Throughout his time as a gross sales engineer in Dubai, Ashwin Sawant met a shopper who used to be cultivating inexperienced fodder hydroponically for his huge farm animals, consisting of over 2,000 animals. This farm left such an affect on him that he selected to go away his profitable process.
“I had by no means observed such an excellent setup earlier than, so I began frequenting the buyer. Watching their paintings helped me achieve the arrogance to copy one thing equivalent. In recent times, I had no longer been proud of my paintings in Dubai and used to be in search of a reason why to return again house,” the 38-year-old Mumbai resident tells The Higher India.
Making an allowance for hydroponics to be his calling, he returned to his grandparent’s village in Pune in 2011. “The concept that of hydroponics used to be very new again then. Other folks would to find it arduous even to pronounce it — some would time period it hydrophobic and ‘hydrolonic’,” he smiles.
With none farming background, Ashwin began to develop inexperienced fodder at the 500 sq toes of land in Pune. Nowadays, he harvests 500 pounds of inexperienced fodder day by day to feed the 105 cows and goats on his farm. He additionally arrange a analysis lab ‘Clinical Hydroponics’ to introduce farmers to the advantages of hydroponics farming.
Converting the sport for Indian farmers
Ashwin issues out that Indian farmers lack get right of entry to to inexperienced fodder as it calls for huge tracts of land and gallons of water. “In states like Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu, farmers already lack enough water for irrigation. If a farmer owns 800 cows, they’ve to order 60 acres of land to develop inexperienced fodder. That implies they can’t develop another crop in this land, which isn’t economical,” he says.
“However with hydroponics, we will scale back the realm and water necessities. With a one-tonne unit that may be put in in a 1,000-sq toes house, a farmer can save a minimum of seven acres of land. This land will also be utilised to develop different plants. The usage of hydroponics, farmers can harvest one kilo of inexperienced fodder via utilising simply 1.5 litres of water whilst saving 99 % of the water required conventionally,” he provides.
As opposed to this, the price of inexperienced fodder is an added woe. “If a farmer does no longer have sufficient land to develop inexperienced fodder on their very own, they’re compelled to buy dear fodder from the marketplace. The fairway fodder grown the usage of conventional strategies prices Rs 8–14 in keeping with kg while that grown hydroponically prices Rs 2 in keeping with kg,” he informs.
Regardless of its advantages of protecting land and water, the principle downside of the hydroponic method used to be its dear price. Aswhin says a one-tonne unit prices as much as Rs 16 lakh. “Those setups require air conditioners, ozonators, and UV and RO techniques. This will increase the price of the unit. I sought after to scale back its value in order that many farmers can undertake it,” he says.
After a couple of trials and mistakes, Ashwin advanced a low cost economical style that price Rs 3 lakh on moderate. This style might be replicated throughout more than a few geographies within the nation. Ashwin labored on necessary parameters like temperature and humidity required to advertise the expansion of inexperienced fodder.
To keep an eye on temperature, he changed air conditioners along with his ‘fan-and-pad’ based totally cooling device that makes use of exhaust fanatics to drag air via cooling pads, which then evaporate water to chill the air.
“In summer time, the temperature shoots as much as 42 levels Celsius. To develop fodder like maize, you require a temperature of 28–30 levels Celsius; while for wheat or barley, the temperature will have to be 20-24 levels Celsius. This fan-and-pad device reduces the temperature to as much as 20 levels Celsius. It’s designed like a cooler however works like an AC,” he explains.
The usage of ‘fan-and-pad’ cooling techniques, dehumidifiers to care for humidity ranges, inverters, and stabilisers, Ashwin customises an optimum hydroponics infrastructure in line with the area’s climatic prerequisites.
Reaping the advantages of pioneering hydroponics within the area
Up to now 15 years, Ashwin has skilled greater than 8,000 farmers and marketers to undertake hydroponic farming tactics. He fees Rs 12,000 for a two-day onsite workshop and a year-long handholding.
“First, we educate them. Subsequent, we customize a unit design for them, and once they put in force it, we stay an in depth watch on their paintings on a daily basis via video calls,” he says.
As an example, Pinak Suryavanshi (24) who hails from Maharashtra’s Sangli district, switched to hydroponics farming closing yr with Ashwin’s help. “I are living in a area the place we are facing intense water shortage. In a scenario like this, we needed to waste an uncalculated quantity of water to develop inexperienced fodder on a big land. However with hydroponics, we’re ready to get 500 pounds of fodder day by day via the usage of 500 litres of water,” he tells The Higher India.
Pinak, who grows maize fodder to feed 10 buffaloes and 1,200 hens, says it price him Rs 1.25 lakh to arrange the device.
But even so coaching folks on putting in hydroponic fodder techniques, Ashwin additionally gives session and set up products and services throughout India and in international locations like Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. With this, he has been ready to clock Rs 2 crore in income closing yr. This yr, he tasks an source of revenue spice up to Rs 10 crore.
“Once I got here again to Mumbai, my circle of relatives used to be stunned at my determination to surrender my process, the place my wage package deal used to be price Rs 25 lakh in keeping with annum. For 8 years between 2011 and 2019, I hardly ever earned any source of revenue from my hydroponics challenge. Additionally, I invested Rs 25 lakh — some from my financial savings and the remainder loaned from my members of the family. It’s only up to now 4 years that I began incomes a benefit from this paintings. However I loved the paintings that I installed all over those years,” he says.
“This can be very enjoyable to peer that these days, folks in India are as enthusiastic about hydroponics as I used to be again then,” Ashwin stocks.
Edited via Pranita Bhat; All footage: Ashwin Sawant.