Sairam is Co-founder and Director of Research at UrbanKisaan, dedicated to environmentally safe and sustainable agricultural technologies. He has published over 30 articles in international journals, and received multiple awards. He was listed in the top 10 leaders in the Agriculture Industry for the year 2021.

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Sairam Reddy Palicherla

<h4>
 SAIRAM REDDY PALICHERLA
 is one of the founders of UrbanKisaan, creating a sustainable and safe
 future using hydroponics. They are creating local micro farms, with a low
 carbon-footprint, and igniting agri-entrepreneurs to bring positive change
 for humanity and the planet. Here he speaks with
 LEAH RICH
 about the work UrbanKisaan is doing, and Kanha Shanti Vanam as a model for
 feeding a whole community.
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 Q: Good morning Dr. Sairam. Thank you for taking the time
 to speak about
 hydroponics with us. Let’s jump right in. To start, what got you
 interested in hydroponics?



 SR: The
 interest here at Kanha was led by Daaji. He wanted to explore various
 non-conventional and sustainable ways of growing food. He has been doing
 this for the last twenty years, in his backyard in the US. This has been his
 passion – exploring alternative ways of growing food.



 Prior to seventy years ago, food was nutritious and safe, but the quantity
 was not enough to feed the people of the world. There was a desperate need
 to increase the productivity, so fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid crops
 were introduced. This is also when the needs of the trader came into the
 picture – transportability, storability, shelf life, and packing in boxes
 became the focus. This happened at the expense of the nutrient content of
 the food and the needs of the consumer.



 In the last seventy years, there’s been a complete shift in food growing.
 Now we satisfy our hunger but not our nutritional needs. That is where the
 challenges come. It’s time to shift back to local food production – I call
 it micro farming.



 Q: So how does hydroponics fit in? I thought the nutrients
 in our produce
 come through the soil, but in hydroponics there is no soil. Can you
 explain?



 SR: Our
 understanding of the source of a plant’s nutrition is also limited. When
 testing the nutrition content of crops grown in soil and the same crops
 grown hydroponically, is there any difference?



 When we measure vitamins, minerals, macro nutrients, protein, carbohydrate
 and fat, research shows that plants can take up these nutrients equally well
 from soil and the liquid formula used in hydroponics. A large body of
 research shows that there is no difference.


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<img decoding="async" width="700" height="466" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Hydroponics2_db9786ceb2.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:14:09.630Z" />


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 Q: How do you ensure the required nutrients are in the
 hydroponic
 formula?



 SR: There are
 three groups of minerals that a plant uses to meet its basic needs: macro
 minerals, micro minerals and major minerals. These are all present in the
 hydroponic formula. The rest happens inside the plant. Vitamins are
 manufactured inside the plant. Plants also require light and sufficient
 carbon dioxide to grow.



 Q: So, what about meeting the need for light for plants
 grown
 hydroponically?



 SR: There are
 two systems of hydroponics. One uses natural sunlight, for example, a
 hydroponic tower on a balcony, or a green house. The other type is for
 growing crops indoors, using artificial light. Typically, LED lights are
 used. They are low power consuming light sources and the beauty of LED is
 you can define the spectrum of light that they emit.



 Plants require different spectra of light for different purposes. For
 example, photosynthetic activity requires red light. Hormonal activity
 requires blue and yellow. We can measure how much light a plant needs for a
 particular spectrum and provide it using LED lights.


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<h4 class="text-center">
 Now we satisfy our hunger but not our nutritional needs.
 That is
 where the challenges come. It’s time to shift back to local food
 production – I call it micro farming.
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 Q: Coming to the individual level, why do you feel is it
 important for
 households to grow food hydroponically?



 SR: Six or
 seven years ago, I came across a news article that was published by an
 agriculture university, showing the levels of pesticides and heavy metals in
 the food we consume. They went around the city of Hyderabad and collected
 samples of vegetables from organic stores, supermarkets, roadside shops, and
 farmer’s markets. They analyzed the samples in their laboratory,and to my
 surprise and agony, all the vegetables were heavily contaminated with heavy
 metals. 45% of the produce from organic stores was contaminated with
 pesticides, and 100% was contaminated with heavy metals.



 This is because the areas where food was grown were near polluting
 industries. And the surrounding soil and water body in every city, whether
 it be a reservoir or a canal is being contaminated by the toxic effluents.
 This contaminated soil and water is being used to produce the crops we are
 consuming. So even if produce is grown using an organic methodology, without
 chemical pesticides and fertilizers, the soil and water used to grow them is
 polluted. It’s impossible to avoid heavy metals like arsenic and lead.



 This is where I see a huge need for home growers. And hydroponics is one
 method we can all use. I call our home growers micro farmers.


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<img decoding="async" width="700" height="466" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Hydroponics3_9221eb8abb.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:16:04.875Z" />


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 Q: What are the advantages of hydroponics? Can you offer
 some tips and
 guidelines for people who are reading this and interested in starting a
 small hydroponics system at home?



 SR: It requires
 very little water, and you can automate it. If you go away on vacation, your
 crops can be watered while you are away. It doesn’t need much space. You can
 easily grow the leafy greens required for your household. All you need is a
 roof top or balcony that receives three to four hours of direct sunlight per
 day. You need four by five feet of space. If outdoor space is not possible,
 you can use an indoor kit with LED lights.



 Now, expanding this to the community level, at Kanha we have enough
 hydroponically grown produce to meet the demands of the community.



 Q: Are you aware of other communities setting up similar
 operations?



 SR: This is a
 growing field. People are overcoming their doubts about hydroponically grown
 vegetables, as they learn about it and taste the produce. In Singapore, for
 example, where they have very little land to grow vegetables, they use
 rooftops to grow their vegetables hydroponically. We call them rooftop
 farms.



 Q: This seems like a replicable model in urban areas
 worldwide.



 SR: Yes,
 definitely. It is being well accepted worldwide.



 On the commercial side, our first farm at Urban Kisaan was a rooftop farm in
 the heart of the city of Hyderabad. This is where we demonstrated that it
 can be part of smart city planning.



 At Kanha, we have built six rooftop greenhouses. Different systems are being
 used to grow different types of food. We’re growing many types of leafy
 greens, tomatoes, eggplants, capsicums, and hot peppers. We can grow
 anything we wish.



 The cost of the setup is an investment, but I’m sure in the near future
 governments will offer incentives and subsidies.


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<img decoding="async" width="700" height="466" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Hydroponics4_13fbb14f24.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:17:24.975Z" />


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 Q: What about universities and corporations?



 SR: University
 hostels are asking for vertical farms to be installed. And corporates are
 asking them for their employee restaurants. Generally, they prepare fresh
 food, such as salads.



 Supermarkets are also interested. The indoor kits are being installed in the
 supermarkets so that consumers harvest directly from there.



 In terms of environmental impact, these initiatives are doing two very
 important things:


<ol type="1">
 <li>
 They are cutting off the logistics component of food production. This
 reduces the carbon emissions as there is no transportation involved.
 </li>
 <li>
 There is no wastage either. In typical farming operations, up to 40% of
 the food grown is wasted before it reaches the consumer.
 </li>
</ol>

Hydroponics is reducing both carbon emissions and wastage.


 Earlier we had backyard farming. That is becoming more difficult these days
 as we don’t have much time to devote to it, and there is a lack of space in
 our urban areas. If you have the space and the time, there is nothing like
 it. But if you don’t, you can try hydroponics as a micro farming option.



 It’s time to promote micro farming,to decentralize farming. Micro farming
 cuts down wastage, and allows you to grow safe, nutritious food even in
 urban high-rise environments.



 Q: Dr. Sairam, thank you so much for this eye-opening
 conversation.


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<h4 class="text-center">Photographs courtesy of URBAN KISAAN</h4>

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