Cultivating the future: Bawika

The current inefficient management of resources in conventional farming shocks us, due to the future overpopulation problems involved in the accessibility of resources such as food, fresh water, air and soil. 

Our proposal is to build semi-automatic aeroponic systems, non-dependent on environmental factors, meaning that soil and sun light are not required, water can be recycled and plant´s progress and nutrient absorption are tracked, leading to create the ideal conditions to develop nutritious crops. 

Currently, COVID-19 has brought to light food scarcity and imports/exports restraint. Therefore, there´s a greater significance in local production in a sense that companies should be capable of producing satisfactorily in amount, quality and variety.

If Bawika had a worldwide presence, this would enable avoidance of pesticides and a significant reduction in carbon emissions concern to transportation, processing, packaging and food loss. Furthermore, this would guarantee population access to a healthy diet conceived sustainably.   

Just because a practice has been “working” for a long time, it doesn´t mean we should rely on.

In México, 100 thousand tons of pesticides are spread to crops annually and their usage is related to cancer and neurological disease.

Moreover, 70% of world´s fresh water is used for agriculture, meanwhile just 11% of Earth´s soil is arable land.

Therefore, the importance of wellness and the awareness of limited resources is being diminished by conventional ways.

Due to our human nature, the interdependence on resources affects everyone. As migration increases in respond to the pursuit of better opportunities, 68% of the population in 2050 will live in urban areas. Additionally, there will be 9.7 billion human beings on Earth.

For this reason, globalization has taken an important place in humanity within the desire of improve their lifestyle, but the people will be mostly affected by low bid and high prices, complicating the access to nutritious produce. 

Nevertheless, the supply chain is not as efficient as we might think, despite its velocity, there is a tremendous amount of carbon emissions.

Consequently, there´s room for improvement on sustainable solutions in the method of producing and distributing food. 

Our proposal is to build semi-automatic aeroponic systems. In aeroponics, soil is not required since the plants grow in a specific medium where the roots are fogged with the exact dosage of nutrients needed to grow.

The production of crops will be in racks vertically. By this arrangement, water can be recycled throughout the levels.

Each tier is supplied with the right amount of LED lightning and its performance will be monitor by a control unit that manages multiple variables like temperature and humidity.

In addition, with the support of other indicators, this can lead to create the ideal conditions to develop a wide variety of nutritious crops.

The benefits this implies can be translated into

• No soil erosion
• Advantage of producing off seasonal
• Harvesting substantially more in less area
• Minimal water consumption, saving up to 95% compared to conventional farming.
• A significant reduction in growth time

Besides, these vertical farms could be installed in different locations around the cities fostering local production for local consumption, which reduces carbon emissions due to transportation.    

Overall, by implementing this technique of optimal use of resources and tracking the plant´s progress, Bawika aims to relief the pressure on ecosystems and reduce deforestation.

At first, chefs, aware of the importance of high-quality ingredients, will be our main target clients to encourage local consumption through a restaurants network to cover up entire cities, establishing us as a consistent supplier.

Later, as we develop the technology to widen the variety of crops, we will be able to reach a larger number of families and citizens through direct sales and a market committed with constant prices.

Due to the nearness of our vertical farms with our customers, Bawika will provide them fresh nutritious food, even on the same harvesting day, available all year around.

In addition, we will generate a positive indirect impact by the national or international presence, preserving ecosystems by reducing a tremendous amount of natural resources consumed.

In a nutshell, we will be capable of contributing significantly in the way we produce and deliver, guaranteeing a safe access to nutritious food and reducing ecological stress. 

Bawika´s mission adjusts to the creation of sustainable food systems, innovating in the agriculture industry.

Operational-efficiency and sustainability are essential to its foundation, as it conceives a low-carbon emission, high-quality and accessible nutritious food to the population looking forward to broaden the mind of the consumers and their consumption behaviors.

Moreover, as Bawika improves practices by shortening the supply chain, compared to conventional farming, it´s highly committed to lessen food loss at minimal level.

Vertical farming has a huge potential to be scaled and fight the risks of a low offer and food insecurity in a resilient world. 

Bawika arises from the need of increasing awareness, breaking unsustainable consumption patterns and conducting a change in the consumer´s perspective to value not only the product, but all its process of production. There is still a lot room for improvement to communicate a genuine company´s responsibility and coherence between massive production and the limited amount of natural resources.

As global environmental concerns evolve and complex scenarios become more evident, the transition for conscious and more sustainable solutions are demanded.

We can´t avoid future reality, instead, we must compromise ourselves making our positive contribution.

There is a real concern about the field conditions, soil´s fertility and access to clean water as a consequence of climate change.

Bawika´s response to mitigate the stress in ecosystems and prevent land use change, so more area can be available to crops, is vertical farming with controlled environmental agriculture.

Vertical farming provides multiple advantages such as producing more in less area, year-round crop production, no weather-related crop failures, minimizes water consumption and there is no usage of pesticides.

The main distinguishing aspect of Bawika are: the organizational innovations, the company´s practices, the consciousness in population growth and the environmental constraints, being sustainability at its core when facing any decision-making. 

Vertical farming has multiple manifestations such as hydroponics and aquaponics among others, but the technique to underpin the system will be aeroponics, the most efficient one.

Aeroponics´ irrigation method is through a mist solution chamber, in which roots are exposed, so they can uptake the right amount of nutrients. Very little water is needed, and no soil is required.

Compared to conventional farming, it has been observed that plants grown under an aeroponic system absorb more vitamins and minerals, and so, plants are potentially healthier and more nutritious.

This enclosed system implies that the unabsorbed water can be recycled.

As plants do not fight for the same nutrients as they would in soil, they grow in a compact way, which means, more production in less area.

Undoubtedly, this way of growing food reduces the pressure on natural resources as it uses an impressive 95% less amount of water than field farming and since no soil is required, no erosion will occur. Moreover, no pesticides are used which means the spread of diseases and risks associated with agriculture farming are reduced.

The performance can be monitored through Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), optimizing plants´ growth by tracking its evolution and variables influence based on indicators.

 The fusion of these techniques, vertical farming along with CEA, overall promote food sustainability. 

Techniques for growing plants without soil were first developed in the 1920s by botanists who used primitive aeroponi­cs to study plant root structure, but it was not until 1970s that an academic study took place.  

Research and use of aeroponic systems continued behind the scenes, however, the technique made its big public debut when "The Land" pavilion at Disney's Epcot Center opened in 1982.

This sustainable growing technique took interest to NASA in the 1990s when it was looking for efficient techniques to grow plants in space, innovating in the field of vertical farming.

NASA's involvement would give the growing aeroponics movement a decidedly futuristic image, being mainly positioned in the United States in recent years.

Well-knowed companies dedicated to grow plants are AeroFarms and FarmOne,among a few more, and the market continues to grow.  

Aerofarms began in 2004 and recently they began growing their ninth farm, which in fact is the world’s largest indoor vertical farm located in Newark, NJ.

Another example is FarmOne, which started gaining attention in 2017, due to the fact that this NYC farm delivers herbs, microgreens, rare flowers & more, offering more variety.  

Some other examples worldwide, include LettUsGrow in the UK, Duijvestijn Tomatoes in the Netherlands and a great presence in the Asian continent, mainly Japan. 

The project is based on the theory that the development of Controlled Environment Agriculture can lead to a real transition, where most crops can be grown by vertical farming techniques.

In order to achieve this long-term goal, the first step is not just to generate the technology but constantly improve it, being aware of the plant’s behavior and specie. This will make the growth successful and efficient in terms of energy and resources, which can be reflected in costs and into a good business profitability. Expanding our expertise in building CEA systems, more crops can be adapted, approaching a true transition where a wider variety of crops, can be grown by these techniques.

We will start by growing baby greens and microgreens, to provide restaurant chefs in Monterrey with nutritious ingredients so they can incorporate them in their menus. This creates business ties with re-known local commerce, as more restaurant´s become Bawika´s clients. Once we have had that support in the restaurant sector, we can now migrate to a bigger audience, meaning other states of Mexico and then to another countries, so more people can buy our products and we can start positioning us as a global food supplier.

This logic model is nested with two other main activities.

The first activity mentioned objective is to communicate our audience value content about a global perspective regarding food sustainability and consumption habits. At the same time, this people will become our backers when we launch the small-scale version as they will have already known our work and this may increase our sales, as they continue acquiring knowledge in responsible consumption and how to construct better food habits.  The second activity will be to launch the small-scale version of our CEA system for home greens production in a Kickstarter´s crowdfunding campaign to generate funds in order to start producing, make the company known to more public and potential investors, plan and execute the first vertical farm and then co-own more facilities, as local branches in different countries, along with international environmental-passionate investors

Currently, Bawika is serving nobody. The system has not been built yet, since Bawika is in the development stage.

The strategy is to gain experience in the creation of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) systems, by making them efficient and profitable, and to create strong relationships with the first clients(chefs), which will not require high volume produce. Therefore, in the next year, Bawika will be supplying 8 restaurants with fresh produce consistently.

In five years, Bawika will be serving more than 10 thousand people (besides the restaurants). As part of the mission of providing people with fresh produce, Bawika will launch a small-scale version of the CEA systems in a crowdfunding campaign, so people can have access to nutritious greens grown home.

Despite these assumptions seem to be underestimated, the team is enthusiastic about what the future holds.

The first goal within the next year is to develop the Controlled Environment Agriculture(CEA) system we already designed, in which there will be grown baby greens and microgreens to supply restaurants in Monterrey. The second goal is to create community by sharing value content, about sustainability and consumption habits, in YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

The first goal within the next five years is to create a small-scale version of our CEA system for greens production and launch it in a Kickstarter’s crowdfunding campaign, so people will be able to grow nutritious produce indoors. The second goal is to expand our expertise by building CEA systems for berries. Finally, the third goal is to engage more restaurants as Bawika’s clients.

 How is all this related to the long term goal? The development of CEA systems will prove their efficiency and profitability. Having restaurants as our first clients is the opportunity to gain experience as food suppliers. Creating community on social media will teach people about sustainability and this community could be full of backers for the crowdfunding campaign. The development of efficient and profitable CEA systems for more crops like berries demonstrates that the world is ready to change the majority of the production techniques  to vertical farming.

Bawika’s long term goal is to be a global food supplier, by co-owning facilities with international environmental-passionate investors. All the stages mentioned before will validate Bawika’s team aptitudes to the investors that are capable to expand Bawika across the globe.

The first barrier is regarding capital. In order to build the systems (already designed) and start producing consistently, Bawika requires seed capital, at least 13,000 USD to supply 8 restaurants in Monterrey, México. Despite LED market has grown, improving efficiency and reducing prices, LED grow lights are still a weighting factor in the cost production.

The second barrier is chefs’ acceptance. Bawika’s team has already interviewed chefs of local restaurants, in order to understand their needs, how they work, how they develop relationships with suppliers and what they expect from produce. It was discovered that chefs demand fresh and high-quality produce as well as consistency with the supplies. In addition, they prefer to have as few providers as possible, because this optimizes administrative activities.

The third barrier is finding LED grow lights suppliers for the small-scale version of the CEA that will be launched in the crowdfunding campaign. Not just suppliers, but those who offer cost-effective LED grow lights.

The last barrier is to reach the goal in the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. As there is a competitive environment and a lot of projects online. If an excellent product is not offered and a splendid campaign is not created, the expected funds won’t be raised. 

The first barrier will be overcome by participating on contests and challenges, to raise funds. Due to covid-19, all the events that Bawika intended to participate were cancelled. Nevertheless, global challenges, like SOLVE, have given Bawika the opportunity to get seed capital. In addition, in this first stage we can get funded from Bawika’s close acquaintances.

The second barrier will be overcome by working along with the chefs, reducing  the paperwork significantly for them, being a supplier with constant and never-ending improvement. Moreover, Bawika will provide them with what they expect the most:  high-quality and super fresh produce for their restaurants.  By doing that and ensuring consistency with the production, Bawika will build strong relationships.

The third barrier will be overcome by building partnerships with LED grow lights developers. These partnerships will allow LED developers to accelerate their learning curve in the production of a wide variety of crops (so they can offer better grow lights to their clients). Furthermore, CEA has a huge business potential representing an opportunity to expand these techniques in LATAM.

The last barrier will be overcome by the constant improvement of the social media community that Bawika is already building. Success in a crowdfunding campaign depends on how many backers your product engages. Bawika’s social media has the purpose of sharing environmental advice and healthier consumption habits, so more people start taking action for the greater good. Therefore, Bawika is looking forward to get backers from the social media community.

Since Bawika came to existence the last year, a small but well-organized team is now made up by 7 members that belong to the full-time staff. 

Even though in this Bawika first stages, we count with a small team, it is a very qualified and dedicated one in accordance to the short-time goals.

Each one responsibilities depend on whether they belong to the Media or Technology department.

In the media department, the main goal is to send out the right messages either to the worldwide community we expect to reach as well as our future clients and audience, so they engage to work with us strongly convinced by our philosophy and work method.

In the technology department, the presence of mechanical, mechatronic, sustainable development, biotechnology and chemical engineering has a huge relevance.

Each one is focused and dedicated in a different area. Mechanical engineers in the correct functionality and systems infrastructure as mechatronic engineers in the sensor’s configuration and automation.

On the other hand, bioengineering is needed, so sustainable development engineers are concerned in energy consumption and efficient use of resources, biotechnology engineers in the plant’s behavior indoors and last but not least, chemical engineers focused in the nutrient solution composition and growth recipes.

In this way, each one has a unique way of understanding embodied in their contributions to the project´s development, so when those efforts come together, it results in a comprehensive solution.

A multidisciplinary environment is what characterizes thoughtful ideas, consequently, Bawika is totally aware that, the team will grow, as liability and demand will do it as well. 

Currently, Bawika has no formal partnerships. Nevertheless, it is planned to partner with universities and CEA technology developers, with whom we have already established communication.

Alliences are required to make this tremendous change. 

The key customers at first will be the chefs of restaurants, and as production experience is gained and more crops are adapted to the system, we are going to migrate to a larger audience, always offering them a wide variety of the best and fresh produce were high-quality and taste is guaranteed.

For that reason, the main partners will be investors, LED and seed suppliers as well as universities, not to mention that alliances with other farmers, in terms of sharing experience, will enable the scenario to relate with similar projects.

The extensive farming knowledge and growth data will be our key resources, backing up Bawika´s outstanding work by the channels of local commerce and e-commerce, integrating an effective supply chain, so close consumption in time and place occurs.

Therefore, initial investment, power consumption, infrastructure, labor and automation define the cost structure, while sales and partnerships represent the revenue streams to grow the company´s presence.

Overall, this value proposition of supplying high-quality produce to the population,  being cultivated entirely through a sustainable food chain, portrays the business model with are committed with. 

In the initial stages of a startup, to gain the confidence of grant investors to fund 13k USD is not a simple task.

Hence, Bawika is applying to Solve because this is the chance to obtain most of the seed capital we need to start experimenting and operating with the CEA systems. It will be a significant impulse to this committed startup and its team.

Moreover, being part of this entrepreneurship environment is an important opportunity to develop strategic partnerships with companies that have strong relationships with the world’s best university, MIT. Certainly, we do not know what kind of possible partners we will find here, however, there is always someone that could add value to what you already proposed. Therefore, if Bawika finds CEA technology developers, Bawika is willing to work along with them to improve the techniques and reduce the use of natural resources.

Finally, Solve is giving us the opportunity to be mentored from those who have much more experience in sustainable solutions. These mentorships would give us more criteria at the time of expansion.

Just as we start planning and developing along the way to achieve the ending results, constraints appear in som areas that we still do not master. 

As we continue to participate in multiple contest to raise the necessary funds to make our company a reality, the funding terms and negotiation with inverstors are crucial topics where we need mentorship. 

We believe that new departments will be needed as the presence company increases, such as legal or regulatory matters as well as a more specialized financial managment.

The first potential partner would be MIT’s Open Agriculture Iniciative. We admire the fact that this iniciative aim to promote a platform to share the optimal conditions for a wide variety of crops based on CEA. It is important to remember that one company is not enough to make this huge change in the production of food. Consequently, sharing this information will accelerate that change. Therefore, Bawika is committed to share these optimal conditions to the community of this iniciative.

The second potential partner is the company LettUsGrow, from the UK. These gentlemen have developed, a software, called OSTARA, to monitor different variables in the CEA system and optimize them. We have had communication with them and, when their international version is launched, they will let us know, supporting us in the software application to our system.

The third potential partner would be a LED grow light developer, like OSRAM, Philips or Valoya. This partnership might cause a decrease in the production costs. By experimenting along with them and improving the LEDs, these developers could be able to ensure the future demands in the vertical farming market.