Kheyti

The challenge

In India, climate change – volatile temperatures, drought and soil erosion – threaten to decrease smallholder farmers’ low incomes. India’s farmland at risk of drought has jumped from 10 to 40 percent, which could lower farmer incomes even further by as much as 25 percent. While greenhouses can create a controlled environment to protect crops from these unpredictable climate changes, they are too expensive for smallholder farmers.

The innovation

Co-founded by Acumen Fellows Kaushik Kappagantulu and Sathya Raghu, Kheyti offers a low-cost Greenhouse-in-a-Box for smallholder farmers to help mitigate drought conditions. Kheyti’s greenhouses lower temperatures by 10° F (-12° C), cost 60 percent less than conventional greenhouses and require 90 percent less water.

Kheyti delivers and installs customers’ greenhouses along with a drip irrigation system. The team also connects farmers to affordable loans to purchase the greenhouses, offers startup fertilizer and seeds, and helps farmers sell their crops to large grocery retailers.

The impact

Kheyti has helped farmers grow seven times more food and increase their incomes by 60-100%.