From consumer to prosumer: Are small-scale home indoor farms economically viable?

Indoor farming is one approach to face future challenges in agricultural and horticultural production. The scalable technology of indoor farming makes not only large commercial production systems but also small-scale home indoor farms (HIFs) available, which enable private consumers to produce their own leafy greens and herbs with minimal effort. The increasing relevance of HIFs can be verified by scientific work regarding the consumer attitude and several start-ups which develop those systems. However, the economic feasibility of HIFs is unknown. To answer this question, this paper followed a broad approach. An investment analysis was conducted for 36 HIFs with data freely obtained from online retailers. Depending on the consumables' selection, around 40% of those systems can reach a positive net present value. The number of HIFs with a positive economic outcome could be further increased by changing the production pattern and the possibility of several harvests per plug and seed instead of only one destructive harvest. Consequently, with indoor farming, the variety of competing actors in specific horticultural sectors could raise in the future.

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