The Nashik engineer was always taught to find a stable job, but decided to follow his heart and take a leap. In 2016, Shailesh finally started to leave his job and commit himself fully to entrepreneurship.
Shailesh Modak
Seeing the drastic climate changes he decided to take up hydroponics as a way to grow plants. He grew one of the most priced spices in India — saffron — and that too in a shipping container.
In his first crop, he was able to grow 875 grams, which was sold for Rs 500 per gram. While he invested Rs 10 lakh for research and setting up the lab, he has already earned Rs 5 lakh in revenue.
Meet the three friends who have not only used hydroponics to earn revenue in crores but have also trained 35000 People Across India — Tusshar Aggarwal, Meet Patel, and Vivek Shukla.
The Agri Trio
The startup, Rise Hydroponics provides “end-to-end soilless and hydroponics farming solutions” and “is also involved in developing both outdoor and indoor hydroponics farm projects”.
They also work with businesspersons and corporations on a joint venture basis to set up hydroponics projects.
Back in 2019, when Bariely’s Ramveer Singh saw his uncle suffering from cancer, he decided to find out the reason for the illness.
Ramveer Singh
Upon research, he found that it was the chemical-laced in the vegetables responsible for the life-threatening disease.
Ramveer decided to quit his job and dedicate his time to his ancestral land to grow organic vegetables using hydroponics.
He has presently converted his three-storey house into a hydroponics farm that earns Rs 70 lakh per annum. He grows okra, chillies, capsicum, bottle gourd, tomatoes, cauliflower, spinach, cabbage, strawberry, fenugreek and green peas.
IIT Bombay graduates Amit Kumar and Abhay Singh always wanted to innovate farming and find a way of saving water that gets wasted in farming.
Amit Kumar and Abhay Singh
They made this happen by founding Eeki Foods — a sustainable farming startup that uses hydroponics to grow food on a large scale. They claim that their technique saves 80% wastage of water with a growth rate that is 75% faster than traditional methods.
They have seven acres of farms in Panipat (Haryana), Kota district (Rajasthan), and Bundi district (Rajasthan), while another 33 acres of land are under construction.
A horticulturist by profession, Himachal Pradesh’s Yussouf Khan is also using soil-less farming to grow a vast variety of fruits and vegetables including strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, capsicum mushrooms and cabbage.
Yussouf Khan
The crops are planted in pyramidal rows of PVC pipes, and they would receive their food through the solution of water and nutrients.
Using hydroponics to grow food has been extremely profitable earning him a revenue of Rs 2-4 lakh per month.
Additionally, he believes in spreading the knowledge he has gained over the years and has been helping students from cities like Palampur and Jalandhar to learn the technique.