Climate change is erratic, the world is unpredictable, the price of which crops end up paying. Even if the weather cooperates, there are deeply ingrained issues with food transportation, supply, and precision farming. To tackle these problems, and many more, there has been a growth of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and hydroponics. CEA aims to synthesize technology and food production to perform agriculture in a sustainable manner that is devoid of the external environment’s influence on crops.

 

Three of us visited Barton Breeze – a CEA and hydroponics company – and interviewed their CEO and COO. Here are the insights regarding the USP of CEA, the implications on society, and the end goal:

 

The advantage of CEA is its ability to grow non-seasonal and non-local produce. This means that vegetables that once couldn’t be grown in the Delhi winters, or other seasons, can now be grown. To illustrate the impact of this, most of our vegetables are imported from Bangalore, however, if CEA is applied, the dependence on Bangalore and other centers from which we import greatly decreases. Additionally, because the crops are grown nearby, the nutritional content isn’t lost due to excess transportation time as we eliminate the need to import.

 

To completely transform agriculture (arguably the oldest organized activity, and inarguably the most critical to survival), a technological overhaul of data generation, climatic control, nutrient monitoring, and water delivery is required. Barton Breeze farms pioneer the following and many more techniques in India:

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1. Vertical farming – Saves land as the produce in the same space can be increased by a multiplier equal to the levels. Operational costs are also decreased as less land area needs to be developed to CEA specifications. The company uses metal A-frames to ensure plants have optimal sunlight exposure and space to grow.

 

2. Combining natural and controlled elements – the company operates farms with different levels of natural growth factors and interference. For most farms, sunlight is the source of light and most other factors are controlled. They include air density and temperature with great importance on the water as pH, temperature, micro, and macronutrients are monitored and edited according to crop requirements.

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3. Nuclear Film Technology (NFT) – a special shape of container for the plants which allows for equitable and free flow of water by minimizing nutrient and metal deposits that usually line circular pipes.

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4. Rock Wools – saplings are placed in rock wools which are exclusively for structural support and have no nutritional benefit to the plant, unlike soil. This is done so that the pH, and nutrients can be controlled to a greater extent why the water supply and absorption by the crop.

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While CEA seems like a dream, it isn’t without its rather glaring drawbacks. First of which is the high initial investment and overall cost of production. Traditional farmers have cheap labor and rely on unpredictable but crucially free natural resources to support their farms. Companies like barton breeze can not. Each acre of land costs 1.1 to 1.5 cr and the farms must regularly purchase nutrients, rock wools, and other necessary material in addition to the electricity bills. For this reason, CEA farms grow non-seasonal and non-local produce because their prices are highly uncompetitive for common crops like tomatoes and onions and traditional farmers are unable to grow what CEA can with a high success rate.

 

The biological possibilities are one aspect of precision farming, the other equally important one is the economic possibilities and existing markets. Currently, Barton breeze operates on a Business-to-Business model, wherein they sell to big retailers like Amazon, Milk Basket, and Zomato. They have also started selling home kits, which include a frame, rock wools, piping, pre-made nutrition mixes, and all necessary elements to grow up to 30% of your household’s requirement, even in houses with limited space. Rise of local markets and decline in the importance of international ones like the Azadpur mandi.

 

In the future, traditional and technology-based agriculture will work in tandem to fulfill local areas’ agricultural needs. Together they can produce a variety of crops that can be cost-effective and predictable in their delivery, quality, nutrition, and growth period. This will lead to the rise of local markets and even the decline in the importance of international ones like the azadpur mandi. Lastly, focused on India there needs to be a greater integration of automation such as robotic arms to further increase efficiency and specialization. All we can say for sure is that the second agricultural revolution is well underway.

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Written by Vatsal Kabra

Edited by Aarushi Bansal

Designed by Nathan Upputuru