May 2024 - 66

SGAFT | BY PETER KONJOIAN
Technology ladders + math =
actionable education
The knees of greenhouse growers and farmers can
buckle occasionally under the weight of insufficient time
to get work done. Running out of time is frustrating,
so instead of wishing for more hours in a day, invest in
technology to work more efficiently.
History is clear; a century ago technology leveraged
a global Industrial Revolution. The mission of the Small
Greenhouse and Farm Technology project (SGAFT)
is assisting small growers in integrating technology
appropriately scaled to their size.
SGAFT is focused on helping small growers leverage
technology to better compete in the local agriculture and
small business sectors of our economy. Doing so reduces
buckled knee syndrome and frustration.
TWO QUESTIONS
Embracing technology presents opportunities. Where
should the next tech dollar be spent?
This can be described as straight line reasoning.
Building a greenhouse will supplement field crop yield -
year-round production better serves the community and
my business. It's simple math of A + B = C.
Another opportunity is: Where do I buy my next hour
of time?
This is a broader, more complicated line of reasoning.
One benefit of drip irrigation is improved crop uniformity
resulting in less shrinkage. Higher quality results when a
time clock reliably activates a second or third irrigation
cycle during a busy spring afternoon when the day's
pressure is intense. Higher quality means higher price
and less shrink reduces loss, both offset the technology's
cost. Analyzing multiple benefits requires more than
simple, straight line reasoning; it's more complicated.
An indirect benefit of irrigation technology is freeing
up time for other work.
My colleague Michelle Klieger, an agricultural
economist, encouraged me to use this concept more in
my work. I've been laser focused on helping growers
understand return on investment (ROI) but she suggested
that not every decision needs to show an obvious return.
If it frees up time for other tasks it helps justify the
choice. It's not always the straight line I was presenting.
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MAY 2024 GPNMAG.COM
Economists call this time an " opportunity cost "
because whatever technology the money purchased,
created an opportunity to do something else. In a winkwink
way, opportunity cost finds that extra hour in the
day without actually making the day longer. And don't
feel guilty using the opportunity to occasionally knock
off work early, that's a hard earned perk entrepreneurs
should enjoy more.
Growers react emotionally to irrigation technology,
I know after being one for most of my life. Emotionally
charging a complicated decision only makes it less
straight. The freed up time and the direct crop benefits
has many of us stating I should have done this year's
ago, why did I wait so long, which house or field is next!
Thanks to Michelle I now use ROI as one tool among
others to make decisions.
MONEY
The motivation to purchase technology to boost
efficiency and profitability comes with a cruel reality.
There's rarely enough money to do what we'd like to do.
Whether this is a higher hurdle for small growers than
large operations (I think so) is a debate for another day.
Regardless, reality forces us to prioritize and hopefully
create a vision forward rather than investing in
technology randomly.
TRICKLE DOWN TECHNOLOGY
The point to describing the frustration
associated with technology is to recalibrate
a small grower's mindset to reality. The
state-of-the-art technology is exciting,
it's important for everyone to see where
we're heading. However, if it's beyond
one's means let's focus on pieces of
it that can be scaled down to fit a
small setting.
Plenty of technology categories
are scalable. Take fertilizer injection,
Dosatron injectors are found in
every size operation I've visited
from single 30 x 100 foot
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May 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2024
