Central Beat magazine May-July 2017 Central Beat May-July 2017 | Page 7

CentralBeat/CentralEntrepreneurs Page 7
May 2017
Green Age Farms Brings New Age Farming To Central
By Aryana Chelsea
“We just wanted the name to
emphasize healthy and the ‘Age’
part is because it’s a more innova-
tive method of doing it,” explains
Kevin Singh, co-owner of Green
Age Farms.
The new age is “Green Age”. In
a society that is increasingly be-
coming more health conscious,
along come Kevin Singh and
Faariah Khan, process engineers on
the weekdays and agri-entrepre-
neurs on the weekend. The new age
farm is located at Calcutta No 2 in
Freeport.
“We like to go along the healthy
lifestyle,” says Faariah.
Before their weekend job titles
came into play, a little over a year
ago there was only a desire to start a
business on the side and it’s then
that their “healthy lifestyle” charted
their course and veered the pair in a
different direction to what might
have been expected.
Most of us can understand why
someone who’s trying to eat healthy
would probably start growing some
of their own food. When faced with
grocery prices for greens like im-
ported kale, one takes into consider-
ation the fact that there isn’t always
a constant supply, the shelf life, and
the thought of chemical pesticides,
leaving many with no choice but to
take matters into their own hands.
Aiming to grow either kale or
lettuce, the duo took to researching
farming methods online and trying
them out on a small scale to deter-
mine whether it was feasible to go
commercial. And that’s when they
discovered vertical farming.
“At first we were just interested
in the hydroponics in general and
we started doing the more conven-
tional setups like the N.F.T., the
horizontal setups. We got those sys-
tems to work properly but then
when we wanted to expand, space
was also a factor. The amount of
crops you would be able to grow
using those systems was just a
small fraction compared to this (i.e.
vertical farming). So that’s why we
started to look locally to see what
we could find. We actually tried
something called an ‘A frame’ setup
as well,” says Kevin.
But even that was a bit compli-
cated and required work, monitor-
ing it every few days to make sure
Faariah Khan and Kevin
Singh, owners of Green
Age Farm.
the filter wasn’t clogged etc. Con-
sidering that they work during the
week and it was a risk to invest
their own money with no financial
backer, they set their sights on lo-
cating a setup that wasn’t time con-
suming or very expensive, that was
automated and didn’t require heavy
labour.
“This system, it seemed the
most reasonably priced for what
you were getting and the product
quality was really good as well be-
cause they use a U.V. stabilized
plastic to make the pots and it’s also
food grade,” says Kevin excitedly.
“This” refers to the special ver-
tical farming pots or rather the
“Vertical Gardening Stackable
Planters by Mr. Stacky” for which
“Green Age” is now the Master
Distributor.
“We are not here Monday to
Friday and it’s just run on its own,”
Faariah reinforces.
Now they grow a variety of
leafy greens, seasoning, tomatoes
and sweet peppers on a commercial
scale on less than a plot of land. En-
couraging others to take up vertical
farming after experiencing its effi-
ciency, they began importing the
pots as part of offering hydroponic
packages to the public, setting up
commercial farms to kitchen gar-
dens.
Faariah expounds, saying,
“They will just tell us how many
plants they’re thinking about grow-
ing and their growing area and we
could just do up a system for them.
The system would come with the
parts, the growing media which is
the coco peat and perlite, the pump,
timer, TDS meter, pH meter, fertil-
izer.”
The only thing they don’t pro-
vide is your reservoir which is an
easy problem to solve with a few
55-gallon Blue Barrels. Although
the system is simple to set up on
you r own and they assist in explain-
ing the process using their own
farm as a model, they also have
someone who can set it up for you
if necessary at an additional cost.
“A lot of people like that we’re
using it and they can come and see
it in operation and see how the
growth is and everything else. They
like that they could come to us for
advice when they set up, if anything
is going wrong,” says Faariah.
Home owners, farmers, restau-
rateurs and schools have started
looking into investing in it since it
seems to be both feasible for
home/school use as well as com-
mercially viable. Especially since
this hydroponic system offers the
added benefits of low water and
power consumption, the reduction
of ground pests and the need for
weeding. The pots are also sold sep-
arately and can even be used for a
simple flower garden with just soil,
for those looking to save space with
the bonus of it being aesthetically
pleasing.
“We went to a lot of expos as
well with the systems. We carry a
display with live plants in it,” says
Faariah. They’ve been to the
Santa Cruz Green Market,
South Market, the NAMDE-
VCO Market in St. Clair and
most recently, the Tech Agri
Expo.
“Everything just sold out in
the morning quick and people
were coming to us after asking
if we had any because we sell it
at a reasonable cost too, the
kale, compared to what you
would see in the groceries and
stuff. The kale has a long shelf
life too, we had it for more than
three weeks and it didn’t start
to turn yellow yet. So a lot of
people were noticing that as
well,” Faariah reveals.
The issue of whether it is
organic comes up and Kevin
divulges, “You can’t really say You can plant your flowers vertically as
‘organic’ because to say any- well.
thing is organic it needs to be
orders. If available, Faariah and
certified by an independent body
Kevin are willing to deliver at a
and we don’t have anybody in
convenient pick up point for cus-
Trinidad that does that so once
tomers coming from far distances.
you’re growing anything in
Although customers come from
Trinidad, you could never say that it Chase Village and Couva, most of
is organic.”
their client base lies outside the
“What we’re confident in say-
Central region. They’ve even begun
ing is that we don’t use any chemi-
developing connections regionally
cal pesticides, so that’s what we
and have already sent pots to a cus-
would put on our labels,” states
tomer in Grenada. They hope to
Faariah.
start setting up proper infrastructure
Currently they grow in bulk to
in regional countries so that the
meet the demand to supply XTRA
product could also be readily avail-
Foods at Grand Bazaar, Ambrosia
able there as well.
Cafe in St. Clair, Juice Bar TT etc.
The next step for Green Age is
Although the lack of foreign ex-
infrastructure. As the business
change makes it difficult to import
grows they hope to acquire more
the pots, their hope is that eventu-
land space and open a proper office.
ally there will be a spike in business Also, as the systems get more atten-
for local farmers.
tion they’re looking into the possi-
Green Age’s progress has also
bility of hiring people to help
piqued the attention of the Minister
distribute the products throughout
of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries, the country.
Clarence Rambharat, who con-
The Green Age owners had
tacted them through Facebook.
some good advice to share with
Faariah beams, “He was really
other agri-entrepreneurs: “At a time
interested. He actually came and
in which the food import bill is ex-
visited the farm before and he was
tremely high, more persons should
really interested in the setup so he
get involved in agri businesses - uti-
wanted to try out one and see how
lizing more innovative, efficient
it’s working.”
and sustainable methods of farming
Recently they installed a setup
that can eliminate or reduce the
for him and so far the feedback has
labour intensive nature associated
been positive. Located in Freeport,
with farming while being able to
the area of Central Trinidad has
maximize production.”
once again proven that it is a perfect
Check out Green Age Farms
location for budding businesses, as
on Facebook, Instagram and on
customers come from as far as
their website greenagefarms.com.
Diego Martin and San Fernando
Contact them and you can even
just to pick up their own personal
schedule a visit free of charge.
Your vertical garden can be a
beautiful green area for you.
Kale plants in Vertical
Hydroponic Mr Stacky
system.