Vertical Farming with Odoo Agriculture: Doodex - Futura Gaia Technologies

Futura Gaia Technologies, a leading pioneer in vertical farming, partnered with Doodex to implement Odoo agriculture solutions tailored for agri-tech. Modern farming demands digital transformation, and advanced enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like Odoo play a critical role in streamlining operations and maintaining competitiveness. CEO Pascal Thomas, with years of international experience, needed a partner specialized in ERP agriculture Odoo to integrate robotics, farming recipes, and production management.

The project aimed to create a scalable foundation using the Odoo agriculture module, while also preparing for Odoo for agriculture equipment manufacturing to support turnkey farm sales. Recognizing the need for a specialized ERP, Futura Gaia sought a solution that could address the key challenges of vertical farming, such as resource management and integrated farm management. Odoo’s modular approach enabled efficient farm management, resource allocation, and operational oversight, supporting the demands of Agriculture 4.0.

Odoo development and implementation is typically carried out by certified Odoo partners or development agencies. These partners analyze business needs to ensure the system aligns with operational requirements. The system is then configured specifically for agriculture.

Key Takeaways

• Futura Gaia Technologies needed an ERP for robotics, living crops, and multi-harvest control.
• Doodex implemented Odoo Agriculture as a production-grade core system.
• Odoo’s modular ERP supported Agriculture 4.0, traceability, and scalable farm replication.
• Cultivation recipes were managed via adapted Bills of Materials.
• Manufacturing Orders controlled the full crop lifecycle in real time.
• Sales, CRM, inventory, and accounting stayed synchronized with production.
• The system scaled from farming operations to equipment manufacturing for turnkey farms, introducing new features.

Situation Before Doodex – Why Odoo Agriculture Was Needed

Several years ago, Pascal Thomas, CEO of Futura Gaia, was looking for an experienced Odoo partner specialized in production management to implement an ERP system fully tailored to vertical farming in France.

Pascal had just returned from Canada, where he managed a team of over 500 developers so he knew exactly what he was talking about. The challenge here was unique:

• Futura Gaia’s entire farming activity relies on robots and automated systems controlled by a supervisory program.
• The ERP had to deeply integrate with this system to orchestrate crops, monitoring, and robotic operations.

Modern agriculture faces labor shortages and increasing pressure for efficient decision making, particularly with advanced automation. Data-driven decision making is essential for optimizing resources and productivity, and Odoo enables this by leveraging historical data and tracking expenses from various sources, which is crucial for planning and compliance.

Futura Gaia’s business model was to sell turnkey vertical farms, fully equipped with an ERP solution already integrated and connected to a central “mother ERP.” This central ERP consolidates and shares strategic data such as cultivation recipes.

Odoo also helps agricultural businesses comply with local or international agricultural standards.

Audit and Project Launch with ERP Agriculture Odoo

Unlike other projects requiring heavy migrations, this ERP journey started from scratch an advantage that allowed us to:

• Gain a deep understanding of agri-tech business processes.
• Build a flexible foundation with Odoo agriculture modules.
• Rely on Odoo’s proven framework without reinventing the wheel.

Odoo's modular design enables businesses to select and customize key modules tailored to their agricultural needs, ensuring a solution that fits specific requirements. By integrating essential modules, Odoo facilitates supply chain optimization and boosts operational efficiency across the organization. Odoo's supply chain management tools help ensure timely delivery of agricultural products, directly improving productivity and overall farm performance.

The main challenge: working with living organisms.

Crops must be monitored with extreme precision to comply with strict quality and food safety standards. Traceability therefore had to be flawless, detailed, and complete.

Block 1: Farm Structure & Odoo Workcenters

We leveraged Odoo’s workcenter concept to model the vertical farm within the Odoo agriculture module. Field mapping was integrated to link specific tasks, crop types, and fields, supporting efficient farm operations and resource allocation. The system also enables tracking of field workers and effective labor management through human resource management, with Odoo's HRMS module allowing efficient scheduling, attendance tracking, and payroll management for farm workers. Monitoring stock levels and raw materials is streamlined through Odoo’s inventory module, which provides real-time stock updates to manage stock levels for seeds, fertilizers, tools, and crops.

• Growing workshops (sowing, germination, transplanting, growth, harvesting).
• Climate-controlled rooms divided into blocks with cultivation units.
• Definition of climates applied within each chamber.
• Automatic synchronization with the robot supervisor.

Client benefits:

• Huge time savings thanks to automatic setup.
• A clear, standardized structure yet flexible enough to adapt to farms of any size.
• Drastically reduced human errors.

Block 2: Production Recipes & Bills of Materials

The Bill of Materials (BOM) module was adapted for cultivation recipes as part of the ERP agriculture Odoo solution.

• Simple, intuitive interface to describe cultivation steps and standardize production processes.
• Easy duplication of recipes to quickly create new ones.
• Support for multi-harvest management to maximize facility usage.
• Odoo's recipe and production management features support crop planning and precision farming, enabling data-driven decisions and operational efficiency in modern agriculture.
• Odoo enables tracking of lot numbers and expiration dates, ensuring compliance with food safety regulations.
• The system supports traceability and documentation, which are essential for meeting food safety certifications, and the inventory module helps track seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and harvested products.

Client benefits:

• Simplicity and efficiency in creating and updating recipes.
• Smooth user experience with guided processes, no technical knowledge required.
• Flexibility to test and innovate quickly.

Block 3: Crop Management & Manufacturing Orders

Using Odoo’s manufacturing order system, we built a complete workflow for cultivation processes:

• Two-way synchronization with the robot supervisor.
• Highly detailed traceability reports (plant by plant, batch by batch).
• Fertilizer management and soil reuse tracking, including fuel usage.

Odoo provides real-time access to key data such as crop conditions, weather forecasts, and irrigation schedules, supporting informed decision-making throughout the cultivation process. It helps monitor and improve crop yield and productivity, especially during the harvest season, by enabling farmers to track performance and optimize operations. Odoo also helps reduce waste and ensures sustainability by optimizing resource usage, which helps reduce costs across operations. Additionally, it simplifies all farm operations, from planting and harvesting to inventory management and distribution, delivering actionable insights.

Client benefits:

• Total, precise control over the entire crop cycle.
• Perfect sanitary traceability, meeting the strictest industry standards.
• Continuous optimization based on real-time production data.

Block 4: Marketing & Sales

We customized Odoo’s CRM and sales modules to fit Futura Gaia’s specific needs:

• Automatic generation of cultivation orders linked to sales.
• Accurate tracking of the customer lifecycle, from farm sales to harvest.
• Enhanced supply chain optimization to ensure timely delivery of agricultural products.

Odoo's accounting module also automates financial management tasks, including invoicing, budgeting, and tax management, which supports tracking expenses throughout the sales process and overall profitability.

Client benefits:

• Perfect alignment between sales operations and production.
• Shorter delays from sales to operational launch.
• Centralized, global visibility of customers and their production.

Results Achieved with Odoo for Agriculture

ERP transformation before and after using Odoo Agriculture by Doodex

• An ERP fully integrated at the core of the vertical farm.
• Significant time savings thanks to automation and robot synchronization.
• Pharmaceutical-grade traceability, ensuring flawless quality.
• A system that is both structured and flexible, capable of managing multiple harvests, new recipes, and fast adjustments.
• An outstanding user experience: Futura Gaia’s teams work with an ERP designed specifically for their business, simple and intuitive despite the technical complexity.

By using Odoo, Futura Gaia achieved a 40% increase in operational efficiency through streamlined processes and improved productivity. Odoo provides a centralized platform that allows agriculture users to track every aspect of their business in real-time. Additionally, customizable dashboards and reports enable data-driven decision-making and support ongoing business growth.

Conclusion – Odoo for Agriculture Equipment Manufacturing & Beyond

Launched on Odoo 13 and later migrated to Odoo 16, this project was both a technological and human challenge.

We discovered a new sector agri-tech and proved that Odoo, when implemented properly, can manage extremely complex processes while remaining simple and efficient for the end user.

Odoo is suitable for small scale farmers as well as large agri-tech operations, offering flexibility and affordability to agricultural businesses of any size. It provides a flexible, affordable, all-in-one system that can transform agricultural businesses for greater control and sustainability.

At Doodex, we are proud to contribute to Futura Gaia’s success and to demonstrate that with the right Odoo agriculture module, even the most complex agri-tech processes can be simplified and scaled.

Ready to transform your agri-tech operations?  Let us tailor the right Odoo agriculture solutions for your business. Explore our Odoo Implementation Services or Contact Us now.