Mr.Yash Vyas
Founder
Agro2o
The failure of a failed commodity prompted Mr Yash Vyas to plunge into R&D and develop a solution that can possibly calm the nerves of the dynamically paced urban folks bringing them a step closer to nature and fresh food without creating a turbulence in their busy schedule.
“I used to work with the retail industry and during my last stint I was working in Dubai with a large MNC. I was quite fascinated about hydroponics; so I kept researching on it. During one of my conversations, my mother showed her interest in setting up a kitchen garden. For that I imported certain kits from China that offered the normal hydroponics solutions that were available. I set those up but I identified that my mother shelved those systems in a month because there was so much of technicalities involved like pH, maintenance, electrical conductivity maintenance, etc. I created my solution taking insight from that instance.”
Hydroponics not being a new concept anymore, what is the unique factor that you bring in?
Yes, hydroponics has been around for a while now and there are many companies offering hydroponic solutions. Our unique touch is that we use hydroponics as a core technology and offer smart gardens for home usage. The idea is to create the ideal growing conditions for any kind of plants. It is like a plug and plant personalized garden wherein any person can grow a variety of preset herbs. This solution has a capacity of 12 plants.
This is like a consumer-durable device. As per user-preference, one can plug in pre-seeded pods inside the device and nutrient cartridge. The system now, intelligently and automatically, provides the required water and nutrient dosages. It also comes with tailored glow lights.
This is a completely indoor solution, which offers two benefits:
Convenience: This is apt for those living in urban cities, who have space and time constraints. Also, this solution being intelligent even spares its consumers from having deep knowledge about plant cultivation. Hence, this provides a holistic solution. It is so simple to operate that even a 5 year old child can grow exotic herbs using our solution.
Universal in nature: I was in Dubai for some time and there you cannot grow anything for a good part of the year. That was another trigger to help me come up with the current simple and easy-to-operate and universal model I have come up with currently. You can use this product anywhere across the globe.
To progress in life, humans move into the urban set up which pulls them away from nature. To satisfy the needs of life, we cannot forgo our lifestyle and settle in a rural set up either. Hence, this is a modern solution which brings in a little bit of the rural to the urban.
Where are you based out of currently?
I am currently based out of Delhi.
What is the cost of this module?
There are 2 models which are planned for launch. One is a five plant system "Savor" and with a 12-plant capacity "Renaissance". The pricing will be at a range between Rs 7,999 - Rs 17,999/-.
Does your system cater to automatically changing the pH or will it be same throughout the lifecycle of the plant?
We have been defining the algorithms to customize it as per the plant types. The nutrient which we employ has a pH balance formula and so hence the pH will be balanced and also the electric conductivity will be altered as per plant type and growth stage. pH definitely varies as per time and concentration. So, what we have done here is, as per the R&D conducted in collaboration to the Department of Plant Molecular Biology at Delhi University for the last 2 years, we did different iterations for growing various plant cycles under variety of conditions.
As a result, we could determine the correct set of nutrient dosages. So, this system uses our own customized nutrients which caters to pH balance as well. This s a buffered solution which maintains the pH for a particular period of time.
Is it a cost-effective model for a commercial farm?
This system is not meant for commercial cropping.
For the commercial solution, efficiency becomes the key objective. We are doing parallel research work to make the same technology applicable for a commercial solution. The same technology can be trickled down to a commercial scale. We want to make hydroponics affordable.
How much space does this set up occupy?
It is a circular device with approx 50cm diameter and an adjustable height of 50-90cm.
Who are your targeted customers?
We did a market research across all the metros in India before beginning this concept. We identified that about 90% of the people are interested in growing plants in their homes but in reality less than 50% are actually doing it. That is where the key factors of space, time and knowledge comes into the picture. This is particularly true for the millennials who work in the IT industry would love to grow plants.
Coming to the relevancy of it all, research has proven that growing plants inside your home can drastically improve one's physical and mental well being. Even an assortment of 5 plants inside your home can improve air quality by 75% and well being by 60%. These figures are from a research done by South Australian University.
Our target customers are people living in metro cities. Our aim is to bring this solution to them so that anybody can grow any kind of plants. In itself, the joy of growing ones own plants and herbs, harvest it fresh and cook it is invaluable. So, it has its own benefits. Also, because it is an aesthetically designed indoor system it can be kept inside your living space. Also, a person can interact with this design through a touch screen, smart phone etc. Even if people are going on a vacation, they can have this system in vacation mode, wherein the system itself can take care of the plants and so they can be stress-free during their time off.
Also, normally the plants which are grown outside, which require sunlight can be grown indoors because of the glow lights installed in this system.
Will all the automation and IT factored into this system clash with the idea of growing ones own plants?
I look at technology as a tool to make things convenient. It is to solve and cater to the time issue. The problem people are facing when they move to urban spaces and apartments is the lack of open spaces. If we are blessed with space, sometimes we are deprived of sunlight etc. Our perception of technology is to use it as a tool to grow your own plants.
Things are so dynamic these days and the whole reason for doing gardening is to bring a certain amount of calmness into the daily buzz of life. In a fast-moving life, having something growing in your home brings in a lot of positive vibes. Today gardening is not just about getting your hands into the soil, the visual of seeing a plant germinating into a flower and then transforming into a fruit does amazing things for one's mental well being. It also creates amazing vibes for people to be cautious about wastage of food.
If the only reason to hinder people from growing plants is the lack of time and the work pressure, this is the kind of medium that can bridge it.
Mr. Yash Vyas
Company Agro2oStreet c/o Electropreneur Park, University of Delhi – South Campus
City New Delhi
Zip Code 110021
State Delhi
E-Mail: connect@agro2o.com
Founder
Agro2o
The failure of a failed commodity prompted Mr Yash Vyas to plunge into R&D and develop a solution that can possibly calm the nerves of the dynamically paced urban folks bringing them a step closer to nature and fresh food without creating a turbulence in their busy schedule.
“I used to work with the retail industry and during my last stint I was working in Dubai with a large MNC. I was quite fascinated about hydroponics; so I kept researching on it. During one of my conversations, my mother showed her interest in setting up a kitchen garden. For that I imported certain kits from China that offered the normal hydroponics solutions that were available. I set those up but I identified that my mother shelved those systems in a month because there was so much of technicalities involved like pH, maintenance, electrical conductivity maintenance, etc. I created my solution taking insight from that instance.”
Hydroponics not being a new concept anymore, what is the unique factor that you bring in?
Yes, hydroponics has been around for a while now and there are many companies offering hydroponic solutions. Our unique touch is that we use hydroponics as a core technology and offer smart gardens for home usage. The idea is to create the ideal growing conditions for any kind of plants. It is like a plug and plant personalized garden wherein any person can grow a variety of preset herbs. This solution has a capacity of 12 plants.
This is like a consumer-durable device. As per user-preference, one can plug in pre-seeded pods inside the device and nutrient cartridge. The system now, intelligently and automatically, provides the required water and nutrient dosages. It also comes with tailored glow lights.
This is a completely indoor solution, which offers two benefits:
Convenience: This is apt for those living in urban cities, who have space and time constraints. Also, this solution being intelligent even spares its consumers from having deep knowledge about plant cultivation. Hence, this provides a holistic solution. It is so simple to operate that even a 5 year old child can grow exotic herbs using our solution.
Universal in nature: I was in Dubai for some time and there you cannot grow anything for a good part of the year. That was another trigger to help me come up with the current simple and easy-to-operate and universal model I have come up with currently. You can use this product anywhere across the globe.
To progress in life, humans move into the urban set up which pulls them away from nature. To satisfy the needs of life, we cannot forgo our lifestyle and settle in a rural set up either. Hence, this is a modern solution which brings in a little bit of the rural to the urban.
Where are you based out of currently?
I am currently based out of Delhi.
What is the cost of this module?
There are 2 models which are planned for launch. One is a five plant system "Savor" and with a 12-plant capacity "Renaissance". The pricing will be at a range between Rs 7,999 - Rs 17,999/-.
Does your system cater to automatically changing the pH or will it be same throughout the lifecycle of the plant?
We have been defining the algorithms to customize it as per the plant types. The nutrient which we employ has a pH balance formula and so hence the pH will be balanced and also the electric conductivity will be altered as per plant type and growth stage. pH definitely varies as per time and concentration. So, what we have done here is, as per the R&D conducted in collaboration to the Department of Plant Molecular Biology at Delhi University for the last 2 years, we did different iterations for growing various plant cycles under variety of conditions.
As a result, we could determine the correct set of nutrient dosages. So, this system uses our own customized nutrients which caters to pH balance as well. This s a buffered solution which maintains the pH for a particular period of time.
Is it a cost-effective model for a commercial farm?
This system is not meant for commercial cropping.
For the commercial solution, efficiency becomes the key objective. We are doing parallel research work to make the same technology applicable for a commercial solution. The same technology can be trickled down to a commercial scale. We want to make hydroponics affordable.
How much space does this set up occupy?
It is a circular device with approx 50cm diameter and an adjustable height of 50-90cm.
Who are your targeted customers?
We did a market research across all the metros in India before beginning this concept. We identified that about 90% of the people are interested in growing plants in their homes but in reality less than 50% are actually doing it. That is where the key factors of space, time and knowledge comes into the picture. This is particularly true for the millennials who work in the IT industry would love to grow plants.
Coming to the relevancy of it all, research has proven that growing plants inside your home can drastically improve one's physical and mental well being. Even an assortment of 5 plants inside your home can improve air quality by 75% and well being by 60%. These figures are from a research done by South Australian University.
Our target customers are people living in metro cities. Our aim is to bring this solution to them so that anybody can grow any kind of plants. In itself, the joy of growing ones own plants and herbs, harvest it fresh and cook it is invaluable. So, it has its own benefits. Also, because it is an aesthetically designed indoor system it can be kept inside your living space. Also, a person can interact with this design through a touch screen, smart phone etc. Even if people are going on a vacation, they can have this system in vacation mode, wherein the system itself can take care of the plants and so they can be stress-free during their time off.
Also, normally the plants which are grown outside, which require sunlight can be grown indoors because of the glow lights installed in this system.
Will all the automation and IT factored into this system clash with the idea of growing ones own plants?
I look at technology as a tool to make things convenient. It is to solve and cater to the time issue. The problem people are facing when they move to urban spaces and apartments is the lack of open spaces. If we are blessed with space, sometimes we are deprived of sunlight etc. Our perception of technology is to use it as a tool to grow your own plants.
Things are so dynamic these days and the whole reason for doing gardening is to bring a certain amount of calmness into the daily buzz of life. In a fast-moving life, having something growing in your home brings in a lot of positive vibes. Today gardening is not just about getting your hands into the soil, the visual of seeing a plant germinating into a flower and then transforming into a fruit does amazing things for one's mental well being. It also creates amazing vibes for people to be cautious about wastage of food.
If the only reason to hinder people from growing plants is the lack of time and the work pressure, this is the kind of medium that can bridge it.
Mr. Yash Vyas
Company Agro2oStreet c/o Electropreneur Park, University of Delhi – South Campus
City New Delhi
Zip Code 110021
State Delhi
E-Mail: connect@agro2o.com