Our investment in EekiFoods
In our earlier blog post, we detailed the interplay of food security and climate change.
In a nutshell: Doubling food production by 2050 for our growing population’s needs will increase pressure on our already stretched resources of land and water. Agriculture’s vulnerability to climate disruptions like extreme weather events and irregular weather patterns only worsens matters. On the flip side, food systems are a major emitter, contributing to upto 34% of global GHG emissions, led by land use change, poor soil management, unsustainable irrigation, and excessive use of fertilizers, among others. In the Indian context, fragmented land holdings, heavy dependence on unpredictable monsoons, poor quality management and inefficient supply chains add to the food security challenge. We need to build more climate-resilient food production systems, which are resource-efficient and provide nutritious output at affordable prices.
Current alternatives to conventional practices, such as organic farming, have failed to reach population-scale due to low yields and improper execution (as evidenced by ~20% drop in rice yields in Sri Lanka’s rash organic farming experiment). Existing controlled-environment agriculture/hydroponics technologies rely on mediums like cocopeat and are incredibly energy intensive, and hence expensive. These technologies require an overhaul to become scalable and affordable for the average consumer, as opposed to producing leafy exotics for the premium segment.
Against this backdrop, Amit and Abhay started Eeki Foods in 2019 with the vision of developing a sustainable farming method to provide affordable, high-quality, residue-free, Indian staple vegetables grown in a climate-efficient manner. The founders have known each other for 12+ years, meeting as batchmates at IIT-Bombay. They spent the last 3 years perfecting their patented growing chamber technology in collaboration with IIT Jodhpur which uses nutrient-rich water as growing media — replacing soil and cocopeat, while maintaining better control over root zone temperature. This enables Eeki to generate 3x more yield per hectare and use 80% less water against conventional farming technology.
Eeki’s farms are climate-friendly and technology-first, using renewable energy for its IOT-enabled farm operations. By removing the coco peat medium, Eeki has been able to eliminate the recurring cost of setup and increase the setup life up to 10 years, resulting in 40% lower growing cost compared to other coco-peat-based hydroponics technologies, and making the technology highly scalable. The low costs serve a dual benefit: small-scale partners find it feasible to tie up with Eeki, while retail costs remain near market-prices.
Eeki is currently growing tomatoes commercially at as low as Rs 8 per kilo even in arid conditions like Rajasthan, apart from operating in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. The company is also expanding the technology to other vegetables.
Eeki’s unique approach is a strong vision alignment with our investment thesis at Avaana Capital: using technology-led innovation to create solutions for climate change, including the development of sustainable food systems to ensure food security for the coming generations. We are thrilled to partner with Eeki Foods and work alongside them in their journey to build for a better planet.
