Saffron Sizzles, Broccoli Beckons: New-Age Farming

WO decades ago, on a car ride with late newspaper editor Dileep Padgaonkar, I referred to the hot new term 'knowledge economy' in reference to software and allied sectors when he interrupted: "Why can't we refer to agriculture as part of the knowledge economy?" He said farmers knew much about their profession, but farming was not considered knowledge-intensive.

- MADHAVAN NARAYANAN

I wonder what he would say about new practices that have put the farmers' traditional knowledge on a higher path with technology, entrepreneurial innovation, and new frontiers of knowledge. My thoughts on new-age agriculture were triggered by news of a Nagpur couple growing saffron in their home to garner ₹50 lakh or so per year using aeroponics techniques.

New-age practices, happening only in pockets, stand in contrast to frequent news of indebted farmers committing suicide after crop failures or loan pressures, protests about inadequate support prices and the politics of what is broadly called India's agrarian crisis.

The Nagpur couple, Akshay and Divya Holey, recreated Kashmir-like conditions in their home after spending more than three months in the valley. But unlike conventional farmers, they use air and mist, not land, to grow saffron. They mix solar power with aeroponics, in which choice nutrients are directly fed into the roots of a plant. While they have trained more than 150 farmers across Maharashtra to join their league, there have also been reports of aeroponics used to grow saffron from Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and even Kerala.