When we think of farming, we think of vast lands, muddy hands, tractors cutting through fields, and seasons dictating everything, from sowing to survival. Agriculture, in our minds, is expansive, unpredictable, and deeply tied to nature. It depends on rain that may or may not come, soil that must cooperate, and climates that cannot be controlled.

But step into a modest, climate-controlled room in Ludhiana, and that entire imagination begins to shift.

There are no fields here, no open sky and no changing seasons.

Instead, there are racks, trays, and sensors and a carefully engineered environment where one of the world’s most delicate and expensive crops quietly blooms. Kashmiri saffron, often called ‘red gold’, grows not in the valleys of Pampore but inside a room in Punjab.

At the centre of this quiet disruption are siblings Asthika (25) and Shankar Narula (23), who, along with their father, Vikas Narula, are reimagining what farming can look like in modern India. Their venture, Grow Grower, is not just about cultivating saffron; it’s about blending technology, research, and family conviction into something that feels both improbable and deeply rooted.

How a banker’s idea became a family venture

The story of saffron farming didn’t quite begin with the brother-sister co-founders; it began with their father.

A banker by profession, Vikas Narula had no formal background in agriculture. But he had something just as powerful, curiosity.

“I was always interested in different cultivation methods and new ventures,” he says.

“When I started reading about indoor saffron farming, I learnt about the different techniques of controlled production and thought if that’s possible, why can’t we do it here?”

During the COVID-19 lockdown, while the world paused, Vikas leaned into research — studying global agricultural innovations, particularly indoor saffron cultivation in countries like Iran and the US. What stood out was not just the technology, but the opportunity.

Globally, saffron demand was rising. Supply, especially of high-quality Kashmiri saffron, was not.

That gap stayed with him, and he decided to do something about it.

The children weren’t immediately convinced. Both came from non-agricultural backgrounds, Asthika was a political science graduate at the time, while Shankar was pursuing his Bachelor’s in Computer Applications and were navigating their own career path.

But over time, curiosity turned into participation.

“We realised there is a huge gap between demand and supply,” Asthika says. “That’s when we thought this had real potential.”

What followed was not a quick pivot, but years of deliberate preparation. Between 2019 and 2024, the family immersed themselves in research, reading academic papers, consulting scientists, and even spending over a month in........

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