Smart Greenhouse - A ROI (Return on Investment) figure

Yuktix Smart Greenhouse Solution - Effectiveness and ROI

Agriculture is backbone of any country and India rank 2nd in farm output, 50% of total workforce is in Agriculture and it add up 13.7% in India GDP. Still Agriculture is demographically the broadest economy sector and play a significant role in overall socio-economic fabric of India. With increasing burden of population, the pressure on land producing more output have increased and so as the pressure on the natural resources. In scenario like this, precision agriculture play a important role. And when the same precision agriculture is implemented in a confined area with controller environment, that practice is termed as greenhouse cultivation.

So if i have to explain what Greenhouse cultivation is in simple words, it is "cultivation of vegetation in controlled environment, providing them artificial environment that facilitate their growth". Variable like Temperature, humidity, amount of light, CO2, soil moisture, nutrients are measured and controlled inside a greenhouse. Generally in Indian scenario, the average budget for a 1 hectare greenhouse is approx 60 lakhs which include infrastructure cost, plantation, storage, labour etc. Using high end technology is difficult for any farmer considering this budget. Yuktix has came up with a innovative solution that is totally frugal and indigenous and is build keeping Indian conditions in mind.

Yuktix Smart greenhouse is a solution that let you access real time data from anywhere in the world on your phone as well on a web-app and let you control local environment with a click of the button. Local display is also possible on a big LCD screen.

So now the next big question is why? Why would some one even use sensor based smart device for a greenhouse when everything is working fine with the manual labour and production is good? Data always play a important role in every field. What happen now days in typical greenhouse, all the manual automation is done based on guess work which lead to  lower production, wastage of resources like water and power etc and all this turn out to be a loss in net profit!.

Lets take a example here of a 1 hectare greenhouse with chrysanthemum as the cash crop. Chrysanthemum are light sensitive plants and they grow in different stages with multiple requirements like pulses of light when flowers are coming up, high humidity when they are in early grow stage etc.

(1) High Humidity - When chrysanthemum are in their early stage, right amount of humidity is required for the plants - called as "mums". Humidity range should be 80 - 95% for the whole day and the period of "mums" stage is some what 15 -20 days. Right now, humidity is controlled with guess work or timer mode i.e. turn on Mystifier after every 2 hour for 5 minute irrespective of real time conditions. Also some time due to excess water on the leaves, some of the plants die. Generally, the output here is 85 of 100 plants.

(2) Right amount of light -  chrysanthemum is a flower use for decorative purpose and is exported to countries like Holland, Germany, Singapore, America(USA). The Main condition for export is that the diameter of flower should be 12-14 cm and this diameter can only be reached when pulses of white light(Blue + red) is given for specific interval of time and in specific duration of a day.

How Yuktix Smart Greenhouse Work and how effective it is. 
Yuktix Smart greenhouse has multiple sensing units both wired and wireless. With multiple sensor deployed in different chambers, real time values of temperature, humidity, lux , CO2, soil moisture are recorded and send to the central controller. Central control control the equipment like Mystifier(which in turn control the humidity keeping constraints like power consumption, frequency of mysting in consideration. ), Lights (for flower bud growth keeping constraints in consideration). A local big display is also used to show real time readings to the manager or owner of greenhouse. The same values can also be accessed from anywhere in the world using Smart phone or Yuktix App. Ranges like Humidity range or duration of light pulse can also be changed using the smart phone and manual override is also possible. Diagram below explain clearly the whole functionality of "Smart Greenhouse"

So now talking about ROI, below are some considerable points
(1) Based on Guess work, labour turn on Mystifier after ever 2 hour for 5 minute. That means in 8 hour working duration - 20 minutes. Yuktix Smart greenhouse check temperature , humidity and leaf wetness  after 15 second and turn on mystifier after every 10 minute for 10 seconds. So in a 2 hour 2 minute and in a duration of 8 hours 8 minutes.  So a net savings of 12 minutes.  So a total savings of Rs 3.288  = ~Rs 1000 per month. *(1 unit cost = Rs 6)
And above that, no measurement is done after those 8 hours. That will again cause some loss in production.
(2) Production cycle is of 15-20 days. 2 Sunday there is no work and if you see, after 8 hour in day, no one turn on mystifier at all. So now if 2 Sunday there is no work - that means 13.33 % loss. Now cost of Chrysanthemum one cut stem is = Rs 3. Out of 100 plants - 13 dies = Rs 39 loss and out of 1000, 130 plants die , that means Rs. 390 loss in 15 days and Rs. 780 loss in a month .
(3) No of continuous light hours should not be more than 10.5 hours and dark hour should not be more then 4 hour. If this sequence is taken care of, flowers will reach 12-14 cm in diameter and will qualify for export market. At present, one flower is sold at Rs 16(Maximum) and Rs 4(minimum). Average cost is Rs 10. And at the same point, gerbera flower is sold at Rs 1-4 per flower. So again a loss of Approx Rs 6 per flower. That means if 100 flowers are sold in local market instead of exporting them, a net loss of Rs 600. Generally in a 3-month almost 5000 - 7000 flowers are grown. This means a loss of Rs 36,000 (assuming 6,000 flowers in 3 month). Now in a year a total loss of Rs  Rs 1,44,000 !!.
(4) Convenience and  real time alerts - Even for a production manager, visiting each chamber every day is a difficult and tiring task. And if the same production manager  or greenhouse owner has to visit 3-4 installations in a city in a day ,its almost close to impossible. Yuktix Smart greenhouse give leverage to the manager / owner to access real time data, alerts from his greenhouses on his phone and that too from any where in world.


ROI* sheet

S.No	Component	Per day	Per month	Per year
1	Electric power	Rs 3.228	Rs 1000	Rs 12000
2	Plants (1000 plants-15 days period)		Rs 780*2 = 1560	Rs 18720
3	FLower size (Rs 10 in export market , Rs 4 in local market, 6000 flowers in 3 month)			Rs 1,44,000
4	Convenience and data access - No value.
	Total			= Rs. 1,74,720

* approx cost

So, if we remove guess work and use advance technology for greenhouse, considerable amount of money can be saved over a period of time and along with that, it always provide easy access to data from your greenhouse which can be further used to do in-depth analysis of your greenhouse. It also provide a real time override and control on the instruments in your greenhouse which are maintaining indoor environment suitable for plant growth.

A Small view of Yuktix Smart Greenhouse dashboard 

More updates coming soon. Any one who is interested in knowing more about Yuktix Smart Greenhouse solution or want to deploy Yuktix Greenhouse Solution in their greenhouse, please drop mail at Support@yuktix.com.