Hyderabad: Controlled environment agriculture specialist company Barton Breeze has plans to set up hydroponics farms in Hyderabad as part of its expansion of its operations in South India. It wants to set up about 4 acre initially in Hyderabad and later expand, said Shivendra Singh, Founder, Barton Breeze. The company, which is a commercial hydroponic farm specialist, is into developing the farms and also operating them for farmers.
“We are working on multiple technologies that will enhance the farm productivity. Hydroponic is one of the many tools that we have for upping the farm productivity,” he said, adding that it is now monitoring the growth of a plant on 18 parameters using technology. Nine more parametres will be added in about two or three years. “Farm technologies are changing every six months,” he said, adding that it has recently started using thermal scanners that automatically identify the pests and aid in their effective management. It is working on new technologies together with Government agencies including from India and Germany. This sensor, when ready, will be able to aid in increasing productivity by almost 30 per cent. This will take two or three years to reach its set objectives, he said.
“We realised that selling the farm produce is a big challenge for the farmers. We have now taken up the task of finding buyers for the produce too. For this, we are offering a bank guarantee to the farmers. If we fail to pay the farmers, the bank will pay them. We follow an asset light model that makes scalability easy. The key investments are borne by the participating farmers. We also pool farmers who are willing to invest small amounts in the order of Rs 5 lakh,” he said. Typically, it takes about Rs 1.1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore for developing a one acre hydroponics facility, he said.
The company, which has its India head office in Haryana, is engaged in research and development to induce technology into farming, automate systems and use various devices to up productivity. There has been a growing acceptance for hydroponically grown products with e-commerce and popular retail outlets selling hydroponics produce. It is also providing home kits and indoor farms for home gardeners. It helps in setting up automated farm systems that can be remotely operated. Hydroponics is used commonly for lettuce, micro greens, cabbage, spinach, coriander, cucumber, bell pepper, tomato, basil and several others.
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