The Social Enterprise

How can independent farmers in India become more self-reliant? Through innovative, low-barrier technology solutions. Kheyti is a social enterprise in Telangana, India that helps small farmers increase their crop yields and income. Kheyti’s “Greenhouse in a Box” includes a greenhouse, access to agricultural inputs, loan financing, advisory knowledge, and market access. With a greenhouse, compared with traditional open-field farming, farmers can produce 7X harvest, with only a fraction of the land and water.

The Challenge

Kheyti's business model depends on farmers having success, which depends on them reporting issues and pest problems remotely so agronomists can respond in real time. A lack of consistent reporting can lead to low yields, crop failures, and farmers giving up. In the worst cases, this leaves them in debt and unable to pay back their greenhouse loan. 

COVID-19 lockdowns forced Kheyti’s agronomists to stop in-person visits, and in response, farmers were asked to report issues via WhatsApp photos. They did not do this consistently. By May 2020, agronomists were spending all week hounding farmers individually by phone — not only was this costly and unsustainable, but farmer response rates never exceeded 50%. In June when Kheyti stopped this outreach, rates dropped to a low baseline of 23%.

The Research

Appleseed guided Kheyti's team to get reliable data weekly, perform cohort analysis, and gather honest feedback from farmers…

Taking Action

Appleseed helped Kheyti make remote agronomy work. We used farmer feedback to craft better PR communications, and we designed a fair system of rules, incentives, and penalties. We got farmers on board by giving them a trial period, and laying out the new expectations via WhatsApp videos. We showed farmers that Kheyti listened to them. 

After roll out, the numbers climbed steadily within weeks. Some farmers disengaged when they didn’t feel Kheyti held up their end of the bargain within the new system. In response, we adjusted Kheyti’s internal meeting agendas and key metrics to get their team aligned and executing better — solving farmer problems faster, minimizing data errors, and sending out more timely and precise communications.