I remember visiting a startup in Chennai about two years back, just before the outbreak of COVID.
It was a small firm run by a youngster quite passionate about hydroponics. In addition to being quite passionate, the youngster was also quite a sharp business guy, and he almost convinced me and my team members that hydroponics was just the thing the doctor ordered for the whole world to go low carbon on food.
What could be better than growing your own food inside your own homes, with significant efficiencies in energy and inputs.
Appealing as the concept was, I realized at the same time tht hydroponics is still a fairly amateur sector almost everywhere in the world, including India.
Why aren't sectors such as these, which have significant sustainability benefits if the proponents' claims are to be believed, scaling?
I think it has at least partly to do with lack of authentic, certified data.
The various claims made by the hydroponics solutions providers - be they on water consumption, yields, energy needed - are currently backed up mostly by the vendors' own data, hardly enough.
I strongly feel if the hydropononics firms get together and get data validated by certifying organiztions such as UL, they have a dramatically higher chances of getting funded and acquiring serious, larger customers faster.
Has hydropoinics scaled anywhere in the world?
Overall global market for hydroponics
Your experience with a visit to a hydroponics startup in Chennai
What are the quoted numbers data for hydroponics vis a vis conventional farming?
Startups in India
Prominent startups worldwide
