Ramesh Gera, Founder & Director

While most people are knowledgeable that sustainable agriculture practices like Aeroponics and Hydroponics are good for the Earth, they may not fully understand the extent of their impact. These unique agricultural practices have diverse positive impact on the environment; right from saving space to increased yield; needing much less water and pesticides compared to traditional field cropping. Noticing the potential and benefits of such progressive techniques, today, more players are entering into Hydroponics and Aeroponics, innovating and redefining farming. Akarshak Saffron Institute, which is Strategic Business Unit of Akarshak Hydroponics, based in Noida, is a name that deserves attention among the flourishing companies in this niche segment. The company monitors production as per high-quality standards and differentiates itself from other contemporaries.

The Inception

Sharing the founding story of Akarshak Hydroponics, Ramesh Gera (Founder and Director) shares, I happened to visit South Korea for 6 months in the year 2002 and was highly amazed to see various kinds of advanced, highly productive farming techniques used in a farm in a South Korean city, that included Hydroponics, Aquaponics and multilevel Indoor Saffron cultivation through Aeroponic technique. At that time our country (India) was lagging in advanced farming systems and practices. I was highly impacted to see the level of advancement in farming practices in that country. I expressed my desire to my Korean coordinator (who owned the farm) that during my six months stay in the country, other than my technical assignments, I would also want to learn advanced farming techniques during weekly-off days and other leisure time. They quite willingly and happily agreed to my request and opened the door of their farms for me. Thereafter I best utilised my time to learn advanced farming systems and decided to spread the awareness in our country to transform traditional Indian farming practices to modernised highly productive techniques after return.”

The foundation of Akarshak Hydroponics was laid in the year 2017 with the prime objective to create awareness and spread knowledge about advanced soil-less techniques of farming across the country and also support households in Metro cities and other large townships to utilise their rooftops, terraces, front lawns, etc., to grow vegetables for domestic consumption, also, make it a source of earning by selling the surplus produce to the market. In short, increasing the supply to the demand eventually results in a reduction of costs on the products.

The Silver Lining

Based in Noida, the company uses Aeroponics techniques and successfully cultivates Saffron (Kesar) in a Greenhouse with multilevel stacking facilities inside. “Saffron, otherwise, in the ground with an open environment, is grown only in Kashmir as the climate of Kashmir is best suitable for Saffron farming. However, we have proved and established that Saffron can also be grown inside a closed room through the Aeroponic technique that anywhere outside Kashmir in any part of our country. The climate inside the room is artificially created as a replica of the climate that in Kashmir. This technique now is proving a turnaround and a boom for Saffron cultivation within the country, as our country is facing an acute shortage of availability of Saffron due to the huge Demand vs Supply gap, at present, the shortfall in demand is being fulfilled through imports from Iran. In such a way the Aeroponic technique for growing Saffron is facilitating in making a significant contribution in the Atmnirbhar Bharat initiative of our honoured Prime minister,” he highlighted.

Akarshak Saffron Institute, which primarily conduct online as well as offline training programs on Indoor Saffron Cultivation, works on the principles of 3 TR, i.e. Truth, Trust and Transparency; it strictly and religiously follows these guidelines at any cost. Completion of any training program is not the end of a relationship with our trained candidates, rather it’s the beginning of our lifelong relationship with them. We continue providing unconditional life-long support without any additional charges. We have developed our own Indoor Saffron Cultivation farm in Noida in a room of size 10X10 SF, the farm is fully functional and is giving Saffron produce with a quality at par with Mogra brand of Kashmir. All candidates who opt for offline (class-room based) training are given opportunity for a site visit to our Saffron farm.

Also Read - Eeki Foods: Innovations through Sustainable Ractices

The Journey

In the year 2017, the company started with only Hydroponics. Every year they ventured into more business streams which included aeroponics and aquaponics. Also, diversified to Microgreens, Polyhouse Engineering and thereafter to Indoor Saffron Cultivation. He added, “We have expanded our activities to commercial farming as well. In a short span of 2 years, we have successfully completed 8 commercial farming projects in and around Delhi and NCR. At this stage, we are getting numerous aspiring candidates from the USA, UK, European and African countries approaching us to get training on Aeroponics and Hydroponics especially for Saffron cultivation project.”

The company is driven by the vision to facilitate the quick transformation of traditional inefficient Indian farming practices to highly advanced, highly productive, cost-effective, resource-effective soilless approaches by spreading awareness and conducting cost-effective training programs. “We visualise farming becoming a preferred business venture for the educated youth of our country. We are able to realise this on a day-to-day basis as more and more highly educated youth have begun to join us to learn advanced farming techniques.  

In the year 2022 around 70 candidates joined our training program. In 2023, we have set a goal to attract candidates as many as 10 times existing, and shall also reduce the fees to just 50% of the current,” he concluded. Step by step we contribute in making future of new India.