Hyderabad: Triangle Farms, which set up a hydroponics farm (landless cultivation) at Zaheerabad, plans to set up more farms in Telangana. It currently operates in approximately 32 acres with a greenhouse facility with a retractable roof system spanning 18 acres.
‘We have a land bank of about 160 hectares at Zaheerabad. In phase 2 we will try to add about 50 acres to 100 acres. We will also be open to exploring new areas in the eastern part of Hyderabad or the Vijayawada Highway, ”said Mohan Urs, Chief Operating Officer of Triangle Farms.
The company has been successful in growing colored peppers. Of the 18 hectares, the retractable roof arrangement is 15 hectares. From this it brought 7.5 acres. It will soon add another 7.5 acres, Mohan said.
Technology support
‘We design our own sensor systems, test them and design the necessary hardware to automate the processes. The power requirement for farming will be less. We use pressure sensors to find out the weight of the plants to know if the plans are getting the necessary nutrition. We also use sensors to check the moisture content in the roots. Then we also measure the electrical conductivity to measure whether nutrients are enough to grow or not. Many of these will soon be standardized, ”Mohan said.
The farm also has plans for autonomous vehicles for internal transportation. “Each plant row is 112 m long. There are 280 to 300 such rows. It will take 15-20 minutes for a person to cover each row. Dealing with so many rows involves a lot of walking and this will harm the efficiency of workers. We will use autonomous vehicles to transport fruit to the packaging department. The prototype will be ready in about two months and we will fine tune it. The essay is expected to be ready in one year, ”he said.
All the data coming from sensors and vehicles will be used in six to eight months to draw up its expansion plans. The official added that the effort is to keep production costs to a minimum so that it is affordable for the consumer. The products are now shipped to major markets in Hyderabad.
A high dose of pesticides found in vegetables is a deterrent to exports. As we use hydroponics, the use of water is drastically reduced and the use of pesticides is also reduced, ”said Kamal Kanchala, one of the co-founders of Triangle Farms. Phase 1 of the project amounts to approximately $ 5 million. Now there are about 50 people working and it will soon rise to 120.
Source: Telangana Today