Farming in heart of ‘dying’ city

BENGALURU: If you have a terrace or a balcony, you can have a digital farm that you could track on your mobile. Woolly Farms, started mid last year as a research project in University of Virginia, are in town and they build urban, community farms.They rent/lease out your space (with a minimum of 500 sq ft) and set up a high-tech hydroponic farm, and they share the produce with you and help you sell the excess through neighbourhood shops. In Bengaluru, they already operate four farms in homes in HSR Layout and have four others in Whitefield, Hebbal, Indiranagar and Marathahalli, and on Bannerghatta Road under construction.

“We are focused on building small communities, where each farm will look to produce a certain vegetable or herb,” says Nithun KV, CEO of this startup, who has done his B Tech in biotechnology from Kerala University. He says that they chose to start in Bengaluru because of the IISc report that predicted the city would be unlivable or dead in five years. “We want to make this city livable by providing fresh food,” he says. The startup is now incubated at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

The others in the founding team are Thamam Mubarish, an NIFT graduate who is in charge of business development, and CV Prakash, a former officer with the Indian Navy who trained in hydroponics in Australia and now mentors the startup in the farming technique.

Currently, they are growing lettuce in their farms that measure between 200 sq ft and 2,000 sq ft, and will stay focused on salad vegetables for the next 18 months. The profit from sale of produce is shared between the landlord and the Farms depending on the investment made by each. For example the landlord gets a larger share if he or she has invested in setting up the infrastructure or the landlord may settle for just the rent for space. An approximate revenue from this farm would be `60,000 to `70,000 annually from a 500 sq ft space. (For queries on setting up a farm in your home, write to Sumit at sumit@woolly.io)

Uncertainties, and what keeps them going
Urban farming is new and on large-scale fraught with hurdles but, according to Nithun, the biggest challenge has been “unpredictable changes in climate… like for all other farmers”. In fact, in January this year, a lettuce crop was hit by the “drastic change” in city’s climate. Humidity dipped and the plants were dehydrated. The Farm team responded by spraying water on them and, after two hours of this, the plants were revived.  This is not an easy road to take but, according to the founders, what started them on it was an urgent need to move away from pesticide-laden veggies. Nithun says, “In India, doctors advise pregnant women against eating vegetables during pregnancy because it may cause brain damage to the baby.” He believes that common people are willing to try farming with “a little guidance”.

‘they have workable business model’
Vikyath Nanjappa, who is part of NSRCEL at IIMB, says that they have seen various hydroponics projects but none of them seemed to have cracked the model. But, Woolly Farms’s partnership with micro-entrepreneurs (in land or space owners) and monetising of dead-space (rooftops and terraces) seem promising. Nagaraja Prakasam, well-known fund advisor and mentor for Woolly Farms at IIMB, too believes that they have a workable model also for giving a practical solution to cool people’s homes down, with gardens on roofs. “Their positioning works, telling partners that they are contributing to the environment and easing pollution. The produce from the farms is just a bonus,” says Nagaraja. Vikyath believes that Woolly Farms can also profit from B2B business, if they approach restaurants and grocery stores. “Instead of sourcing microgreens from far away places, restaurants or shops can get it from close by,”says Vikyath. Also their model is environmentally sustainable, since hydroponics uses 15 per cent less water compared to regular farming, and needs little capex.