Joining the bandwagon of organic farmers is 38-year old Imteyaz Ali who owns and runs his online store called Grow Green. A former employee who worked in the IT sector, Imteyaz gave up his plum paying job and is a full-time organic farmer.

“While I was working, whenever I had the time, I would research and try my hands at growing fruits and vegetables the organic way. I realized that it was my passion and in 2012, I gave up my job and since then on, I sell a plethora of seeds.” Imteyaz says.

A resident of Chennai, Imteyaz has customers who are from as far as Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir. His rooftop garden also doubles up as his laboratory as Imteyaz shares with us that a majority of his experimenting takes place there. He sources the seeds of not so common fruits, flowers and plants from the U.K. and America through licensed importers and makes them available to his customers who are spread across the length and breadth of the country. He sells about 500 varieties of seeds. A few unique ones that he sells are Thai Lemon seeds and Strawberry Popcorn among others.

The latest offering from this organic farmer is lotus flowers. He shares with us that he currently has for sale seeds of the lotus flower. Imteyaz also shares that each seed blossoms into a lotus flower of a different hue. A pack contains five seeds that bloom into lotus of colours pink, red, white, purple and yellow colours. Along with the pack of seeds, Imteyaz also shares instructions on how to grow them at home.

On a daily basis, his online portal receives about 10 to 15 orders for seeds to be delivered at the door step of customers. In order to facilitate prompt delivery of seeds, he has tied up with logistic carrier and in places where the logistic carrier does not operate, Imteyaz sends the order by speed post.