approach to food production that allows indoor farmers to maximize use of water, energy and labor. Worldwide in the third quarter, venture capitalists invested $1.6 billion in ag tech companies, bringing the 2020 total to $4.2 billion, according to PitchBook. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a developer of life science office and lab space, offers early-stage companies move-in-ready space at its Center for AgTech in Durham, North Carolina.
The sector has struggled to put down roots in the Seattle region, where there has been one unsuccessful attempt. Now comes not only Corey-Ferrini’s to-be-named enterprise but also Kalera, a Florida-based company that plans to open a facility in 70,000 square feet of leased space in Lacey this year.
Several years ago, Corey-Ferrini consulted with Microsoft on a CEA project in Redmond. Contract farmers used Microsoft’s PowerBI and Azure platforms to grow in hydroponic towers lettuce and micro-greens for company cafeterias.
“I was like, why aren’t more people doing this? It seems like it should be a programmatic feature in all food-related spaces,” said Corey-Ferrini. “I’ve learned it’s really a little bit of robotics, a little bit of AI, a little bit of automation.”
As a member of Soroptimist Seattle, which works to empower women and girls, she is establishing a program at Alan T. Sugiyama at South Lake, an alternative public high school in the Rainier Valley. She is working with other groups like New Roots, an International Rescue Committee program that provides land and other support in South King County to around 150 immigrant and refugee families.
Deepa Iyer, senior program coordinator for New Roots, said a pilot indoor ag tech and business class will be offered at the Sabey building through Corey-Ferrini’s enterprise. She said it will provide pathways not only to a year-round growing platform but training for tech careers.
The experience of a Seattle indoor ag business, UrbanHarvest, shows the challenges of such an endeavor. Six years ago, it worked with Seattle’s Millionair Club Charity (now Uplift Northwest) during its launch, but the program shut down after about a year when it couldn’t raise additional funds, said founder Chris Bajuk.
Corey-Ferrini is approaching it with a long-term view and plans to build a multipronged enterprise with multiple income streams. Kara Anderson, director of architecture at Sabey, said Corey-Ferrini has a good shot at pulling this off.
“She’s got endless energy,” said Anderson, who added that, like Sabey, Corey-Ferrini is known for outside-the-box thinking.
“She’s not afraid to pick up an idea without knowing really how she’s going to pull it together. She just starts marching down the path to get partners and grab people into her extensive network to brainstorm,” said Anderson.
Sabey, a developer and operator of data centers nationwide, sees opportunities in the project for both its business and community.
“We’re interested in what’s going on in our backyard and opportunities to help out and make some lives better if we can,” Anderson said “At some point these indoor facilities will be monitored by computers and that, in turn, ends up feeding into the data center world.”
Melanie Corey-Ferrini
Position: Chief experience architect
Company: Dynamik Space, a design and branding company
Founded: 2000
Career: Also currently CEO of 3.14DC, which programs food and retail spaces
Lessons Learned
Use your sense of humor.
Be curious.
Don’t fear failure.
Exelon Invests In Reducing Indoor Ag Energy Needs And Costs With GrowFlux
“GrowFlux specifically can increase yields in indoor farming making it more economical for city centers and where it can serve often underserved communities fresh and healthier foods.”
June 11, 2020
A welcome impact from the Covid-19 pandemic has been clearer skies and returning wildlife to usually polluted areas after industry, transport systems, and more shut down across the world, reducing carbon emissions.
Today marks two months since the UK’s electricity industry last used coal; the longest period since the Industrial Revolution began more than 200 years ago and well beyond the 18 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes record which was set in June last year, according to the BBC. Renewable and nuclear energy have stepped in to make up the shortfall in a trend that’s been particularly pronounced in the US where renewables supplied more energy than coal for the first time ever this year.
Agriculture’s impact on the environment, particularly surrounding its carbon emissions, has been flung into the spotlight in recent years, particularly by alternative meat and animal products startups keen to promote the environmental credentials of their plant-based or cultivated alternatives. But of course, even a plant-based diet has carbon emissions associated with it, from the fertilizer and pesticides applied in the production process, to its transport to end markets. Plant-based products and diets are also not always affordable or accessible to certain demographics who may live in food deserts.
Indoor agriculture has long been a potential solution to food deserts and many of the carbon emissions related to crop production, making it an interesting prospect for city planners and city-based corporates. But the energy consumption associated with the production system, specifically related to lighting and climate control systems, has left much to be desired; not least because the costs involved have stunted the growth of viable business models.
Further, energy demand from these indoor farms is only set to increase as the need for more localized production in certain regions across the world has been highlighted during the Covid-19’s disruption of traditional supply chains; Singapore is a case in point.
“With over 8.6 terrawatt hours of energy consumed by horticultural lighting systems in emerging indoor farms and greenhouses in the US in 2019, utility companies are hard-pressed for rapidly scalable energy management tools that meet the needs of growers,” says Eric Eisele, CEO of GrowFlux. GrowFlux is an agtech startup focused on smart lighting controls for the horticulture industry working to significantly reduce the cost of lighting automation and its energy needs.
GrowFlux, a Philadelphia-based startup, was therefore immediately of interest to Exelon, the nuclear energy provider that claims to have the largest number of electricity and natural gas customers in the US after it launched a new startup incubator late last year aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and bolstering urban centers. GrowFlux is part of the first cohort of Exelon’s $20 million Climate Change Investment Initiative (2c2i) and recently received $100,000 in cash as well as in-kind services such as legal and advisory as part of the program.
“When we think about food & ag, we think about there being a mitigation and adaptation benefit from helping to advance the indoor ag industry for food. [By growing food close to city centers] there’s a climate change mitigation benefit from the decreased emissions related to traditional, carbon-intensive farming methods of harvesting, planting and transporting food from rural areas to cities,” Exelon Corp SVP Chris Gould told AFN. Indoor ag, where farming environments can be completely controlled, is also a good mechanism to adapt to climate change, he added.
“GrowFlux specifically can increase yields in indoor farming making it more economical for city centers and where it can serve often underserved communities fresh and healthier foods.”
GrowFlux says its technology allows even the smallest farms and upstarts to build advanced controlled environment agriculture automation without millions in venture funding. Its approach is different from the traditional high-level objective of optimizing climate control towards a constant set point; instead it aims to respond more dynamically to crops’ needs via distributed sensor data and cultivar specific crop models. “Crop responsive environmental controls have the potential to result in tremendous resource efficiency, creating opportunities to grow new crops in greenhouses, reducing the operating cost of existing CEA, and reducing the capital costs associated with CEA,” reads the company website.
“We reduce cost with cloud-based control (as opposed to cloud-connected control), which is new to the industry. This strategy is unique from our competition, which are essentially boutique engineering firms that do a full range of automation services using on-site controls that are slow to scale and come at a significantly higher cost,” added Eisele.
2c2i is a partnership between Exelon and its foundation and involves $10 million in funding from the foundation and $10 million in-kind contribution of pro-bono services from the corporation, such as mentorship and access to the company’s venture capital and R&D departments.
“Our partnership with Exelon Foundation will help GrowFlux advance its energy savings and energy management solutions, and allow our customers to drive down their operating costs and carbon footprint associated with greenhouse and indoor agriculture,” said Eisele about the investment. “We believe their guidance on energy management strategy is just as valuable, if not more valuable than the cash.”
2c2i is focused on innovations that will positively impact the cities in which Exelon operates, including Atlantic City, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington. Innovations must also have the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions; boost the resiliency of urban infrastructure (e.g., the power grid, transportation systems, buildings, vacant land) against flood, stormwater, and rising temperatures; help cities, businesses and communities adapt to climate change; or help achieve a state or city’s specific sustainability and climate goals. External consultant Freshwater Advisors selected a shortlist to pitch in front of the Exelon team.
“We also consider and have selected startups from outside of our cities, but in that regard we ask them to have a line of sight on one of our cities, with hope of attracting them to region to set up an office,” said Gould.