: IIT Alumni Startups Half-Acre Hydroponics, Soilless Farm Grows 7,000 KG Produce #IndiaNEWS #Farming IIT-Bombay graduates Amit Kumar and Abhay Singh’s Kota-based startup, Eeki Foods, grows high quality,

IIT Alumni Startups Half-Acre Hydroponics, Soilless Farm Grows 7,000 KG Produce #IndiaNEWS #Farming
IIT-Bombay graduates Amit Kumar and Abhay Singh’s Kota-based startup, Eeki Foods, grows high quality, residue-free and 100 per cent organic Indian staple vegetables and fruits like tomatoes, cucumbers, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, chillies and eggplants using hydroponics — growing of plants using nutrient-rich water.
Unlike the plethora of business ventures engaged in hydroponics, Eeki Foods is not primarily focussed on growing leafy vegetables, particularly of the exotic variety like arugula, lettuce or kale. Their focus is on traditional Indian staples.
Going further, the startup does not use coco-peat (husk) or any other growing medium. Instead, they employ what they call “an [Internet of Things] IoT-enabled, completely medium-less growing chamber’s technology???.
“Most startups engaged in the business of hydroponics in India are focussed primarily on growing leafy vegetables, particularly the exotic kind. There are a lot of hydroponic kits available online and leafy vegetables grown from them can fetch you good prices. However, most of these ventures have been relegated to boutique businesses. They haven’t been able to scale up because the demand for exotic vegetables is not as high as traditional Indian staples like tomato, cucumber, eggplant and chillies. A company that can grow high-quality Indian staples, as well as exotics, is more likely to scale up and have a much larger market,??? says Abhay Singh, co-founder of Eeki Foods, speaking to The Better India.
To facilitate the scaling-up process, the startup has developed their soon to be patented ‘Growing Chambers’, which, they claim, offer better control over taste and nutrition value and the produce is cheaper than hydroponic companies that use mediums like coco-peat.
Their business model centres around commercial farm setups with individual farm partners. While individual farm partners put in the initial capital, the startup oversees the responsibility of growing and selling produce in the market. The farm owner earns a share of the sales.
“Our fully functional commercial farm in Bhilwara measuring 0. 5 acres, for example, grows 7,000 kg of produce a month, which predominantly includes tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. We sell our produce at an average of Rs 50 per kg, thus clocking monthly revenues of about Rs 3. 5 lakh per month from this farm. Today, we have about 300 B2C (business-to-consumer) companies in Kota, Rajasthan. During the lockdown, we were directly selling to customers in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh, and a few stores in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Our vegetables are grown and sold locally under the brand of Eeki Foods, providing traceability and authenticity as well as the ‘farm-to-fork’ experience,??? says Abhay Singh.

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