A new tech startup from Ukraine aims to bring the age-old practice of growing plants into the internet era with a system that automates every step of the process.
Volodymyr Kozerovsky, 33, is the founder of Smartep, which has developed a set of sensors, controllers and a fertilization system, all connected together by one application.
According to him, outdoor commercial farming is getting more expensive, and it’s always been labor-intensive and subject to the vagaries of the weather. So he sees farming’s future in greenhouses.
“Anything can be turned into a greenhouse — a skyscraper roof, a basement, a warehouse,” Kozerovsky said in an interview with the Kyiv Post.
He thinks urban farming could shake-up the food industry, making products much cheaper. But to do this, farming has to be well organized and automated.
That involves the use of technologies to analyze the quality of soil, measure humidity, temperature, and brightness inside a growing area, and to automatically give plants fertilizers and adjust the growing environment in accordance with their needs. In turn, that saves water and electricity, and makes the process of setting up and operating a greenhouse cheaper and easier, Kozerovsky said.
Now he’s making it happen. His Smartep system can turn on an air conditioner if the temperature is too high, add mist if the humidity is low, and turn up the lights if it’s too dim inside a greenhouse. By analyzing the soil, the system works out when it has to add fertilizers, and which particular nutrients are required.
The system will be easy to use — buyers will just have to unpack the box, read the manual and assemble the automated system to get growing. The businessman plans to launch a mass-produced version of the system for the U.S., European, and Asian markets.
Kozerovsky is now looking for capital to set up mass production, but said that even if he does not find the required money ($600,000), he will launch the project at least in Ukraine.
“I want a person who doesn’t know how to grow anything to be able to just press a button, upload a growing plan, and witness how my system will do the growing for him,” he says.
Using the Smartep app, it’s even possible to monitor and control the watering, humidity and temperature of several greenhouses remotely. There are versions of the app for all major operating systems and all that is required for remote management is an internet connection.
According to Smartep’s estimates, Ukraine has around 500,000 hectares of commercial greenhouses, of which 460,000 are run by small- and medium-sized businesses.
Smartep has already partnered with 10 companies to create customized automated management solutions for their greenhouses. And not just for conventional ones — the company is working on autonomous systems for growing plants without soil, only with water and air, a growing process known as aeroponics.
In one case it partnered with a company called Cybergrow. Using the Smartep system, Cybergrow has created a growing space in which the plants grow on the walls with no soil — the Smartep system automatically directs water vapor at the plants and it works, as Kozerovsky says, “with no dust and mud.”
Using the system, the companies have successfully grow flowers, vegetables and fruit.
And the entrepreneur is sure that this is just the beginning.
“We can bring any plant to life,” he says.
