Mahindra HZPC Aeroponics Facility promises top quality seed potatoes for Indian farmers

MHZPC, a 60:40 JV of Mahindra Agri Solutions Limited (MASL) and HZPC, today inaugurated its modern and state-of-the-art Aeroponic facility in Mohali. The facility was inaugurated by Alphonsus Stoelinga, the Honourable Ambassador of the Netherlands in the presence of Ashok Sharma, MD & CEO-MASL and Gerard Backx, CEO HZPC Holding B.V.

The new facility will produce the best of its kind potato seeds by using an innovative process and latest technology. This will translate into the best quality potatoes for the Indian 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, in line with our vision of Delivering FarmTech Prosperity.”

“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 atomized nutrient-rich water to the dangling roots and lower stems.
 

The benefits of Aeroponics

Aeroponics will help reduce the time to market for new potato varieties by 50%

• Aeroponics facilitates agriculture where the root of the plant is suspended in air, rather than soil
• Set to give the best quality of potato seeds to the Indian farmer
• Advanced greenhouse technology will increase productivity and protect plants against environmental diseases
• B2B to benefit from the technology as it will reduce time to market for new Potato

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%.

For farmers, this will translate into virus-free world class seeds which will increase productivity by 10-30%, 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, Mahindra HZPC 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.