Since time immemorial, farmers have relied on rain, soil fertility, and expensive pesticides to grow their crops. Often, they would end up in a debt trap after incurring huge crop losses owing to unseasonal rains, hailstorm, and decreasing soil fertility.
But, two college friends delved into this sector with a strong desire to revolutionise farming practices. Calvin Aranha and Farish Anfal have integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) into hydroponic farms to grow crops!
At their vertical farm in Brahmavara in Karnataka, they are growing exotic crops such as lettuce, basil, kale and parsley using AI.
It was after completing their engineering at the Mangalore Institute of Technology and Engineering (MITE) in Moodabidri that the Udupi-based friends aspired to work in the agriculture sector. Although Calvin went on to work in Bengaluru in the corporate world, Farish started a small seafood business.
As part of his work, Farish says he learnt about the various issues faced by farmers at the grassroots level. “I found that farmers were facing a lot of challenges in making farming profitable due to climate change. I talked to more farmers and came to know the gravity of problems faced by them on a regular basis,” he tells The Better India.
Farish continues to reiterate that Indian farmers are largely dependent on soil, water, and weather. “With rising input costs and poor yields, they incur huge losses and fall into subsequent debts. Hydroponics seemed a very good segment as it requires 95 percent less water and crops can be grown in a controlled environment with artificial light without depending on the weather outside,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Calvin points out that while groundwater is already depleting to severe levels and agricultural lands are decreasing, demand for food continues to increase. “Climate change is rapid and crop loss will be substantial due to this. We understood that innovation in a controlled environment is crucial and AI will help us further our sustainable goals,” he tells The Better India.
Every weekend, Calvin and Farish spoke in detail on the persistent issue. With a shared passion for transforming the agricultural sector through technology-driven solutions, they eventually decided to completely shift their focus on making farming profitable.
In 2021, Calvin quit his job and both friends rented a small flat in Udupi where they built a prototype using their pocket money. After four months, they started their company, Krop AI.
Cutting operational costs to half with AI
By offering container farm setups as an alternative to traditional polyhouse farming, Calvin and Farish aimed to boost farmers’ income and resilience against climate fluctuations.
They focussed on integrating advanced technology and automation to enhance crop quality, taste, and production efficiency while reducing operational costs. They built their own 3D pipes to grow crops vertically. “Our patented pipes allow precise control of environmental variables like light spectrum and temperature,” says Farish.
Based on software inputs, the system irrigates and maintains temperature, humidity, pH, water conductivity, air temperature, humidity, and all other parameters to provide an ideal environment suitable for plant growth.
“We have used special spectrum lights that mimic sunlight but emit the exact wavelengths required for plant growth. An ideal plant requires light wavelengths between 600 and 700 nanometers for photosynthesis. For human eyes, they look purplish blue in colour,” says Calvin.
Compared to traditional farming methods, the AI-enabled hydroponic farming method not only saves 95 percent of water as it is reused in the setup but also brings operational costs to 50 percent. This, Farish says, has the potential to make agriculture more sustainable and profitable for farmers.
“If it costs Rs 800 to grow a kilo of strawberries in vertical farming, farmers would only incur about Rs 300 to grow the same crop using AI enabled hydroponics,” says Farish.
As of now, Krop AI is building a farm setup for retail giants and integrating technology to grow the produce at affordable and a commercial scale. Their setup, Calvin says, costs Rs 5 lakh and has the capacity to grow 500 lettuce plants. So far, they have built farms for about 10 agri-entrepreneurs and companies.
Interestingly, Krop AI won the Karnataka Government’s Idea2POC/Elevate/2023 grant in the biotech sector. The startup is also incubated with the AIC Nitte incubation centre under the Startup India scheme.
Last year, Calvin and Farish made a total revenue of Rs 50 lakh with a 40 percent gross profit on manufacturing of farm stations. This year, they project annual turnover of Rs 3 crores.
“As our technology allows us to grow crops indoors, we don’t need perfect weather conditions for better harvests. Our plants grow without sun and soil and without compromising the taste. We are glad that within two years of time, we have not only been able to work on our patented technology but also revolutionised farming solutions for farmers. We hope to scale up the work and reach to small and medium income growers so that they can benefit from our technology,” says Farish.
Edited by Padmashree Pande. All photos: Calvin Aranha.
