“India imports roughly Rs 5,000 crore worth of exotic greens every year. This can be brought down if we are able to grow these locally. Also, the market for hydroponic or aeroponic vegetables is growing considerably. Supermarkets in metros have started giving separate shelf space to veggies and greens grown using these techniques,” he adds.

Most players are hoping to turn profitable soon, as city-dwellers have started demanding their produce regularly. Many hotels, top-line restaurants, cloud kitchens and corporate canteens have also started ordering these greens and veggies, according to farmers. In their bid to bring down the cost of production, these new-age farmers are now using solar power to run their farms; many of them, like Barton Breeze, are also making their own nutrient solution to feed their crops. But still ponic veggies or greens are at least three times costlier than their regular soil-grown peers in most markets. #igbc #internationalgbc #international green building council

“These vegetables have a good shelf life and taste much better than the regular variants,” says Pradeep Jayakar, a lawyer by profession, and owner of Tridhatri Farms at Lonavala. The farm grows nearly 50 kg of cherry tomatoes every day.

“These farms can be very profitable with automation. If you can automate the plant-feeding cycle and climate control, a lot of running cost can be trimmed down. With proper market linkages, this can be a profitable business,” he adds.

Pelican Aeroponic Farms’ Mohapatra has already built a side-venture—of delivering assorted salad boxes to his nearby customers. “We have a lot of diet-conscious customers buying these boxes from us on a regular basis,” he says. #igbc #internationalgbc #international green building council

“This is a great business to be in, but it needs a lot of patience. Running an aeroponic farm is full-time work. You have to be very careful about hygiene inside the poly houses. By any chance, if any plant virus seeps into the poly house, the whole farm would be destroyed in a matter of days,” he cautions.

Smaller startups also focus on peddling domestic ‘do-it-yourself’ hydroponic or aeroponic kits to buyers. These are usually sold to people living in apartments, but having large balconies. What can be more lavish—or fulfilling—than plucking a few cherry tomatoes and lettuce leaves from your balcony garden for a Sunday brunch! #igbc #internationalgbc #international green building council