Kheyti is an agricultural start-up that designs, adapts and implements low-cost farming solutions that help small farmers increase yield and predictability of their produce. They combine these technologies with end-to-end support to give these farmers a seamless path towards not only stable but increasing income. The company has designed a remarkable product, built stellar partnerships, completed proof of concept with 50 farmers and signed up 1000 farmers to expand the model over the years.

Sadly small farmers are victims of climate change, despite not being big contributors to it. Excess heat, increased pest difficulties, and reduced water supply due to erratic rains have remained some of the prominent issues. As a result, small farmers suffer income uncertainty among other problems. Kheyti believes that the hard work of the farmer must pay off as much as anybody else’s.

Greenhouse in-a-box:

Kheyti assists smallholder farmers combat income variability with the help of its “Greenhouse-in-a-Box”, a low-cost greenhouse thrust with end-to-end services. The box design is as follows:

• Designed for smallholders, their greenhouse fits in 2-5% of a small farmer’s land, safeguards crops from environmental dangers and grows 7 times more food utilizing 90% less water.

This enterprise by Kheyti, distinct from other existing schemes by private and public organisations, offers small-size greenhouses. Along with the greenhouse, they tied up with partners to offer farmers financing, input linkage, training, advisory and market linkage services.

This helps in creating a unified path towards steady incomes of $100/month, thereby by pulling the farmers out of poverty. Kheyti has joined hands with companies like Big Basket, North-western Institute for Sustainability and Energy and T-Hub. Their other partners include AgriPlast, AIPICRISAT- Agribusiness and Innovation Platform, and Acumen Funderscircle.

Impact on Small time Farmers:

• Kheyti operates only with smallholder farmers (those who own <5 acres of land). Their greenhouse helps these farmers use a small plot of their land to grow vegetables throughout the year mostly free from climate risk.

• On average, Kheyti’s farmers can earn a steady, dependable profit of $100/month from the greenhouses, which is a 100% increase in their overall yearly farm income. In 2019, they’ve delivered $65/month on average, a 65% increase in yearly farm income.

• The greenhouse also helps farmers save 9,000 litres of water for every day of production.

Looking Ahead:

The start-up at present is structuring proof of concept with 300 farmers near Telangana, India. They have more than 1500 farmers enrolled in the program till date and are pitching to deliver the solution at scale. Over the past year, Kheyti has grown from 50 enrolled farmers to 300. Their goal is to reach 1,650 families in 2020 and one million farming families in the next 10 years. Read more at https://kheyti.com/

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