This section cuts to the heart of why rooftop farming struggles to achieve true mass popularity: The Access to Raw Material is a structural problem—a classic chicken-and-egg market failure.
The demand is low and inconsistent, resulting in no reliable vendors and no competition. The few who do exist often leverage client ignorance to create false fears and sell their wares at exorbitant prices, actively disheartening new enthusiasts.
1. Structural Work: Stuck in the Old Pricing Model
The first major hurdle is often the necessary lightweight fabrication for stands and frames.
• The Problem: Organized players are uninterested. The small vendors (doors, windows, gates) could easily handle this light work, but they are stuck in the old, weight-based pricing model. They price according to the weight of the iron/steel used, making a profit of only INR 20-30 per kilogram on heavy work.
• The Blind Spot: They cannot imagine that quoting a lump-sum price for light-weight structures would yield better money for much less physical labor. Their failure to pivot is a critical bottleneck.
2. Seed Vendors: Ignoring Local & Taste-Based Varieties
The seed market is driven by margin, not merit.
• The Problem: Vendors are busy selling packaged, branded, big company hybrids and exotics at exorbitant margins. They fail to see the merit and opportunity in sourcing good quality seeds of local origin—varieties that are taste-predominant, high-performing, and ideal for home consumption.
3. Commodities: The E-Commerce Magic Tax
Essential inputs like Grow Bags, Compost, and Coco Peat suffer from the same fate.
• The Problem: While vendors are numerous, much of the trade is channeled through E-Commerce platforms. Here, the final selling price is often three times the material cost, with everything going into meeting the overhead of "E COM Magic" running. This makes the essential inputs unnecessarily expensive for the average farmer.
The Path Forward (Hello Kisan Initiative)
This deep-rooted market failure is the true impediment to the STARTUP-ISATION of rooftop farming. The solution requires a strategic, systemic intervention to clean up the supply chain.
We at Hello Kisan are actively working to solve this structural problem and hope to have reliable sourcing answers available soon to dismantle these vendor-created hurdles and bring fair pricing and quality back to the urban farmer.
