Sachin Darbarwar, a software engineer from Hyderabad, was working in New Zealand and later in Australia. But, he would always dream of moving back to India.
“I knew I wanted to come back home. The only question was about what I would do here,” he recalls.
In 2013, Sachin along with his wife moved to Hyderabad’s Shamirpet and started a ‘precision farming’ business called Simply Fresh.
As the name indicates, the brand provides nutritious food that’s free of chemicals and pesticides, grown using hydroponic techniques.
The couple started off with a 10-acre land and started with growing 14 kinds of lettuce and 10 different types of herbs, tomato, capsicum, peppers, and various microgreens.
After getting success in the area of growing veggies, the couple ventured into growing medicinal plants.
What started as an experiment, now produces more than 29,20,000 kg of various produce each year, grown over 22 acres of land.
The farms are not regular farms; they are AI-controlled automated greenhouses and have a QR code-based packaging system to enhance traceability.
“Every pack that leaves the farm is accompanied by a QR code, which customers can scan on the website to gather more information about how it is produced,” says Sachin.