In Azad Nagar, where most rooftops were seen hanging clothes to dry or stack water tanks, a deviation draws attention - a sealed room on the top floor of an ordinary house where the windows do not open to the sky. They are shut to give the room an engineered climate, cool, humid, and lightly lit to grow delicate saffron sans soil, sunlight, or the touch of open air.
The brainchild of Naven and Praveen Sindhu, two brothers, who have turned agri-business entrepreneurs, the saffron farm-room on the rooftop has been sustaining their family and inspiring many others. Over the past seven years, they have given traditional farming a twist of innovation with persistence and imagination and today stand tall as saffron growers of Hisar.
The story began not in any field, but on a phone screen way back in 2018. Naveen armed with a hotel management degree, came across a video about saffron cultivation in non-traditional regions. Inquisitive about the prospect, he shared it with his elder brother Praveen, an engineering graduate. Together, they began searching for possible ways to grow saffron in a place which is not as cold as Kashmir, known for its saffron. They kept wondering if they could grow it in Hisar till they decided to take a leap of faith.
After researching, trials and errors, they began the work fetching high-quality saffron corms (bulbs) from Jammu and Kashmir, turned a 15x15 feet room on their rooftop into a sealed chamber and installed technical instruments required for an aeroponic system, where plants grow in air with their roots getting everything through nutrient-rich water. They adjusted temperatures, regulated the humidity, ensured controlled lighting, and eureka! It worked.
Source: www.etvbharat.com