Crops & Cultivation
Horticulture & Protected Cropping
Field vegetables, salads, soft fruit, top fruit and everything under glass.
Horticulture runs on tighter margins, shorter windows and far heavier compliance than combinable cropping, with labour as the dominant cost and residue testing as the dominant risk. This module carries crop-walk records, harvest scheduling, labour planning, cold chain handover and the retailer-specific assurance evidence that a horticultural business lives or dies by.
- 12 capabilities
- 4 linked schemes
- Offline capable
- 12
- Capabilities in this module
- 5
- Interactive tools
- 4
- Linked support schemes
- 6
- Data integrations
- 6
- Measures reported
The ground reality
What is actually happening in horticulture in the UK
UK horticulture depends structurally on the Seasonal Worker route, with 41,000 horticulture visas confirmed for 2026 against 38,805 issued the previous year and an application fee rising to £340. Growers face retailer specifications that exceed statutory requirements, residue testing regimes with no tolerance for error, and a supply chain in which a single rejected load can remove a season's margin.
Figures are as published at the time of writing. Farm policy and payment rates change frequently — verify against the primary source before relying on any number here.
In the field
Horticulture, as it actually looks
Photography from working UK holdings alongside the interface that records it. Every frame below is a commissioned slot: the brief is stated until the photograph is taken.
Horticulture — a walkthrough
A working pass through horticulture: entering the record once, and watching it appear in the evidence pack, the calendar and the scheme application without being typed again.
- 0:00 What the module is for
- 0:48 Entering the record
- 2:05 Where it appears next
- 3:20 The evidence pack
Photography slots state their own brief until the shot is commissioned, so the layout never shifts when real images arrive.
Capabilities
What Horticulture does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Crop walk records with pest, disease and beneficial counts by block and by bed
- Harvest scheduling against forecast demand, with pick-by-date and cold chain handover
- Labour planning by task, with piece rate and hourly cost modelling
Operate and monitor
- Seasonal Worker sponsorship record keeping and compliance evidence
- Residue and Maximum Residue Level compliance with pre-harvest interval enforcement
- Protected cropping environment control logging — temperature, humidity, CO2 and irrigation
Comply and evidence
- Substrate, hydroponic and soil-grown nutrition programme management
- Pollination management including managed bumblebee and honeybee hive records
- Retailer specification tracker with grade-out and rejection analysis
Analyse and improve
- Packhouse throughput, grade-out and yield recovery reporting
- Traceability from bed to pallet with lot-level recall capability
- Water use and irrigation scheduling per crop stage under abstraction constraints
Interactive
Tools you actually use, not screens you read
These are working interfaces inside the module — maps, calculators, planners and dashboards that respond to your own holding data.
Harvest forecast curve with weather-adjusted maturity modelling
Harvest forecast curve with weather-adjusted maturity modelling
ToolLabour requirement planner by week, task and crop
Labour requirement planner by week, task and crop
BuilderPre-harvest interval checker that blocks a harvest date if an application makes it non-compliant
Pre-harvest interval checker that blocks a harvest date if an application makes it non-compliant
WizardGrade-out waterfall showing where saleable yield is lost
Grade-out waterfall showing where saleable yield is lost
ToolProtected cropping environment dashboard with alarm thresholds
Protected cropping environment dashboard with alarm thresholds
DashboardEnd to end
How Horticulture runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Plan the cropping programme against contracted volume
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Propagate or plant and record establishment
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Walk crops and record pest and disease pressure
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Apply nutrition and protection within intervals
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Forecast maturity and schedule labour
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Harvest, grade and pack to specification
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Despatch through the cold chain with full traceability
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Reconcile against contract and analyse grade-out
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Who uses it
Built around four real jobs, not one generic user
Each of these people needs something different from the same record. The module is designed so none of them has to work around the others.
Soft fruit grower, Kent
60 ha protected strawberries and raspberries
Needs labour and harvest planning to move together or fruit is left on the plant.
Field vegetable producer
Brassicas and roots for a multiple retailer
Needs residue and specification evidence available on demand for an unannounced audit.
Packhouse manager
Grading and despatch
Needs lot-level traceability that survives a recall exercise.
Nursery operator
Hardy nursery stock
Needs plant passporting and biosecurity records held with the crop record.
Schemes and funding
Support schemes this module works with
Agrivencia holds these schemes as data, so eligibility, payment rates, caps and windows update the day they change rather than at the next software release.
Horticulture Scheme
Support capital investment in the Northern Ireland horticulture sector.
DAERA EnglandFarming Transformation Fund
Fund larger capital projects that transform farm productivity, water management or value addition.
Defra / Rural Payments Agency EnglandEnvironmental Land Management Capital Grants
Fund capital works supporting environmental outcomes — boundaries, water, air quality, natural flood management and infrastructure.
Defra / Rural Payments Agency EnglandSustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Pay farmers for environmental actions taken alongside food production, as the principal replacement for area-based direct payments in England.
Defra / Rural Payments AgencyRates, caps and windows change frequently and sometimes without notice. Always confirm against the current published scheme rules before applying.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Saleable yield per hectare
- 02Grade-out percentage
- 03Cost per kilogram packed
- 04Labour hours per tonne
- 05Rejection and claim rate
- 06Residue compliance rate
Benchmarking
How this compares with businesses like yours
A cohort is only useful if it is genuinely comparable, so it is built from farm type, soil grade, region and scale rather than from whoever happens to have signed up. Your own figure is never shown to anyone else.
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Saleable yield per hectare
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 34 Median 52 Upper quartile 74
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Grade-out percentage
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 36 Median 51 Upper quartile 85
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Cost per kilogram packed
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 37 Median 61 Upper quartile 72
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Labour hours per tonne
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 37 Median 61 Upper quartile 87
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Rejection and claim rate
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 27 Median 62 Upper quartile 80
How the cohort is built
- Farm type
- Matched
- Soil grade
- Matched
- Region
- Matched
- Scale band
- Matched
- Cohort size
- Minimum 12 businesses, or no comparison is shown
Obligation calendar
What horticulture asks of you, and when
Windows, deadlines and recurring obligations for England. Set a different nation and the calendar reconfigures; farm across a border and it shows both, reconciled.
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March 1 entry
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9 March: Horticulture Scheme
Round-based.
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April 1 entry
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20 April: Adding Value Grant
Round-based.
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June 2 entries
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5 June: Farming Transformation Fund
Round-based by theme.
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15 June: Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Two windows in 2026: window one from 30 June, window two from September.
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July 2 entries
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14 July: Slurry Infrastructure Grant
Round-based.
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17 July: Water Management Grant
Round-based.
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August 1 entry
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26 August: Walk crops and record pest and disease pressure
A recurring step in horticulture.
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September 2 entries
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6 September: Plan the cropping programme against contracted volume
A recurring step in horticulture.
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13 September: Propagate or plant and record establishment
A recurring step in horticulture.
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October 2 entries
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5 October: Farming Equipment and Technology Fund
Round-based, usually open for a defined application period.
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8 October: Apply nutrition and protection within intervals
A recurring step in horticulture.
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November 2 entries
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12 November: Improving Farm Productivity Grant
Round-based.
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27 November: Environmental Land Management Capital Grants
Round-based, with rapid allocation once open.
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December 1 entry
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26 December: Countryside Stewardship
Rolling and round-based depending on the tier and option group.
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Questions answered
What people ask about Horticulture
Does this replace the software I already use?
Not necessarily. Agrivencia integrates with authoritative sources and mainstream packages rather than insisting on replacing them. Where an incumbent does one job well, the platform connects to it; where the job spans several systems and nobody does it, the platform does it.
Will it work where I have no signal?
Yes. Field capture in Horticulture is offline first, storing locally and synchronising when a connection returns. Only around a fifth of UK farms report reliable signal across the whole holding, so this is a design assumption rather than a feature.
What happens when the scheme rules change?
Scheme rules are held as data rather than code, so a rate change, a cap change or a window closure is a content update that takes effect the same day. The platform also alerts you to what the change does to your own position.
Who owns the data I put in?
You do. The Farm Data Charter gives you a complete export in open formats at any time, and every instance of data sharing requires an explicit, revocable consent that is visible in your account.
Does it work if I farm across a border?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons the platform exists. A business with land in more than one nation sees one reconciled view rather than two portals, with obligations and deadlines from both administrations in a single calendar.
Can my agronomist or land agent use it too?
Yes. You grant scoped, time-limited access per holding and per module, and you can revoke it in one click. Advisers never get a shared password or a blanket view.
What is the biggest limitation of this module?
Labour availability. Mitigated by early requirement forecasting. We would rather state that plainly than let you discover it after signing.
Documents
Take it away with you
Everything here is printable and works on a kitchen table with no signal. Where a document asks for an email address, it says so on the button rather than after you press it.
Audit-Ready Horticulture: Residues, Labour and Retailer Specification
The practical handbook for horticulture: what the rules require, what the evidence has to show, and the mistakes that cost people money.
horticulture — evidence checklist
Every document an audit or a claim asks for, in the order it is asked for, with the validity period of each.
horticulture — record template
The record structure the module uses, as a spreadsheet, so a business not yet on the platform can start keeping it correctly today.
Data model reference
Entities, fields and integration points for horticulture, for advisers and software partners.
See Horticulture running on your own holding
Thirty minutes, using your parcels, your schemes and your enterprises rather than a sample farm. No obligation and no sales script — if it does not fit your business we will say so.
- Free tier available
- No card required
- Your data stays yours