India wants to join the strawberry superpowers

India is positioning itself to join the ranks of strawberry‑producing powerhouses as growers turn to advanced cultivation methods to overcome climate‑related losses. Ketan Yashwant Sodha, founder and CEO of Berry Fresh Agrotech, began with conventional open‑field farming but grew frustrated after repeated weather‑driven setbacks. He recalled, "For the past 10 years, it has consistently rained successful India during our highest play - November, December, and the archetypal week of January. When you are successful an unfastened tract and your plantation is astatine its implicit peak, a azygous rainfall volition ruin your full crop," helium says. In 2022 Sodha launched trials with hydroponics, a soilless, controlled‑environment system that regulates water, nutrients, light and temperature. Early results were disappointing. "I suffered immense losses and failed aggregate times," Sodha says. He added, "The ungraded is forgiving; hydroponics does not forgive. If you marque a mistake today, you volition aftermath up time greeting to a catastrophe - and the betterment clip successful hydroponics takes doubly arsenic agelong arsenic soil." Persistence paid off. His team has evaluated 19 varieties, including rare Japanese cultivars, and claims to be the sole Indian grower testing a specific Dutch strain this season. "We person trailed 19 antithetic varieties, including uncommon Japanese ones, and we are the lone ones successful India trailing a circumstantial Netherlands assortment this season." Sodha notes that restricting each plant to 750 ml of water per cycle yields "rich, highly concentrated sugars and aromas alternatively of water-logged, bland fruits". Routine leaf and petiole analysis—what he calls regular "b Read the full story at BBC News →