Executive Summary

Venice, Italy lacks agricultural space and the available area on the island is expensive. Current spaces that exist are not utilized to their full potential and can be redesigned to maximize the use of land and space. The people of Italy enjoy consuming food that is grown locally; ideally less than a kilometer from where it is eaten, a concept called “0 Kilometer Farming”. Creating sustainable farms in these spaces is one way to improve upon the utilization of the available land in a way that would be most beneficial to Venetians. In Venice there is a lot of vertical space that can be repurposed in areas like bell towers by creating vertical farms to grow produce.

Traditional farming would not work best in Venice due to size constraints and pursuing ways of alternative farming can increase the rate of production for a farm. Using robotics can increase the efficiency of a farm and cut additional labor costs. While there are some drawbacks to these methods, such as the increased risk of plant loss due to disease, there are many benefits as well, such as the potential for machine learning to detect diseased plants and remove them from the system. Our sponsor, SerentDPT, an incubator company in Venice, aims to create high technology jobs in Venice by promoting sustainability. The goal of this project is to assist SerenDPT in promoting Venice’s self-sustainability by determining the need and available market for 0-Kilometer farming, by designating underused spaces as potential operation headquarters, and by prototyping a technology centric system for successful urban farming.

Alternative Farming Research

In order to assist SerenDPT with their goal of creating a sustainable farm on the island of Giudecca in Venice, we researched various methods, techniques, and applications. There are three main types of soilless farming: hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics. Hydroponics incorporates the use of nutrient based water that is pumped into a tray housing the plants in order to sustain the plants without the use of soil. Aquaponics and aeroponics are very similar to hydroponics, as they utilize nutrient based water rather than soil, however, aquaponics uses live fish as a nutrient source and aeroponics disperses the nutrient water onto the plants as a mist. Robotics and soilless farming can be combined to create high tech and efficient farms seen in companies around the world like IronOx in California, U.S.A., and Sky Greens in Singapore, China.

SerenDPT would like to implement the use of alternative farming methods in their new office on Giudecca, H3, with the use of a grant they received for educational agriculture. With the use of their new space there is potential for robotic hydroponic systems in their courtyard and bell tower. From our research we recommended the use of ZipGrow systems in addition to the FarmBot system SerenDPT was planning on buying.

Decision of Alternative Farming Systems

ZipGrow and FarmBot are two North America based alternative farming companies that we contacted about the use of their systems. ZipGrow is a hydroponic farming company which specializes in creating vertical farms. This is useful for SerenDPT since the long-term goal of the company is to implement farms within bell towers, a vertical area. Hydroponics also decreases the growing cycle of plants, increasing the amount that can be grown in a year. FarmBot is a robotic system that aids in traditional farming. It allows the user to interact with an application to monitor their crops from afar while FarmBot is able to plant, water, and weed. In order for produce to grow via soilless methods, the produce starts as seedlings before being transplanted into the system. This is something FarmBot can help with by creating seedlings before transporting them to a soilless system. To help SerenDPT prepare for soilless farming, our sponsor, Michele Savorgnano, and the team created a greenhouse to house the seedlings before they are ready to be transplanted into another system.

Creation of Greenhouse

In order to create the greenhouse to house seedlings we purchased and received materials from our sponsor including polycarbonate, caulk, screws, wood, wood stain, rust remover, primer, paint, and wheels. We started with a recycled metal from the H3 office and began work to reutilize it in order to be able sustain produce growth. We prepared the frame by scraping and sanding foam from the frame and then applied rust removal to remove any rust from the frame. Afterwards, we began applying coats of primer and paint to the metal frame and stain to the wooden pieces. Once the paint was dry, we were able to cut the wood in order form a plant bed for the bottom portion of the metal frame and attached the wood to the frame using screws. The polycarbonate was then attached and caulked to seal the frame. The wheels were added to give mobility to the greenhouse so it can be used for demonstrations on the inside of the H3 building and be stored in the courtyard when needed.

Return on Investment

In order to recommend the best systems for use in Venice, a cost analysis was completed for the ZipGrow system to be used within the bell tower at H3 on the island of Giudecca. We have calculated that the H3 bell tower can fit a maximum of 105 ZipGrow towers, and the system generates a profit of up to €3,994 per year. Our analysis shows we can expect a yearly revenue of €7,560 with a yearly cost of €3,565. The initial cost to implement a system of this size will be approximately €9,192, and take just over two years of profits to recoup.

Recommendations

Based on our calculations, we recommend growing red lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, or cabbage in order to increase profitability. There are also numerous ways to increase the value of the produce grown through transformations such as gin, marmalades, beer, pesto, medicinal herbs, or legal cannabis. We also suggest that future groups look into new ways to build off of FarmBot’s capabilities, particularly for use to automate climate control in the greenhouse. This could be by creating access to servos to open and close the windows and by adding temperature and humidity sensors to assess when the climate is ideal or needs adjusting. Additionally, the FarmBot code could be adjusted to grow plants closer together, as the FarmBot system would likely be used for growing seedlings or microgreens, which require less growing space.