GoKawiilLarge farms with more resources are investing in new technology.
Ketan Yashwant Sodha, is the founder and CEO of Berry Fresh Agrotech. He started with traditional open-field farming, but was frustrated by losses caused by the weather.
"For the past 10 years, it has consistently rained in India during our peak season - November, December, and the first week of January. When you are in an open field and your plantation is at its absolute peak, a single rain will ruin your entire crop," he says.
So in 2022, he started to experiment with hydroponics, a type of covered cultivation that does not use soil and tightly controls water, nutrients, light, and temperature.
His early results were not encouraging.
"I suffered immense losses and failed multiple times," Sodha says.
"The soil is forgiving; hydroponics does not forgive. If you make a mistake today, you will wake up tomorrow morning to a disaster - and the recovery time in hydroponics takes twice as long as soil."
But the lessons learned from those mistakes are paying off.
"We have trailed 19 different varieties, including rare Japanese ones, and we are the only ones in India trailing a specific Netherlands variety this season."
Sodha says that limiting each plant to 750ml of water a day produces "rich, highly concentrated sugars and aromas instead of water-logged, bland fruits".
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