The concept of soilless and urban agriculture has caught the global attention today more than ever before. This is mostly due to the shrinking of living space caused by the rapid growth in human population.
A UN report warns that every country is losing fertile land at an alarming rate with the world losing nearly 24 billion tons of fertile land every year. Traditional farming methods are one of the major contributors to soil degradation, it says.
The global population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050 when scarcity of land for farming might bring catastrophe for human civilization.
This has forced the agro scientists to press the panic button. No wonder, fresh farming methods like hydroponics and aeroponics are getting increasingly popular these days. In fact, they are now called the future of farming or alternative farming.
There are several instances of young entrepreneurs jumping on the bandwagon quitting their high-paying jobs in the corporate sector.
Sunday POST talked to a few such agropreneurs who are promoting soilless farming in Odisha.
100 kg of vegetables
a day from 700 sqm
After spending 30 years in the merchant navy, Haraprasad Mohapatra took voluntary retirement. Now, he had enough time in hand and he wanted to do something interesting. Since childhood, he had a passion for farming and he decided to explore it. “After my retirement, when I thought of farming, I decided not to venture into the traditional way of agriculture using chemical fertilizer, pesticides and unhygienic handling of the produce. While doing research on modern farming techniques, I was struck by hydroponics. Without further delay, I visited hydroponics farms in cities like Chennai, Coimbatore and Bangalore. There I came across aeroponics technology from Flora consult and took an appointment with its chief Parveen Sharma in Pune. After that I decided to work on it,” says Haraprasad.
He adds: “Aeroponics farming consumes less water and can be undertaken in less area with less energy consumption. This technology was even shortlisted by NASA to implement on Mars. At a time when the world population is increasing by leaps and bounds, the farming area is shrinking in equal proportion. Out of the total world water, 70 percent is used for agricultural purposes. Studies reveal that of 70 per cent water meant for agriculture, 60 per cent water gets wasted due to poor irrigation techniques. On the other hand, the quality of farm produce has suffered due to mindless use of pesticide and other toxic substances. Aeroponics farming is considered the most advanced and suitable method to overcome these issues.”
Aeroponics method of farming provides clean, efficient and fast production. Crops can be harvested year-round without interruption, and without contamination from soil, pesticides and residue. Since the growing environment is clean and sterile, it greatly reduces the chances of spreading plant disease and infection commonly found in soil and other growing media. Most importantly, this system of farming can reduce water usage by 90 per cent, fertilizer usage by 60 per cent, and pesticide usage by 60 per cent, all while maximizing crop yields. Plants grown through aeroponics systems have also been shown to uptake more minerals and vitamins, making the plants healthier and potentially more nutritious, claims Mohapatra.
He launched a startup Pelican Aeroponic in 2018 and invested about Rs 55 lakh to grow exotic vegetables such as lettuce, kale, basil, cherry tomatoes and jalapenos. Set up on just 700 square metres, his farm holds nearly 4,000 plants and grows up to 100 kg of vegetables a day.
“This is a wonderful small business to be in, but it requires a ton of endurance. Running an aeroponic farm is a full-time job. You have to be pretty careful about cleanliness inside the poly properties. By any likelihood, if any plant virus seeps into the poly household, the total farm would be wrecked in a matter of days,” he cautions.
Explaining the difference between hydroponics and aeroponics farming, Mohapatra says, “ In hydroponics, the sapling is usually placed on a substrate such as rock wool, volcanic ash, peat moss, and coco coir or clay pebbles. Very often, hydroponic farmers do not use a substrate. They simply place the plants along a channel. Aeroponic plants are never placed on a substrate or in water; here plants are grown in a controlled air environment. The exposed roots are periodically sprayed with nutrient solutions for the plants to grow. Both these methods are ideal if the available land is not fertile or suitable for cultivation.”
No soil, 90 % less water and
high yields in less space
Pragyan and her husband Asish Mohanty from Jagatsinghpur landed cushy jobs in Hyderabad after securing master degrees in Business Administration and Industrial Commerce. But they were far from happy with their work. All they wanted to do was to create something unique. Meanwhile, Pragyan came to know about the concept of hydroponic farming from her sister-in-law.
“When I heard about soilless farming it fascinated me as well as Asish. I did a lot of research and contacted an agronomist to learn the techniques. We learnt the art of producing plenty of nutritious vegetables and fruits in less space. The scarcity of land in urban areas does not allow abundant and healthy production of crops. However, hydroponic farming is helpful for those who want to grow pesticide-free vegetables at their own place and stay healthy,” says Pragyan.
Being a single child of his parents, Asish always wanted to live with his parents and do something unique to earn his livelihood. After learning about the hydroponics method of farming and undergoing training in Hyderabad, he took leave from his job and started farming at his village in November 2019. He planted 2,400 leafy vegetable and exotic vegetable saplings in an 800 sq ft area. The leafy vegetables included lettuce, sileri, kale, basil and while bell pepper, broccoli and cherry tomato formed the group of exotic vegetables. The first plantation was successful and demand for the vegetables in the market motivated Asish and Pragyan to expand the business. The couple quit their secure jobs to take up full time farming.
However, it was a bumpy ride at the beginning due to Covid-19 outbreak.
“After four months of planting, we had to stop as the lockdown started in March. We started again in November 2020 and succeeded in reaching out to our target consumers. But our business again suffered when my whole family contracted Covid-19. The fortune seems to be smiling on us now as we are doing brisk business after our recovery from Covid,” an elated Pragyan said.
Ashis also started farming by making a ‘Fan and Pad Poly House’ near his house. Around 3,000 trees were planted in the poly house till now. The couple provides training to aspiring urban farmers.
About the advantage of hydroponic farming, Pragyan says, “There are wider scopes for hydroponic farming. But it gives profit with proper marketing and planning only. Right now it’s very important to create awareness about this method of farming among the farmers across the country. The land requirement is quite low, water consumption is 90 per cent less, the water is recycled and saved and most importantly the vegetables produced by this method are free from pesticides.”
Asish says, “This is completely different from traditional farming and consumes 90% less water giving more yields in less space. If we do hydroponic farming in a controlled environment, there will be less chance of pest attack.”
“Traditional methods of farming are based on climatic conditions that are unpredictable and are controlled by nature. Unpredictable weather conditions such as floods, drought can affect production. This also presents a ripple effect on the supply chain, causing difficulty in getting nutritious vegetables and fruits. However, in a hydroponic system, the farmer controls the amount of sunlight and manages the growth of the plant like we do at our poly house. Being an indoor farming system, hydroponic farms have negligible chances of weed or pest attacks. Apart from this, a controlled environment helps in growing crops round the year. We grow crops in any climatic conditions as we do it in poly house where we control the temperature and humidity. And, of course it doesn’t contribute towards the environmental damage as we are not injecting any harmful chemicals or pesticides to the soil directly. So it doesn’t pollute the ground water”, Asish signs off.
Rashmi Rekha Das,OP
