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Bangalore based producers and suppliers of exotic vegetables
Presently Indian consumers are experimenting with their food enthusiastically thereby opening the doors with warmth to exotic vegetables. “These vegetables have really good prospects in our country,” says two friends, Mr. Varun Prabhakar and Mr. Arjun Punukollu who returned from USA to be IT entrepreneurs but they had a complete heart change and diverted their interest into farming! “In addition we want to set up the business model for growing these veggies that could be scaled up to the farmers in rural India. We want to upgrade them from growing the regular veggies to exotic varieties in order to empower their life. We want to set up a secured market for them!” Mr. Varun owns the responsibility of farm production while Mr. Arjun handles business development, sales and supply chain.
Mr. Varun Prabhakar and Mr. Arjun Punukollu
Exotic vegetables namely two –three varieties of lettuce, mustard, tomatoes and capsicums are grown at Hariyalee Farms. The farm operates at two distinct locations – open cultivation at Kanakapura while green house cultivation at Tumkur,10 km after Nelamangala on the outskirts of Bangalore, Karnataka. The proportion of soil used in green house is ⅓ each of red soil, cow dung and cocopeat. At both the units exclusively natural farming techniques are practiced keeping it sternly using heirloom seeds and cow based manure along with natural pest control measures.
Speaking of the low yield obtained using natural farming techniques, Mr. Varun clarifies, “If the yield is compared with GMO/hybrid seeds and chemical based farming then it is incomparable as natural farming is sustainable in the long run, the yield increases with every season while with treated seeds and chemicals it is the complete destruction of soil, food produced and environment with every passing day. Natural farming certainly gives bountiful production but at the same time it involves lot of hard work.” Bio fertilisers like jeevamrutha, ganajeevamrutha and panchgavya are prepared in-house to be used at the farm.
Pest control is mainly controlled with preventive measures like spraying neemastra, bhrahmastra, agniastra. “In addition we do manual inspection of the plants meticulously. We take a sharp look for the infected leaves, pluck it manually and burn outside the farming zone. The ash of the same is used as fertilizer. Further to make the soil resistant to pest and diseases we do crop rotation every season,” he adds.
Entire farm produce is sold through retail organic stores and restaurants. “We sell our products at premium price as we are growing vegetables through native seeds and natural farming inputs. The produce is sent to the client’s location once a week, harvested in the morning and dispatched through bus by afternoon. Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai are the three main markets for us in the ratio – 40%, 30% and 30% respectively. We receive lot of business from restaurants in Hyderabad,” shares Mr. Arjun.
When asked about helping rural farmers Mr. Arjun says, “We want to get into value added products made from exotic vegetables. We are doing lot of experiments and research with renowned chefs in the country. Once things are standardized we shall have the technology share with the farmers. By selling the value added products they would be able to work with higher profit margins as the levels in supply chain are much less.” Value added products shall be innovative recipes such as sun ripened multi colour cherry tomato pickle, indigo blueberry spread, mustard sauce, basil seasoning mix, bhut jolokia chilli sauce, apple cinnamon jolokia mix etc.
Mr. Varun and Mr. Arjun soon shall foray into restaurant business. “It shall also be a learning platform for the farming enthusiast where they could get hands on practical experience on some of the agri practices. They shall be able to sow the seeds and harvest the fresh veggies too. There would be sales outlet as well having all the above mentioned processed products for sale. With restaurant at the farm, we would need more vegetables hence our immediate plan is to expand the area under green house cultivation,” he highlights.
Duo concludes, “We both came back from US with something else in mind but now we are part of the agriculture industry, base of our Indian economy. It has been a roller-coaster ride nevertheless we drive immense satisfaction that is hard to explain in words.”
Contact details:
Hariyalee Farms
Mobile: +91 9980185100
Email: varun.prabhakar.rao@gmail.com
Presently Indian consumers are experimenting with their food enthusiastically thereby opening the doors with warmth to exotic vegetables. “These vegetables have really good prospects in our country,” says two friends, Mr. Varun Prabhakar and Mr. Arjun Punukollu who returned from USA to be IT entrepreneurs but they had a complete heart change and diverted their interest into farming! “In addition we want to set up the business model for growing these veggies that could be scaled up to the farmers in rural India. We want to upgrade them from growing the regular veggies to exotic varieties in order to empower their life. We want to set up a secured market for them!” Mr. Varun owns the responsibility of farm production while Mr. Arjun handles business development, sales and supply chain.
Mr. Varun Prabhakar and Mr. Arjun Punukollu
Exotic vegetables namely two –three varieties of lettuce, mustard, tomatoes and capsicums are grown at Hariyalee Farms. The farm operates at two distinct locations – open cultivation at Kanakapura while green house cultivation at Tumkur,10 km after Nelamangala on the outskirts of Bangalore, Karnataka. The proportion of soil used in green house is ⅓ each of red soil, cow dung and cocopeat. At both the units exclusively natural farming techniques are practiced keeping it sternly using heirloom seeds and cow based manure along with natural pest control measures.
Speaking of the low yield obtained using natural farming techniques, Mr. Varun clarifies, “If the yield is compared with GMO/hybrid seeds and chemical based farming then it is incomparable as natural farming is sustainable in the long run, the yield increases with every season while with treated seeds and chemicals it is the complete destruction of soil, food produced and environment with every passing day. Natural farming certainly gives bountiful production but at the same time it involves lot of hard work.” Bio fertilisers like jeevamrutha, ganajeevamrutha and panchgavya are prepared in-house to be used at the farm.
Pest control is mainly controlled with preventive measures like spraying neemastra, bhrahmastra, agniastra. “In addition we do manual inspection of the plants meticulously. We take a sharp look for the infected leaves, pluck it manually and burn outside the farming zone. The ash of the same is used as fertilizer. Further to make the soil resistant to pest and diseases we do crop rotation every season,” he adds.
Entire farm produce is sold through retail organic stores and restaurants. “We sell our products at premium price as we are growing vegetables through native seeds and natural farming inputs. The produce is sent to the client’s location once a week, harvested in the morning and dispatched through bus by afternoon. Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai are the three main markets for us in the ratio – 40%, 30% and 30% respectively. We receive lot of business from restaurants in Hyderabad,” shares Mr. Arjun.
When asked about helping rural farmers Mr. Arjun says, “We want to get into value added products made from exotic vegetables. We are doing lot of experiments and research with renowned chefs in the country. Once things are standardized we shall have the technology share with the farmers. By selling the value added products they would be able to work with higher profit margins as the levels in supply chain are much less.” Value added products shall be innovative recipes such as sun ripened multi colour cherry tomato pickle, indigo blueberry spread, mustard sauce, basil seasoning mix, bhut jolokia chilli sauce, apple cinnamon jolokia mix etc.
Mr. Varun and Mr. Arjun soon shall foray into restaurant business. “It shall also be a learning platform for the farming enthusiast where they could get hands on practical experience on some of the agri practices. They shall be able to sow the seeds and harvest the fresh veggies too. There would be sales outlet as well having all the above mentioned processed products for sale. With restaurant at the farm, we would need more vegetables hence our immediate plan is to expand the area under green house cultivation,” he highlights.
Duo concludes, “We both came back from US with something else in mind but now we are part of the agriculture industry, base of our Indian economy. It has been a roller-coaster ride nevertheless we drive immense satisfaction that is hard to explain in words.”
Contact details:
Hariyalee Farms
Mobile: +91 9980185100
Email: varun.prabhakar.rao@gmail.com
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