Young NRI takes initiative to save water in gardening

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, July 29

After spending around a decade in Canada, a young NRI entrepreneur, Nitin Lalit (35), returned to his native place Karnal with a vision to utilise waste material to help farmers generate income, besides save water used in gardening. He established a unit to produce flowerpots and planters from recycled plastic waste and designed them in such a way that they help in conserving water. Besides, he added a saucer-shaped container below the planters and flowerpots to save water.

He is using soil-less media comprising vermi-compost, coco-husk, rice mill ash, and cow dung in these pots and claims to save around 25 per cent water in comparison to normal potted plants.

The district authorities as well as Rekha Shukla, joint secretary, Health and Family Welfare Ministry, have praised his initiative. Shukla recently visited the district with regard to the Jal Shakti campaign of the Union Government. Now, the Karnal Municipal Corporation is promoting Nitin’s startup by giving him an assignment for the beautification of the city. The young entrepreneur has started the trial work by installing hanging flowerpots on electricity poles near the NDRI. The demand for such pots is coming from various parts of the state. At present, he is sending his pots to various states in the northeast where these are widely acceptable for organic horticulture.

Nitin, an automobile technician, had worked with General Motors in Canada for around five years and returned to India in 2016. He along with his father JK Lalit, a retired banker, started Alpha Advantech LLP.

“I am in a habit of gardening and during my stay in Canada I became familiar with the practices of people living there to save water used in gardening. When I came to my country, I observed unaccounted wastage of water in gardening. This gave me an idea to save water with specially-designed flowerpots and planters, which take less water for optimum growth of the plant,” said Nitin.

About the design, he said, “We use plastic refuse to make the outer shell of the pots, catch plates and saucers for storing water at our unit. These planters efficiently store run-off water during watering cycles in a concealed reservoir for later use. It also prevents evaporative loss and is also inaccessible to flies and mosquitoes for breeding. It also conserves and replenishes water through its vapour-lock design, which provides air and moisture to roots all around and leads to an expedited growth of plants with least efforts”.

He added that farmers could use these technologically-advanced planters to potentially increase their income and produce chemical-free food.