Sowing Success with Ino-Gro: A Q&A with Director Rishi Panjwani
In the ever-evolving landscape of agriculture, where innovation is key to sustainable growth, a new player has emerged to redefine the way we look at food security in the Caribbean. Ino-Gro is a hydroponic farm agribusiness, currently operating out of two 40-foot shipping containers at the corner of Harts Gap and Hastings Main Road.
— By Kylee Ross
— Photography Kenneth Theysen
Rishi Panjwani
Director – Ino-Gro
Ino-Gro was founded in 2017 by a trio of young entrepreneurs, including the now sole director Rishi Panjwani. Fresh out of university, Panjwani and his two school friends stumbled upon an innovative idea: a container that held the potential to revolutionise Barbados' fresh produce market.
The climate-controlled conditions of the hydroponic farm ensure that crops of lettuce, herbs and leafy greens yield consistent produce, despite the extreme weather conditions and limitations to soil and land resources that affect farming in Barbados. The vertical farming setup maximizes space for production, and ensures the smooth running of the closed-loop irrigation system—which requires about 85% less water to maintain compared to traditional farming techniques.
Why were you drawn to the idea of operating a hydroponic farm in Barbados?
Rishi Panjwani: My parents are in the hospitality industry in Barbados. They own restaurants, so I always knew what a struggle it was for them to get fresh produce. That drove my interest in trying to find a solution to the impacts of global food shortages and mounting shipping costs in Barbados. I wondered, “Why isn't there a more reasonable solution to this problem?” I wanted to know more about what was possible locally instead of relying on imports.
I was also driven by a genuine passion for knowing where our food comes from. How it got to Barbados, how it was grown, what pesticides and herbicides were used. Taking a hard look at mass production in the industry pushed me over the edge to be like, “We have to try and address this.” Even if I'm doing a small thing here, this small bit will help somewhere down the line and it will keep helping until we all agree that we need to face this problem and find a solution for it as soon as possible.
Tell me about your growing process.
RP: We start by planting seeds on the germination shelf. At this stage, the seeds sit in a peat moss plug made of recycled materials. The seeds grow for eight weeks to maturity, and as they do, we move them through various positions on the germination shelf and throughout the shipping container.
When the seeds are first placed on the shelf to germinate, they stay in this first position for a week. The seeds will not receive water at this point, only light. When the seeds germinate, and we start to see baby seedlings, we move the plants up to the first set of vertical ceiling troughs. The plants grow there for another two weeks with light, water and nutrients. After two weeks, we transplant the plants to the main site across from the first cluster of ceiling troughs where we start to see the lettuce heads and leafy greens mature. The same peat moss pod is kept for the entire growing process, and that’s where the root system develops. The plant grows on the final vertical ceiling trough for another four weeks, completing the full eight-week cycle. After that, we harvest and our produce goes straight to the consumer, which would usually be a restaurant in our case.
How do you create the appropriate growing conditions for your produce?
RP: It's a full hydroponic farm in a 40-foot retrofitted shipping container. We have two containers right now. Everything is climate controlled. That means we control the temperature, the humidity and LED lighting. The closed-loop irrigation system recycles water in the farm and ensures the plants get proper hydration.
We’re also building a 40,000-square-foot facility in Saint John. The new facility won’t be fully climate controlled so we’ll be relying on natural sunlight. The walls and the roof retract so that when the conditions are good for the crops, the greenhouse opens up and allows the crops to get the best out of the actual environment.
What are you growing right now?
RP: We’re growing leafy greens in the container farms. There are currently three different types of lettuce: red butterhead, rouxai and mizuna. Red butterhead has a slightly bitter, earthy taste. Rouxai is on the sweeter side. Mizuna is a mustard green that has a spicy, wasabi kind of taste. We mix those three varieties in one big bag for distribution. One variety is green, one is red and one is lighter green so it gives the mix a nice colour as well.
Are you planning to grow any other produce?
RP: The other farm under construction is going to grow cherry tomatoes, actually. Market research shows that a lot of our cherry tomatoes in Barbados are imported. There are not many local producers, and it's a highly used crop in restaurants, households and supermarkets.
After cherry tomatoes, we want to try strawberries. Every single strawberry in Barbados is imported. Every single blueberry in Barbados is imported. Every single head of broccoli in Barbados is imported. So those are the kinds of crops I want to target using climate-controlled agriculture. We'll probably also grow some basil because it grows well throughout the year.
What do you think the future of hydroponics in Barbados will look like?
RP: I want to make an impact on how the agricultural industry is looked at in Barbados and the Caribbean region in general, because we're so dependent on importing food. Agriculture is only skimming the surface of merging with technology. It's only just getting started. And I think it's how future generations are going to get their food. The soil outside is not going to be good anymore, we can't control the sun, we can't control the rain, we can't control the storms. This is the only way to really control how we're growing our crops. With hydroponic installations, we can control the temperature, we can offset energy consumption and we can use solar power. There are different things that can still be done to make this operation fully renewable, but we haven't gotten to that stage yet. We want to get there.
