Several celebrities like Bhumi Pednekar, Dia Mirza, Juhi Chawla, Shilpa Shetty, Mouni Roy took to gardening during the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Slowly and steadily it became trend of sorts. And in recent months, hydroponics took centre-stage. Let's find out more about this trend.
In 2017, a Mumbai-based couple quit their jobs. Sakina Rajkotwala left her job at NGO Magic Bus and Joshua Lewis left ad company Directi as they were both missing a sense of purpose and wanted some time to reconnect with themselves. “We decided to pack our bags and go live in Auroville for three months and work on a farm as we wanted to get our hands dirty and also reconnect with nature,” says Sakina. They worked at Solitude Farm that also had a cafe where lunch was served using the ingredients harvested fresh off the farm the same morning.
“We ate our meals post work at the farm every day and food had never tasted better. It was always basic and simple food, but it changed everything for us in terms of our energy levels, our mood and in general our overall health. We felt happy and well,” adds Joshua. Eventually this led them to co-found Herbivore Farms in Mumbai as a way for people to enjoy fresh healthy local produce.
Resource Crunch
Some of the key aspects that govern farming include soil, space and water. Rapidly vanishing farm lands and extensive farming depleting the soil of its natural resources has led to hydroponics. Simply speaking this is a method of growing vegetables and flowers that requires no soil. Instead the seeds are placed in an inert growing media with nutrient-rich solutions that also enables reuse of water while ensuring better control of nutrients and giving good yield.
Read more at The Free Press Journal (Bindu Gopal Rao)
