Kaushik Kappagantulu’s grandmother raised eight kids and 20 grandkids, including him, mostly by herself in the bustling Indian city of Hyderabad. An educated woman, she taught Kappagantulu that if you work hard, you will succeed. But after graduating from engineering college and doing a volunteer program teaching homeless kids, Kappagantulu realized this was not the case for everyone.
This revelation prompted Kappagantulu to dedicate himself to uplifting others. For six years he worked with school dropouts, helping them access jobs through vocational training. Sensing a systemic problem that needed addressing, Kappagantulu pivoted to agriculture.
In 2015, he launched an agri-tech enterprise called Kheyti, which means farming in Hindi. The goal was to help the more than 100 million smallholder farmers who produce the bulk of India’s staple foods like rice, wheat, and pulses. And one of the biggest challenges facing farmers today is the changing climate.
In India, the combination of extreme heat, unseasonable rain, and depleting groundwater is making it difficult for farmers to grow during the summer season from March to June. During a heatwave this April, sensors installed by Kheyti recorded ground temperatures on multiple farms hitting 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Kheyti’s solution was a low-cost modular “greenhouse-in-a-box.” These net houses are designed to be smaller than conventional greenhouses, suitable for the one-acre farmer.
They have shade cloth on top, which reduces internal temperatures by about 9 degrees Fahrenheit, and drip irrigation. Each greenhouse is also paired with an AI-powered tool that offers farmers advice on things like choosing the best crops and managing pests. This model works: Farmers reduce their crop losses by 58% while using 67% less water and 70% less fertilizer.
Farmers using Kheyti’s structures also increased their net income, earning three times what non-Kheti farmers did on the same amount of land. And thanks to Kheyti’s partnerships with local governments, subsidies and low-cost loans mean the greenhouses are relatively affordable, each costing between $200 to $300. The greenhouse-in-a-box concept won the Earthshot Prize in 2022.
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