New Delhi: Natasha Rego, a 29-year-old Mumbai-based writer, has pots full of coriander, basil, ladies’ fingers, brinjals and tomatoes in her apartment balcony. She had a smattering of decorative plants for a few years and does composting but said that “everything came together during the pandemic.”
The lockdown, with all its restrictions, has also yielded some benefits. Rego said she was able to grow more edible plants because she had the time to look up information about pests and nutrition.
Companies such as UrbanKisaan, Nurserylive, Farmizen, Upaj Farm and Barton Breeze said urban interest in farming is picking up now because it’s a family-friendly activity that is easily accessible for those stuck at home. Sales of organic vegetables and do-it-yourself farming kits have shot up as much as 10 times.
Orders for Hyderabad-based UrbanKisaan, an urban hydroponic agriculture company, have increased by 10 times from pre-Covid-19 times, said cofounder Vihari Kanukollu. The company has increased the number of its farms to 35 after the outbreak from one earlier. UrbanKisaan grows its produce through hydroponic farming, a technique that doesn’t require soil. Kanukollu said sales of its DIY home kits, which start at about ₹10,000, have increased almost six-fold.
Barton Breeze’s sales of DIY hydroponic farming kits have quadrupled since the outbreak, said Shivendra Singh, founder of the hydroponics and aquaponics company. Singh said people are now working more on their health, nutrition and immunity.
Avanee Jain, founder of Upaj Farm, a Vadodara-based rent-a-farm company, said people are increasingly interested in wanting to visit farms.
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“This is among the only family-friendly activities that is now open to people,” said Jain, adding that malls and theatres are no longer weekend outing options for families. Social-distancing concerns are also a lot less in an open-air farm.
Farmizen, another rent-a-farm company, said its monthly revenue has increased three times to Rs.1.5 crore. CEO Shameek Chakravarty attributed this to the fact that more people, especially millennials, have started cooking instead of ordering in. They are also spending more time gardening, which he said puts people more in touch with the food they eat. The company is now considering selling seeds and gardening equipment.
Along with the monsoon, social media posts about farming by celebrities have played a role in attracting urban dwellers, said Anuradha Eswaran, director of marketing and growth at online gardening marketplace Nurserylive. The company, which claims to have an annual customer base of 1.1 million, said sales of vegetable seeds, microgreens and herbs have been picking up. The share of vegetable seeds and herbs has risen to 60% of all orders from 40% earlier, said Eswaran. Moreover, more small businesses have started selling in this category, which indicates that the trend is here to stay, she said.
As awareness and demand for organic produce increases, companies are also quickly expanding the varieties they offer. UrbanKisaan earlier sold 15 items, mostly greens. The number is now 45. Farmizen is introducing unusual items like pumpkin flowers, ponnaganti (a local green) and giloy.
