You must have seen traditional ie convention farming happening around. You must have seen poly farming, hydroponic too, but have you heard about aquaponics farming? This method of farming from fish waste is still very new in India. Today's Positive Story talks about two friends & farmers Lalit Jawahar and Mayank Gupta, 32, who are running the country's largest commercial aquaponic farm. Through this, they are not only promoting organic farming but are also running a business model worth crores along with employing the people.
Hailing from Hyderabad, Mayank enrolled in B Tech and M Tech in IIT Bombay in the year 2007. The placement took place in 2012 and he worked as an analyst for a company in New York for three years. Mayank used to visit Mumbai frequently in connection with work. It was during this time that he realized that he could not live with a 9 to 5 job. Now it was the turn of another turning point in Mayank's life. He applied for MBA at Columbia University in the US. The selection took place and the preparations for leaving also started.
Meanwhile, many times he and his friends used to talk about the startup. Mayank explains, "The startup phase had just started at that time. Online shopping was overshadowed all over the world. We found in research that online startups are a good start according to the increasing demand in South-East Asia. In 2015 we 4 friends went to Bangkok and started the startup zilingo.com. Through this, we made street shopping available on the online platform. This initiative was very successful and many companies also funded it.
During his startup, Mayank got to learn many new things, but amidst the glare of another country, Mayank used to remember the soil of his country very much. He was fed up with the cities and wanted to start something new in the green area of India. He made up his mind to return to India, but one question still stood before him… what to do next? In the year 2018, he talked with an old friend of his Mumbai, Lalit Jawar, this time. Both decided that together they start a startup related to farming so that four basic things like roti, cloth, house, and medicine can be reached to the people.
Mayank explains that during the research itself, we came to know that there has been very little innovation and development in organic farming practices in India. Also, farmers in India do traditional farming, and to increase the yield of the crop, they use a lot of fertilizers and pesticides. This makes most of the cultivable land and water poisonous. The only solution to all these problems was organic farming.
Mayank and Lalit researched the country and abroad for this initiative. Both of them learned new techniques of organic and sustainable farming by researching many countries like the USA, China, Israel, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Of these, aquaponics farming is the best fit for India. Now it was necessary to choose the best place in India for this.
Since we were going to make a fresh start, we were independent about the location. That is, startups could be started in any part of India, just away from the hustle and bustle of the city. For this, we tested every district of India on aspects like climate, water, soil, availability of farmers and market, and Kolhapur of Maharashtra came true to all these. It has good soil and water availability as there has never been a drought.
Mayank says that after all this research, we started the country's largest aquaponics farm Lend Craft Agro. It is spread over two acres of land. Lend Craft Agro is not only providing employment to nearby people through aquaponic farming but also women empowerment and providing employment to nearby farmers. The team has 100 people working in the direct field, out of which 85 are women.
Aquaponic farming can be done in any region according to the climate. The special thing is that it also saves a lot of water. Mayank says that the water that is being used on his setup for the last two years, does not need to be changed yet. Aquaponic farming saves 95% of water. If it is compared with traditional farming, then it takes only 5% water.
Aquaponic farming can be done even on a small scale
Lend Craft Agro is associated with 1500 farmers who are doing aquaponic farming on a small scale. His team also provides training in aquaponic farming to these farmers in a cheap way. Due to which today people associated with Mayank are working on 300 acres of land.
In the second step, the plant is planted in the net pot of the nursery. After this, the plant is transplanted into the main plant in the playhouse. The plant is kept on a floating base so that it does not get submerged in water. Fish waste is mixed in the water in which the root of the plant is immersed. The roots of the plant absorb the nutrition present in it.
Aquaponic farming is done in two parts. First of all, fish farming is done in a tank. Waste from fish is collected. This waste is full of nutrition. To protect these plants from any kind of disease, oxygen is given through bubbles in the water. The result is organic vegetables. This is the reason why farmers opted for aquaponic farming is considered better than hydroponic farming. Aquaponic farming has also been given a certificate of organic farming in the USA.
Mayank plants his crop step by step on his farm. Due to which the supply chain is maintained 365 days a year. This is not possible in common farming. Mayank explains about the marketing of our product – We used the social media platform as well as the website from the beginning. Due to which more people could be easily reached in less time. We have more than 200 super market-based permanent customers, to whom more than 5000 packets are sent every day. They have more than 65 products included.
Now this team is developing QR code technology on the packaging of vegetables. From which information about the freshness of the vegetable to the customer can be easily obtained. Mayank and Lalit started their startup with 40% savings and 60% bank loan, with a total annual turnover of Rs 4 crore. This includes the benefits of vegetable to fish farming.
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