While working as a sales engineer in Dubai, Ashwin Sawant met a client who was cultivating green fodder hydroponically. This farm left such an impression on him that he chose to leave his lucrative job.
Considering hydroponics to be his calling, the 38-year-old returned to his grandparents’ village in Pune in 2011 and started to grow green fodder on the 500 sq ft of land.
Ashwin today harvests 500 kg of green fodder daily. He also set up a research lab ‘Scientific Hydroponics’ to introduce farmers to the benefits of hydroponics farming.
He points out that Indian farmers lack access to green fodder because it requires large tracts of land and gallons of water. With hydroponics, one can reduce the area and water requirements.
“With a one-tonne unit that can be installed in a 1,000-sq ft area, a farmer can save at least seven acres of land. It also saves 99 percent of the water required conventionally,” he adds.
Besides, the cost of green fodder is an added woe. “The green fodder grown using traditional methods costs Rs 8–14 per kg whereas that grown hydroponically costs Rs 2 per kg,” he says.
Ashwin has also developed a low-cost economical model that costs Rs 3 lakh on average. He worked on vital parameters like temperature and humidity required to promote the growth of green fodder.
To regulate temperature, he replaced air conditioners with his ‘fan-and-pad’ based cooling system that uses exhaust fans to pull air through cooling pads, which then evaporate water to cool the air.
“In summer, the temperature shoots up to 42 degrees Celsius. To grow fodder like maize, you require a temperature of 28–30 degrees Celsius; whereas for wheat or barley, the temperature should be 20-24 degrees Celsius.”
“This fan-and-pad system reduces the temperature to up to 20 degrees Celsius. It is designed like a cooler but works like an AC,” he explains.
In the past 15 years, Ashwin has trained more than 8,000 farmers and entrepreneurs to adopt hydroponic farming techniques.
“It is extremely satisfying to see that today people in India are as fascinated by hydroponics as I was back then,” he shares.