Briefing

A Hydroponics Consultancy That Backs Its Advice With a Bank Guarantee

Hydroponics farm. Photo courtersy Barton Breeze.

A consultancy that not only provides advice to commercial hydroponic farms but also backs it up with a bank guarantee… That sounds too good to be true, but Barton Breeze claims to do just that. It hopes this will persuade farmers to grow crops in compact spaces and nutrient-enriched water rather than in soil.

As per the company’s press release, Barton Breeze was founded by Shivendra Singh, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He worked on a pilot hydroponics project after graduating from IIM and set up two hydroponics container farms in UAE where he was working

Controlled environment agriculture is precision farming; nutrients can be given in a calibrated manner to crops without wastage. By keeping away pests and pathogens, the use of chemical sprays can be avoided. The company claims that it uses 95 percent less water and 40 percent less fertiliser as compared to conventional farming, and no pesticides.  Crops that usually take 30-45 days to grow take as little as 12 days, it says.

With its cloud-based solutions, the company’s customers can get farm and production details on their smart devices. They are not tied to the farms, which are completely automated.

Barton Breeze says it has hydroponic farms in three countries. They cover 3.5 lakh square feet and the latest annual output is about 1,150 tonnes of about 25 varieties.

(This report is based on company-provided information and has not been independently verified)