The smallest economic unit in this business is not a farm. It is a cluster of eight to fifteen farms sharing one edge box.
Every hardware business in agriculture hits the same wall: the farm is too small to own the stack that makes it efficient, and too small to be worth the sales cost of serving it.
| Item | 60,000 plantlets / yr | 240,000 plantlets / yr |
|---|---|---|
| Loss avoided per year | ¥28,000 | ¥112,000 |
| Zone cost (seat + per plantlet) | ¥3,450 | ¥8,850 |
| Self-build annual holding cost | ¥34,000 | ¥34,000 |
| Self-build payback | never | ~4 years |
The self-build number is dominated by the edge box: about ¥18,000 every three years, plus power, connectivity and somebody's time. Divided across 60,000 plantlets it is ¥34,000 a year of cost against ¥28,000 of avoided loss. Divided across eight farms it is ¥750 each.
Because a box serves a zone of roughly 72,000 plantlets before latency and connectivity stop being free. The break-even sits at about 72,857 plantlets a year — above that, owning is cheaper; below it, sharing is.
| Plantlets / yr | Cheaper option | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| 40,000 | Zone | ¥9,000 / yr |
| 72,857 | Break-even | ¥0 |
| 120,000 | Self-build | ¥6,500 / yr |
| 240,000 | Self-build | ¥18,000 / yr |
This is why the commercial model is a zone rather than a farm: the box is shared, the telemetry is pooled, and the per-farm price lands at a level a smallholder will actually pay. It also means the sales motion is cooperative, not one farm at a time.
A cluster of small farms looks like one client and many sites. Verification is priced per site, so the arithmetic that makes the cluster work commercially also makes verification expensive per farm — unless the sampling is designed around the cluster rather than the site.
This note describes our method and commercial position. It is not a verification statement and carries no assurance. Under the two-track plan the certification conclusion is signed by a licensed partner; this site issues the method, the evidence grades and the register.