“Over the past 20 years, I developed a revolutionary close-to-nature organic farming system which is designed to change the world by lowering costs and increasing yields. In 2007 I won the state record in Virginia at 1138 pounds, beating the prior record by 358 pounds. Since then, we’ve continued to perfect and adapt the system and it has consistently proven its resilience and ease-of-use.”

- William Layton

Founder

Founder William Layton first gained notoriety by growing giant pumpkins, winning the state record in Virginia at 1138 lbs (beating the prior record by 358 lbs). Turning to systematic, sustainable food production, Layton developed a revolutionary, close-to-nature organic farming system which can disrupt and improve sustainable ag tech change everywhere.

3 Ridge Technologies, branded Agria™, is an Ag-Tech, indoor growing technology company with a sustainable, affordable system that produces nutrient-dense, flavor-packed, affordable produce.

Agria™ does not use fertilizer or chemicals and is easy to operate. With its simple license and supply agreement, Agria™ gives growers a successful, profitable indoor farming capability, enabled by a ground-breaking, proprietary, biology-based grow system. Agria™ has a unique business model that is designed to expand the variety and supply of affordable chemical-free organic produce by enabling profitable indoor farms in any location, 365 days of the year.

The Agria™ system’s advanced, biology-based approach offers an operational simplicity that allows growers with no agricultural experience and minimal labor help, to succeed affordably and sustainably.

The Agria™ system is a sustainable growth system leveraging a proprietary, patent-pending (#17/410,198), plant-biology based, solid-matter growth medium. The system uses zero chemical inputs (no fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides), by relying on biology-based growing media and IPM (Integrated Pest Management) methods. Integrated with IoT and cloud-connected robotics, the system is fully modular and scalable. Agria™ enables any customer to grow USDA certified organic produce anywhere by licensing a packaged, full-service growth system with training modules.

Indoor food growing, referred to as controlled environment agriculture, or CEA, is gaining quickly in importance since it addresses the increased variability of weather patterns affecting outdoor crops, while also addressing increased consumer demand for increased quality and locally-grown fresh produce.

High capital and operating costs are barriers to profitability that are incentivizing the accelerating trend of concentrated industrial farming operations. Critical challenges include rising chemical and fertilizer prices, which have risen nearly 30% since the start of 2022, following last year’s 80% surge and the high cost of capital and technology to start and run hydroponic or aeroponic systems. As a result, profitability eludes many U.S. growing operations and sadly, the number of small and medium-sized traditional farms has steadily decreased; the number of farms in America decreased by 180,000 between 2007 and 2020.

Agria’s system addresses these problems and further, potentially offering a less costly, lower-risk, fully organic, higher-profit system than alternative systems, which famously present challenges as to profitability, sustainability, and labor staffing.

Agria™ aims to solve multiple problems facing both traditional farmers generally and indoor growers in particular, by reducing startup costs, eliminating many recurring input costs, and mitigating production risks.

Agria aims to give an easy-to-use CEA system that reduces labor needs and eliminates the need for adding and continually replacing fluid nutrients. Best of all, Agria-grown produce consistently earns some of the most enthusiastic approval from consumers and chefs, for taste, texture and freshness. We note that the system is fully organic, too, enabling a higher price point to growers, all with reduced inputs and costs versus traditional or hydroponic growing methods.

Agria works as a partner to growers throughout the setup and continuing supply and production processes. Sharing Agria™ technology and growing system management on a continuous basis, means Agria’s success is linked to that of the grower-partners. 

As one example, below is a display of a small portion of the sensory data we exchange and monitor 24/7 from a partner’s operations:

Revenue is from initial system installation plus an annual license fee. Our typical annuity is 10% of gross sales. Our clients and their investors may enjoy significantly above-market returns after paying this annual license fee. We plan to have scalable branding with the Grown-In-Agria™ brand required for use by each licensee. As the Agria™ brand grows, our clients may be significantly advantaged.

Agria™ profits from some of the fastest growing US farming segments, indoor farming and organic produce.

These growth trends are long-term, reflecting enduring trends in population, policies addressing food deserts, ESG-focused investment trends, and the growing pursuit of sustainability and health awareness in food production and consumption.

• Successfully secured USDA Organic Certification for all Agria systems in 3 months (typically 1 year+ process).
• Won prestigious Virginia Governor’s grant of $100,000, to commercialize proprietary science and technology.
• Raised over $600,000 in investment in family-and-friends round.
• $500k+ Y1 revenue with increase in licensed square footage.
• First large-scale client secured (20,000 sq ft operation).
• Successful implementation of the system in 3 CEA environments.
• R&D Efforts have led to the successful production of over 140 crop varieties: fruits, vegetables and herbs.
• Gained entry and established supply relationships with area gourmet restaurants, retail stores, schools and colleges.

• Opportunity Lynchburg
  Locally Grown: William Layton’s Journey to Agria
  
• EIN PressWire
  3 Ridge Technologies Awarded Prestigious Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) Grant
  
• The Washington Post
  Thousand-pound pumpkin takes top prize at Virginia state fair