Flowwow Marketplace Co-Founder Launched Agricultural Startup to Increase Harvests

How the program helps farmers

“Our product helps the greenhouse owner automate routine processes such as climate control, irrigation and lighting, saving resources and time. This improves crop quality and reduces production costs thanks to analytics and management. Ultimately, our platform makes greenhouse farming more profitable and resilient to challenges,” Andrey Makeev told RB.ru.

The tool, in his words, provides the user with ready-made technological crop maps, which were developed together with universities and professional agronomists. There are stages, deadlines, tasks and even indicators that must be met.

This data is then compared to what the sensors show. If the actual results are within the normal range, you can only congratulate the person. Otherwise, the software helps to correct the deficiencies. In addition, the program allows you to make various notes, such as a diary of expenses on fertilizers and phytosanitary products. All of them will be automatically loaded into the system.

“In addition, our users can enter all tasks and notes by voice; It is easy to add sensors to the platform that can collect 11 different parameters. They can be viewed in graphs and the mobile application also sends automatic notifications about violations of the technical process. Violations of indicators are the main problem of reduced yield and diseases,” says Makeev.

Gros.farm automates not only calculations, but also physical actions: irrigation, lighting control, etc. Many functions are based on artificial intelligence. Now it helps create and verify technological maps, but in the future each farmer is expected to have his own artificial intelligence assistant, which will be able to monitor what is really happening inside a particular greenhouse.

According to the team’s calculations, the service will help increase the harvest by 40% or more. However, Makeev adds here that it all depends on the specific user and their involvement. In theory, the program automates a greenhouse or urban farm almost 100%, but the farmer will still have to harvest the crops and check the operation of the systems.

From software to internal production

The startup’s task is to turn an ordinary greenhouse into a smart one, and without physical hardware this is simply impossible. Currently, the service uses sensors that work with ZigBee, but there are plans to develop its own equipment on the LoraWan system. It is considered safer and more reliable, and also has a greater coverage radius.

“We managed to come up with a design that significantly reduced the final price to be able to offer them to a broader segment of farmers. This is a great achievement. In addition to sensors, we are working on a data transmitter for control, light and CO2. Mechatronic systems and data transmission microchips will also be implemented, so that they can be integrated into already existing expensive systems,” Makeev said.

The development of its own devices, in its words, is carried out in its own laboratory in Moscow with the participation of Baumanka graduates. The team wants to create a reliable and affordable solution that performs better than the civilian equivalents that are being integrated now.

Who will benefit from the service?

Now the promoters focus on small and medium farmers. Firstly, because by working with them, you can quickly implement new solutions and improve the product based on collaboration.

“In the future we will create an interesting and effective solution for big players, but for this we have to work hard to make the product really good. There are a lot of little things in the agricultural sector, and the product itself is not very simple, there are a lot of details, it is not like creating an e-commerce website. But we will do it,” says Andrei Makeev.

The company does not rule out entering the informal market with combined offers for vacationers and hobby gardeners. But for now, professionals are the ones chosen as the target audience.

At the moment there are no work automation solutions for microfarmers, and those that exist are expensive or complex, says Andrey Makeev. At the same time, approximately 84% of the agricultural industry is not in the hands of large players, but rather small and medium-sized enterprises, which at the same time do not have modern work systems.

“I see growth trends in three directions at once that we are involved in: software for agriculture, smart hardware for agriculture and greenhouse farms where you can grow anything and get high yields in a controlled environment. Each of these areas has year-on-year growth of around 10-12%, which is a lot. Furthermore, I see that it is time to transform the industry through technology. In a couple of years there will be rapid growth and precisely at this time we will produce a high-quality product that will work with both small and large companies,” Makeev plans.

The project decided to specialize in closed terrain for several reasons. Greenhouses are a more efficient growing system that is not affected by climate change, says the founder. Additionally, they require less staff involvement initially, meaning they are easier to optimize. According to Rosstat, in 2023 alone, the volume of greenhouse production in Russia reached about 1.7 million tons.

“Agriculture is almost like mathematics. You maintain specific indicators of temperature and humidity, which are prescribed in the technological map for growing the crop, you perform certain actions and only then do you get higher yields. In such training, analytics is necessary. And I’m sure every farmer who grows something for sale should have it. Those who continue to work in the old way simply will not be able to withstand the competition.”