At the Goan Farmer’s market there’s a crowd building up at a table, people are curious to know how this young man grows lettuce with no soil and recycling the same water. We’re also curious and join to the crown and then we reach the table finally to know Ajay Naik has sold out and have just one sample left.
“I use a method called hydroponics which involves growing lettuce on a multi-tier rail system and artificial light wherein a small space of 150 sq. Meters can give you a produce of 3 tons a month,” explains an enthusiastic Ajay.
Ajay a young gun hailing from Mapusa has been in the news in the past for making a Bible and Gita app with his partner Lucio Misquita which bombed the internet amongst Android users. Ajay has quit his software and programming world and jumped into the world of agriculture but with an innovation.
“We grow around 100 kg of lettuce a day and get a produce of 3 tonnes a month which we’ve been selling and distribution to supermarkets across Goa. All this we do with artificial lighting from LEDs and our method is soilless since we use coco peat which is coconut choir fiber while the multi-tier rail system allows us to recycle and reuse the flowing water wherein each rail is connected through pipes,” explains an enthusiastic Ajay.
Ajay explains to us how he has two of his cousins as partners and a friend for expert advice on the same. The firm which is known as Letcetra Agritech – Soil Less Farming Solutions functions out of a rented old go down in the Thivim Industrial Estate after Ajay and his friends quit the world of programing and IT.
Ajay tells us that it’s just six months since he started and the market has been slow because of the tourist off season and also his plans had to go through a lot of testing phases. Now that his setup and good to go, he hopes to pick and succeed in farming through this technology. He also has plans to expand and add more veggies to his technology.
“There’s a lot that happened in my life that inspired me to look towards agriculture and a culmination of my entrepreneurial skills allowed me to go in this direction and do something innovative in farming. We hope we can inspire more and also promote healthy eating and healthy business options in what we do, “explains a cheerful Ajay who refers us to his Facebook page, which is filled with selfies of Ajay and his friends and all with the greens behind.
