Problem

Smallholder farmers, who make up the majority of India’s agricultural workforce, are facing pressures from climate change impacts. Extreme heat, droughts, unpredictable monsoons, and pest surges intensify financial precarity, with many farmers losing multiple seasons of crops in a row. Traditional open-field agriculture provides little protection from these shocks, while water scarcity continues to worsen yield instability.Compounding to the climate risks: farmers often lack access to affordable modern farming infrastructure, to reliable advisory services, and to stable markets. Conventional greenhouses, though effective, are typically too expensive and complex for family farmers to operate. As a result, millions of farmers remain trapped in low-productivity systems with diminishing returns in a context where water scarcity deepens the local crisis, because agriculture in many regions consumes 80–90% of available freshwater. This leaves millions of farmers stuck in climate-vulnerable, low-productivity cycles with high water demand, unstable yields, and increased greenhouse gas and ecological footprints from intensive farming inputs.

Response

Founded in India in 2015, Kheyti partners with smallholder farmers to deliver the “Greenhouse-in-a-Box”: a climate-smart, low-carbon greenhouse solution that reduces environmental impact while increasing yields and stabilising farmer incomes. While combining physical infrastructure with agronomic support, financing solutions, and market linkages. The greenhouse uses up to 90% less water than conventional open-field farming. Yield per unit area can be up to 7 times higher than open-field cultivation, improving land-use efficiency. The controlled environment reduces pests (netting), lowers exposure to extreme heat and erratic weather, and cuts the need for chemical inputs like pesticides, all of which help reduce the carbon, water, and chemical footprint per kilogram of produce.By improving resource efficiency and stabilising yields, Kheyti seeks to help smallholder farmers transition to more resilient and lower-emission agricultural practices. According to their data, the model has reached 7,000+ farmers across several Indian states, with ambitions to scale to 1 million farmers by 2033.

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