City Kisaan leverages hydroponic know-how for dwelling rising kits, in addition to a community of city farms for on-line supply and retail channels
In the course of the lockdown part, the corporate claimed to have seen 10x progress by way of demand for its contemporary produce, in comparison with pre-Covid instances
Based mostly in Hyderabad, City Kisaan has put in near 100+ vertical farms and plans to broaden to Bengaluru, Chennai amongst different cities
There’s a minor revolution underway in lots of India’s greatest cities. We’re speaking about hydroponic farming and this soil-less methodology is quick changing into the reply to fixing the issue of carbon footprint in meals. Name it hydroponic farming, soilless farming, vertical farming or anything — for a lot of it’s the long-awaited reply to accountable consuming.
On this backdrop, agritech and hydroponics startups are rapidly discovering niches in numerous produce classes and cities.
Regardless of their shared ethos for sustainable meals manufacturing, the likes of City Kisaan, Barton Breeze, Hydrilla, Merely Contemporary, Acqua Farms, Letcetra Agritech, BitMantis Improvements, Future Farms, Ela Sustainable Options, Agro2o, Junga FreshnGreen, Pindfresh are working on this discipline by totally different fashions and focusing on totally different niches — from large-scale hydroponics farming in rural areas to small dwelling farms for the cities.
Engaged on the philosophy of bringing farms nearer to house is Hyderabad-based City Kisaan. With the imaginative and prescient of constructing hydroponic know-how extra reasonably priced and accessible for the plenty, City Kisaan affords home-grow kits or vertical hydroponic farms. And by creating mini farms in cities and revitalising farmlands with hydroponic know-how, the startup additionally provides contemporary produce to clients by Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo and different retail channels in addition to within the D2C mannequin on subscription and on-demand foundation.
“We are the only startup in the hydroponic landscape to have taken a hybrid approach, where we have 20,000 sq. ft. research and development facility, along with 15+ in-house scientist working on newer innovations and products,” claimed cofounder and CEO Vihari Kanukollu elaborating on how the corporate is trying to differentiate itself within the burgeoning hydroponic market.
Nevertheless, City Kisaan is just not alone within the sport, Merely Contemporary, one other Hyderabad primarily based agritech startup, additionally grows and provides a line of medicinal vegetation and contemporary produce from its greenhouses. Equally, Chennai-based Future Farms works on hydroponic know-how at a industrial degree, the place it designs built-in full-stack options for different farming within the nation. The vibrancy of the hydroponic fashions and the massive floor space that must be lined throughout cities and villages has made it doable for a number of startups to thrive on this house.
For sure, the market alternative is large, as ‘urban farming’ is catching up at a speedy tempo globally. In keeping with MarketsandMarkets, the worldwide hydroponics market is anticipated to achieve $16.6 Bn by 2025, rising at a compound annual progress charge of 11.9% from $9.5 Bn in 2020. The expansion of the sector is alleged to be pushed by the rise in inhabitants and the necessity for meals safety by different high-yield farming strategies, given the depletion of water throughout the globe.
Plus, the rise in consciousness and demand for a more healthy way of life is alleged to have opened doorways for a plethora of potentialities for hydroponic startups to reap the advantages in the long term.
City Kisaan earns income from its a number of channels which permit it to achieve all types of customers — from those that desire a style of the hydroponic produce to those that wish to develop it themselves. Its city farms are strategically situated subsequent to retail shops to facilitate hyperlocal deliveries and its DIY dwelling kits are for the latter set. Moreover, additionally it is supplying its know-how to native farmers to reutilise farm land.
The startup was based in 2017 by Kanukollu, Srinivas Chaganty, Dr Hari, Shiva Prasad and Dr Sai Ram, a scientist who has been instrumental in growing the nutrient resolution for his or her state-of-the-art vertical farming method. In March 2020, the corporate additionally raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding from Y Combinator.
Residence Farming In The Instances Of Covid
In the course of the lockdown part, the corporate claimed to have witnessed 10x progress by way of demand for its contemporary produce, in comparison with pre-Covid ranges. Additional, cofounder Kanukollu mentioned that the disruption within the provide chain and customers leveraging on the hyperlocal supply modes, together with the change in shopper way of life, for the consumption of contemporary, natural produce has resulted within the surge in demand.
The Covid-19 pandemic briefly halted the motion of produce throughout India and highlighted the hole within the meals provide chain. This allowed agritech startups akin to City Kisaan that specialize in hydroponic farming to faucet an incredible alternative and produce effectivity within the provide chain.
With its hyperlocal city farms mannequin, Kanukollu claimed City Kisaan is just not solely bringing transparency to the vegetable provide chain but additionally decreasing the carbon footprint, decreasing meals waste. Most significantly, their farming method additionally claimed to avoid wasting 95% water, and develop the produce 30x in comparison with conventional farms.
Its dwelling kits are priced wherever between INR 9,900 and INR 19,900 with about 50+ types of leafy greens and unique greens supported by these kits, together with spinach, coriander, mint, basil, bok choy, lettuce, parsley, fenugreek, capsicum, tomato and kale amongst others.
Additional, the corporate claimed to have semi-automated the whole course of and has designed the kits in such a manner that it requires restricted assets to handle it. “Once installed, it requires 15 min/week of effort to take care of the plants, thereby making it seamless for consumers to grow their own fresh produce,” mentioned Kanukollu.
A Tech Improve For Rural Farmers
Along with this, City Kisaan additionally works with native farmers who personal greenhouses, the place it helps them in establishing vertical farms from scratch to producing and supplying contemporary vegatables and fruits.
Price-wise, the poly home or greenhouse setup would usually price farmers wherever between INR 35 to INR 50 Lakhs per acre, of which, the federal government might subsidise as much as 80%. As soon as that is put in, which is a hard and fast price, for establishing of hydroponic setup, it will price the farmer moreover INR 50 Lakhs. However, City Kisaan advised Inc42 that it appears to cut back this price at INR 15 to INR 20 Lakhs.
City Kisaan claims to have put in near 100+ hydroponics farms within the state, throughout its numerous choices. Within the coming days, it plans to broaden into different cities, together with Bengaluru, Chennai amongst others, together with rising its staff, including newer types of hydroponic seeds, vegatables and fruits, and enhancing its know-how capabilities.
Kanukollu is taking a look at making a centralised monitoring system by City Kisaan for these numerous hubs and farms. “We are heavily investing in artificial and machine learning tools, where once the network of the urban farm increases, we will be able to monitor and control their farms remotely and provide a real-time update to customers.”
