Mahindra HZPC opens Aeroponics facility for potato cultivation

Mahindra HZPC (MHZPC), a 60:40 JV of Mahindra Agri Solutions Limited (MASL) and Dutch firm HZPC that brings new varieties of potato to India, yesterday opened Aeroponics facility in Mohali. Aeroponics is a plant cultivation technique in which plant roots are suspended in the air while nutrient solutions are delivered to them in a fine mist.

The new facility will produce the best in class seed potato by using an innovative process and latest technology. This will translate into high quality seed potatoes for the Indian farmer and in turn for the consumer. 

Speaking on the inauguration of the facility, Ashok Sharma, MD & CEO, Mahindra Agri Solutions Ltd, said, “As pioneers of farming technology in India, Mahindra is committed towards building disruptive innovations that bring significant benefits for our farmer community as well as end consumers. Aeroponics is one such example – it will drastically change the landscape of agriculture by providing world class seeds to our farmers which will lead to higher productivity and increased cultivation. Consumers too will feel the advantage as they will be able to experience more and differentiated choices in food, a proposition that Mahindra very strongly believes in.” 

Built to support the company’s seeds potato business, the Aeroponics facility will grow plants suspended in a closed environment, without the use of soil. This advanced technology in agriculture provides necessary nutrients to the plants through spraying atomised nutrient-rich water to the suspended roots and lower stems. 

A promising agricultural intervention, Aeroponics will be highly useful both for the B2B as well as the B2C segments. The processing industry will be able to launch new varieties into their production programs faster as Aeroponics will help reduce the time to market for new varieties by 50 percent. 

For farmers, this will translate into virus-free world class seeds which will increase productivity by 10-30 percent, providing the much needed fillip to farmer incomes.

Mahindra HZPC’s Aeroponics facility has a capacity to generate 3 million minitubers, and the first production batch is slated to be out in January 2017. Also, the company plans to launch 6 new varieties of potato, half of which will cater to the end consumers and the remaining will be targeted at the processing sector. Mahindra HZPC owns another facility in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh; which together with the new Aeroponics facility is capable of generating 15 million minitubers within a couple of years.