This interview details Mutha Agro Pvt Ltd, an indoor farming company based in Nepal. The interview is with Kushal Gurung, Founder of Mutha Agro Pvt Ltd.
As an environmental professional, I have been following the Climate Change issues and firmly believe that it is real and Nepal is going to be hit harder by its impact than many countries. And as most of the Nepalese still rely on subsistence farming for livelihoods, we need to act fast.
We are still following traditional agriculture practices and relying on rain-fed farming, which would be badly affected by climate change. Furthermore, the covid-19 lockdown also, made me aware of how dependent we are on imported vegetables and the need for healthy food. Hence, I came up with the idea of using greenhouse vertical hydroponics farming, which doesn't rely on rainfall for water, and is more resilient to extreme weathers such as torrential falls, hailstorms, and where we can grow food without using pesticides.
At the moment we are growing leafy greens, mainly lettuces, kale, rocket, celery, basil, and Swiss chard. However, Nepal doesn't have a culture of eating leafy greens as a salad. Hence, our key challenge is to increase the demand for leafy green salad. Our other challenge is to identify other fruits and vegetables that can be grown hydroponically and sold with a profitable margin.
In Nepal, our farm has arguably the cheapest capex as our farm was designed and built by our in-house team and we also make our own liquid nutrients, hence our opex is also cheap. Consequently, we have been able to provide fresh and pesticide-free salads year-round at a competitive price.
Total area: 1.500 square meters, growing area: (area with the greenhouse) 300 square meters
Production capacity: 40 kg per day; current sales: 20 kg per day.
Team: 9
The goal for 2024: to sell 40 kg per day; diversify into aquaponics farming; Grow Strawberries and R&D on Medicinal Aromatic Plants (MAPs).
We are very active on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/muttha.nepal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muttha.gram/
LinkedIn: Mutha Agro Pvt Ltd | LinkedIn
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