Exotic Fare

A New Generation Of Farms Promises To Shape The Food That Top-End Restaurants Dish Out

- Goutam Das

On a muggy July morning, First Agro’s 80-acre farm in Talakad on the banks of river Kaveri near Mysore, was rife with the murmur of expected and unexpected visitors. A team of four chefs from the Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore, arrived, searching for innovative ideas that could one day delight gastronomes. N.P. Ramesh, who has a guava and banana plantation in a neighbouring farm, was there, too. He was of the opinion that nano drones and autonomous bots could revolutionise Indian agriculture. A brown Malanois X Shepherd, Mogambo, strolled in, and placed his head atop a large wooden table outside the farm’s kitchen, where lunch was being cooked. He craved for attention every time Modekurti Nameet, the co-founder of First Agro, looked at this writer to talk on progressive farming. “He is my quality inspector. If he does not like a tomato, we don’t sell it,” Nameet joked.

First Agro sells about 70 varieties of tomatoes. It also sells Indian vegetables, exotic herbs, Japanese greens, peppers, lettuce and a range of South American chillies – Ancho, Poblano, Habanero, Amarillo, Ají Panca and Rocoto – to 110 luxury hotels, including The Oberoi, the Taj Group, JW Mariott, ITC and Hilton, among others.

Not far from the kitchen is Nameet’s low-lit bedroom, which resembles a dormitory with multiple mats spread across. A whiteboard holds his scribbled vision for the future. Over the next few years, his farm could be ready with koshihikari (Japanese rice), buckwheat, black corn, purple corn, rainbow corn, teff (an Ethiopian grain), kiwi- cha (a Peruvian heirloom variety grain), numerous lentils, spices, exotic flours and cold-pressed oils.