Agricultural project overview — crop, greenhouse, water, fertigation, pumps and solar in one baseline
Most agricultural projects are quoted system by system, so each supplier invents its own assumptions. This page does the opposite: set the crop, climate, area and technology level once, and every downstream system — irrigation demand, design flow, filtration, fertigation dosing, pump duty and solar capacity — is derived from the same numbers. That shared baseline is what makes proposals comparable.
Indicative planning figures for scoping and RFQ preparation — not an engineering design, a yield forecast or an energy-savings promise. SeedMatchGroup is an independent procurement platform and does not manufacture, install, finance or design.
Method and decision path
How to use this result in a commercial project
Use the result to test scope and compare scenarios. It is not a design, agronomic prescription, financing offer or supplier quotation.
- 1. Enter site evidence
Replace defaults with measured area, climate, water, energy, crop and commercial assumptions.
- 2. Test scenarios
Change one assumption at a time and record the effect on capacity, cost, demand or return.
- 3. Validate the duty
Ask the relevant agronomist, engineer or financial adviser to check the inputs and constraints.
- 4. Prepare a private RFQ
Carry the confirmed scope into a human-reviewed brief so written offers can be compared on the same basis.
Final specifications, performance, prices, supplier participation and timing depend on the site and written supplier responses; none is guaranteed by this calculator.
How do you connect crop, greenhouse, irrigation, fertigation, pumps and solar into one agricultural project baseline?
Start from the crop and the site climate: they set water demand per m² per day. Multiply by covered area and adjust for growing system and recirculation to get daily and peak-day demand. Divide peak-day demand by the daily irrigation window to get the design flow — that one number sizes the mainline, filtration bank, fertigation injector and pump duty, where pump kW = flow × head × 9.81 ÷ (3600 × efficiency). The greenhouse technology level then sets the electrical load for cooling, pumping, fertigation and automation, which converts to an indicative solar array. Every system is derived from the same assumptions, so suppliers quote against one baseline instead of seven separate guesses.
- Design flow = peak-day water demand ÷ daily irrigation window
- Pump kW = flow (m³/h) × head (m) × 9.81 ÷ (3600 × efficiency)
- Fertigation dosing sized at ~1% of line flow, stock volume for one peak day
- Baseline feeds both the greenhouse RFQ and the irrigation RFQ
Step 1 — the project assumptions
Saudi Arabia climate: Extreme summer heat (45–50 °C), very low humidity inland, high solar radiation, mild winters, scarce and often brackish groundwater.
Step 2 — the connected baseline
Each block below is derived from the block above it. Change one assumption and the whole chain moves — which is exactly what does not happen when systems are quoted separately.
Structure, cladding, climate systems and growing system scale with area and technology level.
- Covered area
- 50,000 m²
- Indicative CAPEX range
- $5,865,000 – $10,695,000
- Indicative production
- 2,582 – 3,341 t/yr
- Priority climate systems
- Evaporative pad-and-fan or fogging, Shading and reflective screens, Water treatment / RO polishing
Crop water factor, growing system and recirculation set the demand the water system must serve.
- Average demand
- 195 m³/day
- Peak-day demand
- 293 m³/day
- Annual demand
- 64,350 m³/yr
- Suggested storage (3 peak days)
- 878 m³
Peak-day demand divided by the irrigation window. This flow sizes mainlines, filtration and valves.
- Design flow
- 36.6 m³/h
- Flow per open zone
- 36.6 m³/h
- Zones
- 12
- Average zone area
- 4,167 m²
- Filtration bank duty
- 36.6 m³/h
Injection sized at roughly 1% of line flow; stock volume covers one full peak-day cycle.
- Dosing capacity
- 365.6 L/h
- Stock solution per peak day
- 2,925 L
- Channels to specify
- EC, pH, A/B stock, acid
- Water analysis
- Groundwater is frequently brackish (2,000–6,000 ppm TDS). Desalinated or RO-polished suppl…
kW = flow × head × 9.81 ÷ (3600 × efficiency), plus a 15% motor margin. Not a final pump selection.
- Hydraulic duty
- 36.6 m³/h @ 45 m
- Shaft power
- 6.9 kW
- Installed power (with margin)
- 7.9 kW
- Annual pumping energy (model)
- 400,000 kWh/yr
Electrical load from cooling, pumping, fertigation and automation, converted at the site's peak sun hours.
- Electrical load
- 11,750,000 kWh/yr
- Heating load
- 255,000 kWh/yr
- Average daily electrical
- 35,606 kWh/day
- Indicative solar array
- 4,855.4 kWp at 60% cover
Step 3 — take the baseline to suppliers
Both requests are normalised against the same assumptions, so the greenhouse manufacturer and the irrigation integrator quote one project rather than two disconnected ones.
FAQ
A baseline is one set of shared assumptions — crop, climate, area, technology level, water demand, pump duty, fertigation capacity and energy load — that every supplier quotes against. Without it, a greenhouse manufacturer, an irrigation integrator and a pump supplier each invent their own assumptions and the resulting prices answer different questions.
Crop water factor, growing system and recirculation rate set daily and peak-day water demand. Peak-day demand divided by the daily irrigation window gives the design flow, and that single number sizes the mainline, the filtration bank, the fertigation injector and the pump duty. Change the crop or the climate and every downstream system moves with it.
Pump power follows from flow and total head: kW = flow (m³/h) × head (m) × 9.81 ÷ (3600 × efficiency). Choosing a pump before the flow and head are known is the most common cause of oversized pump stations and wasted energy across the project's life.
The electrical load — cooling, pumping, fertigation and automation — is converted to a daily average, then divided by the site's peak sun hours and a performance ratio to give an indicative kWp. It is a scoping figure for the RFQ, not a yield guarantee or an energy-savings promise.
No. These are indicative planning figures from SeedMatchGroup's published model, used to structure a comparable RFQ. Final hydraulic, structural, climate and electrical design remains the responsibility of the appointed supplier or engineer.
Yes. Consultants and agronomists use the baseline to frame the project with their client, keep the relationship, and use SeedMatchGroup only as procurement infrastructure — structuring the RFQ, approaching manufacturers and organising comparable proposals.
The baseline feeds the greenhouse RFQ and the irrigation RFQ. Both requests are normalised so suppliers quote the same scope, and a sourcing specialist manages the process. The service is free for buyers and SeedMatchGroup does not manufacture, install, finance or design.
Illustrative project summary
1 ha multi-span tomato house
A new commercial entrant builds a first multi-span block with fertigation, insect screens and a basic climate computer.
1 ha · Multi-span polyhouse · Tomatoes
Indicative full greenhouse project CAPEX
USD 575K – USD 1.56M
Illustration only, not a real project or quotation. This is the structure, equipment and site-works budget for the example greenhouse, not the price of this calculator’s individual system, seeds or inputs, and not a result calculated from your entries. Excludes land, permits, packhouse, financing costs and working capital.
Based on the published commercial greenhouse cost benchmark. Written offers require a private project review; commercial projects start from USD 250K.