A green revolution, without soil

Sunil Jose

himself wouldn’t have believed it had anyone suggested during his IIM days that he would eventually choose farming as his passion and vocation.

The game changer was a small study that he did on farmers’ suicides owing to drought and famine. It was while exploring possible solutions that he stumbled upon

hydroponics

(growing plants without soil) and since then, he has become not only an entrepreneur of this green concept but also its evangelist.
It may sound ironic that he is proposing a system of agriculture that does away with the need for soil and depends solely on water, for areas where water is scarce. Explains Sunil: “Water is used in bare minimum and it is recycled back into the system. The plants get only the desired amount of water with nutrients as and when it is required.” He explains that much less water and space – since plants are grown in racks one on top of the other – is required and they grow a lot faster when compared to traditional methods.

Besides herbs and vegetables, Sunil’s start-up has shown that this system can be put to use to produce fodder. He gives the example of how his hydroponic fodder machine created a mini revolution in a Telangana village. He had approached a politician, who had lost three elections despite being influential, and with his help had supplied these machines to the drought affected villagers, only to find after a few months that they were left untouched. But a curious boy put some mustard seeds in one and seeing the way they grew, the villagers soon lapped them up. “They replaced the pictures of gods in their houses with that of the politician,” says Sunil. Another project that brought him a lot of attention and satisfaction was the metro pillars where he set up vertical gardens through hydroponics in Bangalore’s MG Road. “This vegetation can purify the air and nullify the effects of vehicular pollution,” he says.

Recently, Sunil came to Kochi to address a Rotary gathering and spread awareness about his pet topic. During the talk, he hinted that perhaps it may not have as much relevance for God’s Own Country, blessed as it is with rains and water bodies, as other drought-prone regions. But a lot of people showed a keen interest in hydroponics and bombarded him with queries on the subject. Says the Malayali entrepreneur whose parents hail from Ernakulam but was raised in Bangalore: “My talks in Kerala were more on the opportunities that hydroponics have in this market. In my opinion, Kerala should go big on pesticide residual free herbs, vegetables and fruits. They should think beyond organics and work towards a total, sustainable ecosystem.”

Sunil quotes the example of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to drive home his point that this is hardly a new area but stresses that our country is way behind many others in the field. “Twenty one per cent of tomatoes grown in Australia are with hydroponics. It is catching on rapidly in Australia, Canada, the US and Holland. Of late the Gulf countries are also showing a lot of interest,” he says. If Sunil has his way, some of the Indian states will also follow suit.

All year Cultivation
Higher yield than land crop
Just 5 – 10% of water consumption compared with land crop
Minimum wastage of water and fertilisers
Minimum power and space required
Large savings on capital costs, transportation and manual work
Easily scalable from a small plant to much higher capacities