Global automation specialist Autogrow and New York based Agritecture Consulting are appealing to growers to take part in the inaugural Global CEA Census.

The census seeks to understand the scale and nature of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) to better determine the roadblocks to accelerating the industry. This includes greenhouses, vertical farms, indoor rooms and hoop or tunnel houses.

Both Agritecture and Autogrow say that activities in controlled environment agriculture worldwide are not well documented, with data being fragmented and often unreliable, making it difficult to provide support or solutions on a larger scale. 

“We do a lot of work with city leaders around the world and the conversations are about how the infrastructure needs to be in place in order to use new technology, drive costs down and operate sustainably,” notes Agritecture founder Henry Gordon-Smith. Through the census we hope to highlight who is growing, what they’re growing, where they are growing and what they need to take it to the next level.”

“Based on that information both Autogrow and Agritecture can then work closer with governments, growers and city planners on where they can focus their efforts and utilize valuable resources.” 

One of the biggest known roadblocks to adoption of new technology today is internet connection on the farm. Without connectivity growers are unable to join the growing trend of cloud-based software and remote access. 

Autogrow CEO, Darryn Keiller says “We need to understand whether growers are ready for innovation, and if they aren’t, how we can get them there.”

“New crop production technologies are heavily reliant on growers having multi-modal internet to the farm and commercial grade onsite network infrastructure. If this isn’t addressed, and supported at a government level, then we will see an ever widening ‘digital divide’ at the farm level.”

“All the best technology in the world is of no use if it can’t be connected to the farm.”

Additionally, Autogrow and Agritecture want to record best practice solutions to share across the industry.

“There are some amazing growers around the world who are using creative solutions for things such as water usage, labour shortages, energy consumption or improved marketing activities using social media. We want to capture that and share with the wider community. Only by banding together can we hope to push our industry forward in a positive way,” explains Henry.

The census will run until July 15 with a report on the findings published in September. All submissions will remain confidential and only anonymous data will be reported.   

WIN A TRIP TO NYC: Submissions will also go in a draw to win a trip to New York to attend this year’s NYC AgTech Week running from 21-26 September.

Take the survey, enter the draw:  
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/global-cea-census

Source: Autogrow June 3, 2019 news release