Agritecture debuts digital platform for urban farm planning

Agritecture, the global urban agriculture consultancy headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, has released its beta version of Agritecture Designer — the world’s first digital platform for planning urban farms

Started in 2011 as an urban agriculture industry blog, Agritecture began offering consulting services in 2014. By identifying common mistakes that new urban agriculture entrants make, combining these with operational data and key best practices, Agritecture expanded over the years to work with entrepreneurs, planners, and investors around the world. Today, the firm has completed more than 110 consultations in 26 countries, and has attracted a digital audience of 100,000+ followers.

Agritecture Designer solves a critical challenge for its diverse audience: finding objective data and absorbing the best practices needed to build a strong urban farming business model — while still making this service affordable.

“As Agritecture has grown to work with larger clients, we knew we needed to create a more accessible and scalable type of service for those who aren’t quite ready to hire consultants or might not have the capital at the stage they’re at to afford our services,” said founder & CEO Henry Gordon-Smith, per a press release. “This has particular relevance for us now, with more than half our online following coming from outside the US and nearly one-third from developing countries - not to mention the urgency for digital solutions in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. Furthermore, we are committed to achieving our mission of accelerating climate adaptation through urban agriculture globally and our first software solution will greatly advance our team’s mission.”

Agritecture Designer aims to expedite this early stage, allowing users to formulate the vision for their farm and get inspiration from other urban farming examples; build feasibility models based on Agritecture’s proprietary planning data; and conduct quantitative market research on a variety of crops. The platform also includes over two-and-a-half hours of educational video content led by Agritecture’s staff of experts.

To begin with, Agritecture Designer will have three pricing tiers. Users can formulate the vision for their project for free; 30 days of access to their Commercial Urban Farming course costs $99; and bundling the course with access to the product’s Feasibility Planner and Market Research Tool for 90 days will start at $249.