Shubha Bhatnagar, who had dedicated her life to homemaking, surprised her family by expressing her desire to become an entrepreneur. This revelation astonished her family members, who had always perceived her solely as a devoted mother engrossed in household tasks and cooking. They could not fathom the fact that at sixty six, she wanted to venture into becoming an entrepreneur. Furthermore, She shared her vision of empowering rural women from nearby villages by employing them and cultivating saffron indoors.
Recognizing her entrepreneurial ambition, her son and daughter-in-law were excited by her idea and promised to support her in every way. Shubha’s husband, who oversees a thriving cold storage business, lent his expertise and support to help lay the groundwork for her venture. Together, as a family unit, they embarked on this exciting journey.
During her research, Shubha found out that due to the special quality of soil and climate, saffron is only cultivated in Kashmir. They used IoT (Internet of Things) to trial and error to reproduce the climate of Kashmir in a chilly storage room in Mainpuri.
So, in August 2023, they used technology to sow the genuinely sourced seeds in the cold storage chamber, and around three months later, they saw their first harvest. They started selling their first crop, two kilogrammes of saffron. They named their venture as “Shubhavni SmartFarms.” Today, they have a team of twenty-five women and sold saffron worth over Rs 8 lakh.
It was marriage that landed Shubha in Mainpuri after having obtained her Hindi MA (Master of Arts) from Shikohabad. She devoted the next forty years of her life to raising her daughter and son, and then her grandchildren.
“I wanted to make the most of my life and my time. Fortunately, I’m in good health and prepared to work hard. I want to find some significance and purpose in life at this point,” Shubha says.
Because cold storage is necessary for indoor farming, she began investigating potential crops that may be cultivated indoors because agriculture is a big industry in Mainpuri, thanks to her husband’s business.
“I would frequently run into farmers and fieldwork assistant women. They struggled to support their families and give their wives an education. Regardless of the project I started, I wanted to hire these women,” says Shubha
After months of investigation and feasibility studies, Shubha ultimately narrowed it down to saffron and mushrooms, and she chose to go with the latter.
Recognized as “kesar” in Hindi, saffron stands out as one of the world’s most valuable spices due to its high price tag. Iran boasts the distinction of being the leading producer of saffron globally, closely trailed by India. In India, the cultivation of this prized spice is limited to the region of Jammu and Kashmir, thanks to its ideal climate conditions.
Ankit, Shubha’s son, began looking at aeroponic methods for growing the spice indoors. He also investigated the sensors and technology required to keep an eye on the crop.
In Mainpuri, saffron is grown in a refrigerated room.
Shubha, meanwhile, was having trouble finding seeds or saffron bulbs. She didn’t want to just order them from Kashmir without first evaluating the product’s quality and getting feedback from nearby growers. In order to remedy this, the family left for a week-long journey to Kashmir, where they interacted with farmers, became fully immersed in the growing process, and picked up tips and advice from the locals.
Shubha, meanwhile, was having trouble finding seeds or saffron bulbs. She didn’t want to just order them from Kashmir without first evaluating the product’s quality and getting feedback from nearby growers. In order to remedy this, the family left for a week-long journey to Kashmir, where they interacted with farmers, became fully immersed in the growing process, and picked up tips and advice from the locals.
We met about 25 to 30 farmers in Kashmir and spent many days with them. We wanted to learn about the kind of soil they use, the process of cultivating saffron, how long it takes, and which temperatures saffron thrives in. We also bought the bulbs from them,” says Ankit.
Shubha set up a cold storage room of 560 square feet and started with 2,000 kg of saffron bulbs.
The first thing to do after receiving the saffron bulbs, which resemble garlic pods, from Kashmir was to dry them in a room and then aerate them for three days. Every few hours, they needed to be manually checked, cleaned, and turned—a task that is customarily performed by women in Kashmir. Every seed was examined for moisture and decay, and any excess skin was removed by silvering.
After being allowed to aerate, the seeds were arranged in vertical trays atop racks and kept in a cold chamber. Ankit says, “There shouldn’t be any water, moisture, or humidity.”
The bulbs began to grow, and a few days later, buds appeared. The next problem was figuring out when and at what temperature to give the buds light. Even if the stunning valleys of Kashmir offer the ideal atmosphere that the buds love, it was quite difficult to recreate them 1,200 kilometres distant.
“In Kashmir, light reaches the bud just after it emerges from the ground. The largest problem was figuring out when it occurs and how to keep the temperature appropriate. Ankit says, “At first, we put bulbs in 18 racks arranged in six rows, and we varied the temperature and light in each rack to see which one performed the best.
Shubha and Ankit examined ten years’ worth of Kashmiri saffron production statistics to arrive at this conclusion. They reproduced the temperatures from that year and discovered that the best crop was obtained in 2015–16. They created a system that makes use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors to keep aeroponics operating in the ideal circumstances and controlled environment.
Developments in the vicinity, problems with the soil, or climate change pose no threat to indoor farming. If one learns to maintain the proper temperature and settings, it is practically infallible.
The amount of space required for cultivation is another benefit. Ankit says, “A farmer would normally be able to sow 2,000 kg of saffron in 1.5 acres of land, but we can do the same in 560 square feet.”
Shubha aspires to start a “revolution” around saffron and assist more people in cultivating the spice indoors. Because producing saffron is a labor-intensive operation, she is currently employing around 20 women in Mainpuri through her venture. It involves precise and cautious effort from drying the bulbs to picking each stigma, drying, and packing them.
It provides women with a steady income, such as Geeta Devi. She is a forty-year-old mother of five children and the family’s main provider. She used to struggle to make ends meet while working in the fields under the intense sun. She remembers that her pay was meagre and her work was inconsistent. But since becoming a part of Shubhavni Farms last.
“I enjoy the work here and brought in 20 more women. We were taught everything about saffron cultivation and did everything from aeration to keeping it clean and removing the stamen from the flower. We are working in a comfortable environment instead of bearing the harsh heat. We get paid at least Rs 100 more per day,” says Geeta.
Discussion about this post