GREENHOUSE CHAMPION

With climate shocks slashing farmer incomes, a modular greenhouse is helping crops across India adapt to hostile weather and markets

- AMARNATH K. MENON

In 2015, when serial entrepreneur Kaushik Kappagantulu met Reshma, a smallholder farmer in south India, he marvelled at the resilience of the spirit he was witnessing.

Despite facing the worst of nature every time she turned to it for bounty, she refused to let her smile drop. That year, half her tomato crop had been wiped out by pests.

The year before, unseasonal rains had destroyed her pepper. For six months every year, her land lay fallow because of how hot it was. “And Reshma is not alone,” says Kappagantulu. “One hundred million small farmers in India on average lose money from agriculture. Meeting her made it clear that small farmers need affordable solutions against climate risks. That is what set us on the path to creating Kheyti.”