Upon learning about hydroponics farming techniques used by Israeli farmers, Dheeraj Verma was fascinated to implement it on his farm in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh.
“With what they grew in an acre of land, they were able to export it to several countries. If they were exporting produce from so little, why was I lagging behind despite owning 10 acres of land?” he says.
In 2021, he went to Madhya Pradesh to undertake training by a private firm and learnt the nitty-gritties of the hydroponics method of cultivation.
Coming back, he established a 3,500 sq ft hydroponics set-up on his farm and planted 9,000 saplings of strawberries using coco peat as a medium.
Within two months, Dheeraj was able to harvest 5 tonnes of strawberries and earned an income of Rs 3 lakh in the same period.
“This method is far better than conventional farming. With hydroponics, I got five times more production in hydroponics compared to open-land farming,” he says.
Dheeraj adds that farmers need to monitor the hydroponics farm at least once every day as the strawberries are heavily attacked by pests and fungus.
“In land-based farming, we were forced to spray chemical pesticides indiscriminately. But in hydroponics, I was able to cut chemical inputs,” he says.
For this, he prepared a unique fungicide using curd. He shares, “In one litre of curd, add 50 grams of copper wires or a copper lota (spherical vessel). Keep the content for at least 15 days until it becomes completely blue.”
“Take 2 ml of this mixture and dilute it in 1 litre of water. Spray the diluted content on crops once every week throughout the season. This tackles fungi attack and gives a good yield,” he adds.
Dheeraj advises other farmers to explore hydroponics farming. “This technique is not rocket science, any untutored farmer can reap handsome profits with hydroponics like me,” he suggests.