This Y Combinator-backed start-up is playing Farmville in real life

Hyderabad-based agri-tech firm UrbanKisaan uses hydroponics to grow veggies; see 7-fold rise in demand during lockdown

Remember the farm-management game Farmville that took Facebook users by storm a decade ago? The gamer ploughs, maintains and finally sells the harvest in the market, though all virtually. UrbanKisaan, a Hyderabad-based start-up is doing something similar in urban areas, leveraging technology and disrupting the age-old agricultural practices. 

The Y-Combinator-backed agro-tech start-up is setting up vertical urban farms on rooftops of commercial buildings using hydroponics to cultivate and sell vegetables and greens. Hydroponics is a process of farming without soil. The plants are grown on coco-peat pods that require a continuous flow of water and monitoring of nutrient, electric conductivity