Hailing from a village in Ballia of Uttar Pradesh, Mithilesh Kumar Singh spent most of his childhood roaming across the fields and watching his household work there.
Issues modified, nevertheless, when he moved to Azamgarh for his research, and later, Delhi for a job. “I accomplished laptop science engineering in 2007 and moved to Delhi like each different youth, with the hope to land a well-paying job. However I couldn’t make it to any firm and adopted my ardour for writing by turning right into a content material author,” Mithilesh tells The Higher India.
Through the years, he labored for various portals and a world media content material firm. And whereas he was happy with the job, the ambiance within the capital metropolis was monotonous and unhealthy, he remembers. “I missed my village….its inexperienced fields and farm-fresh produce,” he says.
The 38-year-old and his spouse Vindhyavasini had a backyard on their terrace. Mithilesh explains, “We reside on the highest ground of an house and initially used the terrace to develop decorative vegetation. When the pandemic started, we considered rising greens too.”
Nonetheless, because the virus started spreading quick by the nation, Mithilesh and Vindhyavasini returned to his village for nearly a yr. “In that point, I realized extra about farming and its methods. This inspired me to place collectively an natural vegetable backyard again house in Delhi. My thought was to develop sufficient to satisfy the wants of my family, and share the surplus with others at no cost.”
A novel twist
As an alternative of utilizing pots or develop baggage, Mithilesh zeroed in on unused PVC pipes within the house so he may save a whole lot of house.
Normally, PVC pipes are low-cost, straightforward to seek out, and might save up on tonnes of house. Furthermore, it doesn’t require a sophisticated arrange.
Utilizing this vertical gardening methodology to his profit, Mithilesh expanded his backyard in 2021, and right now grows chilli, coriander, tomato, brinjal, okra, peas, bitter gourd and different day-to-day veggies.
“The PVC pipe backyard grew to become successful and folks began visiting our place to see the setup. They confirmed curiosity in studying construct an analogous backyard. As I’m keen on writing and likewise know web site designing, I began a gardening portal referred to as Veg Roof,” he says.
This was his first step in direction of constructing a farming startup. He additionally started capturing movies and posting on his YouTube channel with the identical identify. In April this yr, he had Veg Roof registered.
Commercial
“Regardless of the plentiful data on the market on a number of channels and websites, many individuals nonetheless discover gardening a strenuous activity. A serious problem many face is the restricted availability of house. I discovered that rising veggies on PVC pipes largely solves this drawback. I’ve began a pilot mission of giving vegetation that I develop in PVC pipes to folks in my locality. This fashion, they perceive it’s potential and get an preliminary push,” he says.
Initially, he gave the primary 18 vegetation of every selection at no cost. Because the outcomes have been promising, Mithilesh has began promoting the identical to anybody .
The YouTube channel, however, is replete with movies sharing recommendations on gardening, strategies of farming, and make full use of the out there house for setting a backyard.
“My intention is to make the folks of town eat what they like, freed from poison. Dwelling within the metropolis myself, I’ve come to know that it’s a massive problem to get natural greens right here,” provides Mithilesh. “I would like folks to know that natural greens will be cultivated even of their small balcony. Individuals are keen on ready-to-use issues now. That’s why I present partially grown vegetation in PVC pipes to them. All they should do is pour water and harvest.”
He additionally says that the COVID-19 interval has taught folks to eat and reside healthily which is drastically behind the success of his startup.
Not too long ago Mithilesh participated within the Dreamdeal Problem organised by Anupam Mittal, a shark on Shark Tank India,. Mithilesh’s startup thought was well-received within the problem and he acquired mentorship from the businessman.
“My final dream is to draw an increasing number of folks into farming. I hope this humble startup will likely be a push for everybody to plant what they eat,” he says.
Learn this story in Hindi right here.
Edited by Divya Sethu