If you’ve come across UrbanKisaan, they have a beautiful website where you can purchase farm fresh produce, exotic vegetables, unique salad bowls, and hydroponics kits. Besides, their name is self-explanatory. Just by reading the name of their brand, you can understand that the company is into modern farming. These are a few reasons why they have ticked in the Agri-tech market and are currently one of the most popular hydroponic brands in India.
Who is UrbanKisaan?
UrbanKisaan is a Hydroponics start-up based in Hyderabad. It is an Indian early-stage business founded in 2017. The company owns and operates several suburban greenhouses and vertical indoor farms in two major Indian cities, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. They also have an e-commerce store consisting of their UrbanKisaan app and website where they sell fresh produce grown in their franchises. Their e-commerce store also features their specialty hydroponics starter kit to help budding hydroponic farmers grow their first produce.
What is Hydroponics?
Hydroponics is a new-age farming technique that skips the use of soil to grow plants and relies on mineral nutrients to give the growing crops their supply of nutrients. Through this technique, the herb or vegetable seedlings or saplings are planted into an inert growing media like a PVC pipe where they grow only through supply of nutrient rich water. Hydroponics farming is usually carried out indoors like a greenhouse or terrace.
How UrbanKisaan optimised Hydroponics technology in Tropical India
UrbanKisaan’s proprietary Hydroponics technology is more efficient than the conventional global standards in Hydroponics cultivation. Their approach is based on relatively little effort. They rely on Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled technology for farm monitoring of nutrient content, pH levels, atmospheric humidity, CO2 concentration, light concentration which are controlled and adapted to the needs of the crops using an app. As such, it has created growing demand among customers in tropical climates which are generally not ideal for Hydroponics produce.
India offers limited resources in terms of farming area and freshwater reserves. By reducing water usage by about 90 per cent, UrbanKisaan is optimising Hydroponics for Tropical India by presenting an efficient way to grow crops in densely populated urban areas.
How the company has made Hydroponics cost-effective
UrbanKisaan has a very cost-effective approach to Hydroponics wherein they produce food at only one-tenth of the costs compared to traditional supply chains. Their network of indoor vertical farms in India requires less than 1% land and saves nearly 2,16,000 litres of water per farm per month. Their urban farms span an approximate area of 2000 square feet.
Their supply chain is inside and close to the consumption centres which are primarily urban cities. Thus, they are cutting down on thousands of food miles which makes their business model highly cost effective.
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Farm businesses with compelling business models like UrbanKisaan can see increased sales in India.
What’s in it for me?
Online food retailing is booming in India. There is growing demand among consumers. Businesses in the Hydroponics, Agri-Tech sector are being well received. Farm businesses with compelling business models like UrbanKisaan can see increased sales in India. Innovative agricultural and food-related businesses in Asia are a key focus area for Agri-Tech investors owing to the market opportunity.
India is a large consumer for fruits and vegetables. However, the market share for organised channels like modern trade and online retail is still at 20%. Which means there’s a big chunk of untapped opportunity awaiting start-ups. In the organised fresh produce market in India, Hydroponics is a fast-growing and efficient alternative to traditional supply chains. It is awaiting disruption and innovation by Agri-tech start-ups and small businesses.
