SIGROW AQUA: feasibility study of a disruptive Nutrient Management System for hydroponic farming: SIGROW

Programme(s): 

• H2020-EU.3.2.4. - Sustainable and competitive bio-based industries and supporting the development of a European bioeconomy
• H2020-EU.3.2.1. - Sustainable agriculture and forestry
• H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
• H2020-EU.3.2.2. - Sustainable and competitive agri-food sector for a safe and healthy diet

Topic(s): SMEInst-07-2016-2017 - Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for sustainable and competitive agriculture, forestry, agri-food and bio-based sectors

Call for proposal: H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017

Funding Scheme: SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

Grant agreement ID: 761589

Objective

CONTEXT: Water shortages and water pollution constitute major environmental threats in the EU. European agriculture occupies 40% of the land and can reach up to an 80% of total water abstraction and it’s the main responsible of nutrient soil pollution.
Under this context, a significant change is occurring; Hydroponics is the fastest growing sector of agriculture. Its water consumption is reduced by up to 90% compared to traditional agriculture’s water usage, it may be stacked (if outfitted with led lighting) to limit space use (vertical farming) and being a soilless production it doesn’t need herbicides or chemical pesticides.
PROBLEM: Hydroponic major problems are that it requires high nutrient effluents, which is the most important cause of water wastage and soil pollution.
NEED: intelligent and efficient nutrient management is anticipated to be a key issue to achieve a 100% success of hydroponic industry.
Innovative solution: SIGROW addresses the important area of optimization nutrients and water management in hydroponics agriculture. SIGROW AQUA integrates software and sensors to automatically control the nutrient and water balance in the solution, decreasing nutrients leaching and improving sustainable crop production. Introducing SIGROW AQUA systems will provide a universal and friendly user technology that will have a huge impact on fertilizers and energy savings as well as avoiding water pollution for all hydroponics crops.
Technical feasibility study Algorithm optimization to provide accurate predictions in any field conditions independently of water salinization and type of crop. To carry out financial expectation such as best pricing and cost optimization, expected selling quantification from 2019 to 2022, risk assessment as well as the forecast investment, profit and impact. IPR strategy: to protect our product at international level, we will perform a FTO analysis.
REQUIRED FUNDING: € 0,7 M to bring the present Technology Readiness from level 7 to 9.