Assam’s MBA farmer clocks Rs30 lakh annual turnover from just 1.5 acre

After an MBA in Finance from the University of Wales, UK, Rahul Gupta began working in the credit rating agency ICRA in Kolkata. He was born and brought up in Tinsukia, Assam. While work and education took him to faraway places, he longed to return to his roots following the monotony of corporate life. 

“After four years at ICRA, I thought of doing something of my own as I was bored of working by the clock. I wanted to do something that could benefit people, especially at my birthplace,” he says.

Rahul quit his job and began researching hydroponics (growing plants in a water-based nutrient solution instead of soil) and protected farming. In protected farming, crops are grown in greenhouses, glasshouses or shade houses to protect them from adverse weather, pests, and diseases. 

“In 2018, I built a hydroponics prototype by making holes in a 9-ft PVC pipe. I grew tomatoes, chillies and eggplant. The results were good and it motivated me to do more in the farming space,” he says.

However, he studied the market and realised that the opportunity for protected cultivation was even better than hydroponics in Assam. 

“The quality of produce in protected farming is good and prices are also high as we can get a premium by harvesting before the season begins and by meeting the late demand,” Rahul says. 

India has 110,000 hectares of protected cultivation led by Maharashtra and followed by Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.

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Commercial cultivation of veggies 

In 2018 -end, he started commercial cultivation of vegetables on soil in a protected environment over 14,000 sq ft. “I kept a small area for hydroponics also but the majority was dedicated to protected farming in soil. I started with European cucumber and while the output was excellent, marketing was problematic as people were not comfortable buying seedless cucumber with a bright green colour and unfamiliar texture. They called it Chinese cucumber,” he says.

The output was high and Rahul ended up distributing English cucumbers for free among tea estate workers, orphanages, old age homes and daily wage workers due to lack of market acceptability. 

It forced him to change track and in 2019, he began focusing on protected farming of vegetables with a ready market. 

Today, Rahul grows capsicum, red and yellow bell peppers, and tomatoes and practices hydroponic farming of leafy greens like mint, basil, lettuce and parsley over 1.5 acres, earning over Rs 30 lakh annually. He sells the vegetables under the Fresh Farms brand. 

“I use only about 15 percent of the area for hydroponics. The vegetables are 100 percent naturally ripened,” says Rahul, who was conferred with the Assam Gaurav Award in April this year.

In open farming, crops are not secure outdoors and there is a fear of pests and unpredictable macroclimatic conditions like rain, wind, excessive heat etc. In protected cultivation, these risks are nullified, resulting in better quality and much higher outputs for more months in a year, he says. 

For example, the typical yield of capsicum per hectare in India is 20 to 40 tonnes and the crop duration is about three to four months. But in the greenhouse, harvesting lasts for about eight months and yields 80 to 100 tonnes per hectare.

“I have fully adopted the Israeli method of protected farming where I use drip irrigation, fertigation (delivering soluble fertilizers and nutrients through irrigation), greenhouse and high-quality seeds. I employ only two farm workers as most processes are automated, reducing my operating costs,” he says.

For example, he uses an auto-dosing system to automatically give water and measured nutrients to plants at specific times.

How protected farming of vegetables is done

Rahul procures seeds from the Netherlands. “While the rate is high at Rs15 per seed, the plants like green and coloured capsicum give yields for about ten months in a year,” he says.

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He prepares capsicum saplings from seeds and transplants them at a plant-to-plant gap of 1.5 feet. They start flowering in about 50 days and fruiting begins in 65 days. 

“I transplant them in August-September and then they give produce till June next year. After uprooting them, the area is sanitized and the next round of plantation is done in August,” he says.

One plant of green capsicum can give around 5 kg output while the figure for red and yellow bell pepper is around 3 kg and tomato is 8 kg per plant annually. “From 5,000 capsicum plants, spread over 30,000 sq ft, I get 25,000 kg capsicum annually. Selling them at Rs 60 per kg, I earn Rs15 lakh from capsicum,” he says.

While the output for coloured capsicum is lower, they sell at Rs 300 per kg, bringing in Rs 3 lakh from just 1,000 kg of production. 

“In all, the annual income from green leafy vegetables grown through hydroponics and veggies from protected farming is around Rs30 lakh from just 1.5 acres,” he says.

He supplies the vegetables directly to restaurants, burger chains and also to local markets. “Branding has helped create awareness and people now specifically ask for our brand at stores,” he points out. Rahul is now planning to increase production given the rising demand. 

(Rashmi Pratap is a Mumbai-based journalist specialising in financial, business and socio-economic reporting)

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