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.
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.