On Monday, the temperature at Palam, which is taken as the standard for temperature in Gurugram, dropped to 32☌, which was 7.7☌ below normal. Monsoon is expected to hit Gurugram in the first week of July. The temperature could climb up thereafter, but with another western disturbance approaching. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that the temperature could drop further on Tuesday as the weather is expected to remain the same-light rain, strong wind and a cloudy sky. A morning of light rain, followed by overcast sky and windy conditions helped pull down the maximum temperature by a few degrees and it settled even lower than Sunday’s 37.8☌. “It makes it much easier that the water cycle and light control are automated.After a fortnight of severe heatwave conditions, the city experienced its first spell of light rain on Monday significantly pulling down the day temperature and allowing residents to step out for work and play. While Sharma has grown basil, bok choy and spinach in the two months since she got her home kit, she says most of the planters (which take up approximately the space of a bookcase) are used for lettuce. “We put lettuce on everything – in sandwiches, on top of lauki, in salads of course,” she says. Garima Sharma, 28, a marketing executive who lives with her husband and parents-in-law in Delhi, now grows her own iceberg lettuce in a set-up of 108 automated planters that cost around Rs 37,900. Over the last few months, the company has been taking its expertise into homes and helping urban farmers set up hydroponic planters too. “I’d like to be growing vegetables like tomatoes and bottlegourd.” “I am planning to expand with a half-acre system for vines,” Chawla says. Gaurav Chawla, a data analyst from Amer, Rajasthan, has a Barton Breeze hydroponic farm on a half-acre plot of family land and uses it to grow leafy vegetables - mainly herbs and lettuce. The minimum viable space, Singh says, is 1,000 sq metres. Collecting data from all of them contributes to increasing yield and reducing costs. The company has since helped set up 31 such farms across 12 states. As ambient parameters vary, you have to tweak the machinery,” he says.īarton Breeze set up its own R&D facility, a 2.29-acre farm in Gurgaon, where it ran trials for eight months before taking on clients in India. “But what works for the US or Netherlands might not be good for India in terms of system design. When it comes to the use of AI in hydroponics, Singh says there is plenty of information available. “There is a great need for such technology here too.” “We grew leafy vegetables, tomatoes and bell peppers and supplied to restaurants,” Singh says. In the trial stage, which lasted a year, the company set up hydroponic (vertical, water-based) farms inside shipping containers in Dubai and Qatar. “There was a need for such tech to make a place like Dubai more self-reliant,” says Singh, who ran a marketing agency there. An app helps monitor the equipment remotely and maintain data on inventory, production, harvest dates, pest management, sales and accounting, and energy consumption.īarton Breeze was started in 2015 in Dubai. The company has helped grow herbs and bell peppers in humid regions of Kolkata and Goa, spinach in the heat of Ahmedabad, and is now piloting a project to grow leafy vegetables in Ladakh, he adds.Īll the parameters of a growing system are captured and logged against the growth of a plant. You set up a system to sow, transplant and harvest yield every day.” This enables larger yields in shorter periods of time, Singh says. “An agronomist who knows the science, an entomologist to watch out for pests, and a plant physiologist to care for plant health.” The rest of the 36-member team are technology specialists.Įverything on Barton Breeze farms is automated, down to the lighting and ventilations systems, which switch themselves on and off. “We have three farm specialists,” says Singh. This agrotech company is using technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to grow 38 fruits, flowers and vegetables - lilies and roses, melons and tomatoes - with minimal human intervention. “When you can control each of the conditions required for a particular plant - temperature, humidity, nutrition, amount and type of light - you can grow almost anything anywhere,” says Shivendra Singh, 33, founder and CEO of Barton Breeze. Strawberries are growing in Rajasthan, and lettuce flourishing even in the Delhi summer.
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