The "Greenhouse-in-a-Box" Empowering Farmers in India | Sathya Raghu Mokkapati | TED Countdown

00:08:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnIyzhRX9IM

Summary

TLDRThe speaker highlights the plight of smallholder farmers in India, emphasizing the importance of a reliable income to escape poverty. Realizing the impact of climate risks on farming, they developed "greenhouse-in-a-box" or Kheyti Rakshak, a cost-effective micro-greenhouse that increases crop yields by up to seven times and conserves 90% of water. The setup significantly boosts farmers' monthly income, providing an extra $100 on average. Beyond selling greenhouses, the initiative offers necessary tools, seeds, training, and financing, aiming to assist thousands of farmers. The vision is to ensure no farmer endures poverty-driven hardships and to integrate smallholders into solutions combating climate change.

Takeaways

  • 💡 Smallholder farmers need reliable income to escape poverty.
  • 🏠 "Greenhouse-in-a-box" offers a sustainable farming solution.
  • 🌾 Greenhouses can enhance crop yields significantly.
  • 💧 This solution conserves 90% water usage.
  • 💰 Provides an additional $100 monthly income for farmers.
  • 🔧 Includes financing options for affordability.
  • 🌱 Farmers receive seeds, training, and tech support.
  • 👩‍🌾 Projects focus on women farmers and inclusive designs.
  • 📈 Targeting 100,000 farmers in the next five years.
  • 🌍 Combats climate change impact on agriculture.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:08:39

    Smallholder farmers, especially in India, need a reliable income to escape poverty, rather than just tools and education. Their incomes are inconsistent, leading to desperation, as illustrated by a farmer eating mud due to hunger. Climate risk makes farming unpredictable, as farmers can't manage increasing heat and unpredictable seasons. The speaker's team created "greenhouse-in-a-box," a small, affordable greenhouse, to stabilize farmer incomes by allowing efficient and predictable farming, ultimately doubling their income. Success involves supporting farmers with training and quality resources, aiming to reach 100,000 farmers in five years. Agriculture technology should center smallholder and women farmers for sustainable solutions, combating climate change and ensuring farmer welfare.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • What is the main problem faced by smallholder farmers in India?

    The main problem is the lack of reliable and regular income due to climate risks affecting farming predictability.

  • What solution was developed to help farmers?

    The solution is "greenhouse-in-a-box" called Kheyti Rakshak, a micro-greenhouse that helps increase yields and conserve water.

  • How much can the greenhouse increase yields?

    It can increase yields up to seven times while using 90% less water.

  • What is the cost of the greenhouse and how is it financed?

    The greenhouse costs about 1,000 dollars, with farmers paying a 100 dollar down payment; the rest is financed through a loan.

  • What additional support do farmers receive with the greenhouse?

    Farmers receive quality seeds, nutrition, and training, along with advisory services using mobile technology.

  • How does the greenhouse affect the income of farmers?

    The greenhouse adds an average of 100 dollars to their monthly income, doubling their usual profit.

  • What does the speaker hope to achieve with the greenhouse initiative?

    The goal is to reach 100,000 farmers in the next five years, providing stable and reliable incomes.

  • Why did the speaker start working on this project?

    The speaker was motivated by a personal experience witnessing a farmer eating mud due to poverty.

  • What role does climate change play in the struggles of farmers?

    Climate change causes unpredictable weather patterns, pest problems, and depleting water resources.

  • How can agricultural technology benefit smallholder farmers?

    By listening to their needs and designing solutions centered around smallholder farmers, especially women farmers.

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  • 00:00:08
    When we look at poor smallholder farmers across the world,
  • 00:00:13
    and particularly in my country, India,
  • 00:00:16
    we often think that what they need is access to better tools,
  • 00:00:23
    education, government support, markets and so on.
  • 00:00:27
    Yes, they need all that.
  • 00:00:29
    But what they really need is a reliable and regular income
  • 00:00:35
    to live with dignity.
  • 00:00:37
    A dependable income,
  • 00:00:39
    even if it is as small as 100 dollars a month,
  • 00:00:43
    is essential for them to stay out of poverty.
  • 00:00:47
    Today, their incomes are in and out of poverty,
  • 00:00:50
    which is extremely painful.
  • 00:00:53
    Growing up in South India,
  • 00:00:55
    I could not overlook what poverty did to our farmers.
  • 00:01:00
    I was about 17 years old when one day,
  • 00:01:03
    I saw a farmer in my village sitting next to a farm stream
  • 00:01:08
    and eating something from the ground.
  • 00:01:11
    Something did not seem right.
  • 00:01:13
    I walked up to him to see what was going on.
  • 00:01:18
    I was shocked to see him eat mud.
  • 00:01:22
    Mud.
  • 00:01:24
    Brown, soft mud from the stream.
  • 00:01:28
    I was afraid he might die.
  • 00:01:30
    I yelled at him.
  • 00:01:31
    "What is this stupid mud-eating business?"
  • 00:01:36
    He looked at me helplessly and said,
  • 00:01:39
    "I'm a farmer, my crops failed;
  • 00:01:43
    my stomach doesn't know that my pocket is empty."
  • 00:01:49
    I walked away quite helplessly.
  • 00:01:51
    That night, I shared this with my grandfather.
  • 00:01:54
    He was a remarkable man, very clever.
  • 00:01:57
    He was a part of the Indian freedom struggle
  • 00:01:59
    under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
  • 00:02:02
    Unlike me, he wasn't surprised at all.
  • 00:02:05
    He knew of people who added rice starch to mud
  • 00:02:09
    to calm their hunger.
  • 00:02:11
    And he told me something profound.
  • 00:02:13
    If you see a person walking on the road without footwear,
  • 00:02:17
    it is important to understand the root cause:
  • 00:02:20
    that the person doesn't have enough money to probably buy the footwear.
  • 00:02:27
    I finished my college,
  • 00:02:28
    started working with a big company,
  • 00:02:30
    but that incident kept coming back to me.
  • 00:02:33
    Why are smallholder farmers in such abject poverty?
  • 00:02:37
    What causes them to be so desperate,
  • 00:02:40
    and why is it that, even in 21st-century India,
  • 00:02:43
    one farmer dies by suicide every 51 minutes?
  • 00:02:48
    My cofounders and I spent about six months traveling across India,
  • 00:02:53
    meeting hundreds of farmers to listen to them.
  • 00:02:56
    It became clear that climate risk is the root cause
  • 00:03:01
    that causes farming to be unpredictable and unviable.
  • 00:03:06
    Farmers who make reasonable money in one season
  • 00:03:10
    can fail miserably in the next.
  • 00:03:13
    And farmers who could grow crops earlier in summers
  • 00:03:16
    no longer get to grow crops in summers.
  • 00:03:19
    Heat is so much more.
  • 00:03:22
    The wells are drying up,
  • 00:03:23
    every year, there are new varieties of pests and diseases.
  • 00:03:26
    Farmers told us that this is all because of because of God.
  • 00:03:31
    I said, "What?"
  • 00:03:32
    "This is all because of God."
  • 00:03:34
    God is the one who caused it, God is the only one who can solve it.
  • 00:03:38
    God, in that context, I did not see as a sign of hope.
  • 00:03:42
    I read it as a sign of helplessness.
  • 00:03:46
    We heard from the farmers.
  • 00:03:49
    They knew the problem,
  • 00:03:50
    but they could not use these two words: "climate risk."
  • 00:03:57
    So we got together a team of engineers,
  • 00:04:02
    scientists, designers from about six countries,
  • 00:04:06
    to cocreate a solution with our farmers,
  • 00:04:09
    which is quite unconventional.
  • 00:04:11
    And the solution is “greenhouse-in-a-box.”
  • 00:04:15
    We call it "Kheyti Rakshak."
  • 00:04:17
    It’s a micro-greenhouse.
  • 00:04:19
    It's a beautiful greenhouse
  • 00:04:21
    which sits in a small portion of the farmer's land.
  • 00:04:23
    It's easy to build, a small structure,
  • 00:04:26
    covered with netting on all sides,
  • 00:04:28
    which cuts off heat, prevents bugs and saves water.
  • 00:04:34
    We can't cool the entire planet in one day,
  • 00:04:38
    but we definitely can create a climate for a small portion of a farmer’s land
  • 00:04:43
    to be suitable for farming.
  • 00:04:47
    From our first experiences of growing vegetables --
  • 00:04:49
    staple vegetables like tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers --
  • 00:04:54
    we observed that greenhouses can increase yields up to seven times
  • 00:04:59
    and use 90 percent less water.
  • 00:05:04
    All this was too good to be true.
  • 00:05:06
    All these things are so difficult to happen,
  • 00:05:09
    so farmers couldn't believe it, unless they actually saw it in action.
  • 00:05:14
    So to make this happen,
  • 00:05:15
    we had to have the courage to reimagine agriculture --
  • 00:05:20
    reimagine agriculture for smallholder farmers.
  • 00:05:23
    After all, this is not to grow tomatoes in an industrial setting in Alaska
  • 00:05:30
    in winters.
  • 00:05:33
    It is to grow tomatoes for a smallholder farmer,
  • 00:05:36
    by a smallholder farmer, in sizzling hot Indian summers.
  • 00:05:43
    So this greenhouse had to be small enough to fit in a portion of their land,
  • 00:05:46
    easy enough for them to use
  • 00:05:49
    and cheap enough for them to buy.
  • 00:05:52
    One of the biggest challenges that we could overcome in the process
  • 00:05:57
    is financing.
  • 00:05:59
    Thanks to our financing partners,
  • 00:06:02
    today, this greenhouse is available with financing
  • 00:06:07
    which is fast enough and cheap enough.
  • 00:06:12
    The greenhouse costs about 1,000 dollars.
  • 00:06:15
    Farmers pay a down payment of about 100 dollars,
  • 00:06:19
    and the rest is financed through a loan.
  • 00:06:22
    And this life-changing asset
  • 00:06:24
    adds and extra 100 dollars of profit, on average, to a household,
  • 00:06:30
    month on month.
  • 00:06:32
    This is a good double of what they otherwise make.
  • 00:06:36
    Marginal, five-ten percent increases in the incomes of smallholder farmers
  • 00:06:40
    cannot move the needle forward much,
  • 00:06:43
    because the baseline is way too low.
  • 00:06:46
    We need a significant jump in their income,
  • 00:06:48
    and that income has to be reliable and dependable.
  • 00:06:52
    To ensure that farmers succeed,
  • 00:06:54
    we also provide quality seeds, nutrition,
  • 00:06:58
    training and advisory leveraging mobile technology.
  • 00:07:02
    We rolled out the solution, after quite a few tests with farmers,
  • 00:07:06
    about three years ago,
  • 00:07:08
    and we are marching towards 2,000 farmers in this year
  • 00:07:12
    and looking at 100,000 farmers over the next five years.
  • 00:07:16
    Hopefully, every smallholder farmer in my lifetime.
  • 00:07:21
    (Applause)
  • 00:07:27
    The best technologies in agriculture can reach the smallest of the farmers
  • 00:07:32
    if we do two things well:
  • 00:07:34
    listen to the farmer with curiosity, empathy and compassion,
  • 00:07:40
    and keep smallholder farmers, particularly women farmers,
  • 00:07:44
    at the center of the design,
  • 00:07:46
    and build solutions.
  • 00:07:48
    Then, we can cocreate mini solutions like Kheyti Rakshak,
  • 00:07:52
    which bring dignity, hope and stability to the lives of the farmers.
  • 00:07:59
    In this big fight against climate change,
  • 00:08:02
    we all have to remember that we should take our smallholder farmers along;
  • 00:08:06
    it is our collective responsibility.
  • 00:08:09
    India is a home for about 100 million smallholder farmers.
  • 00:08:14
    I dream of a day
  • 00:08:15
    when "smallholder farmer" becomes synonymous with a happy farmer,
  • 00:08:23
    and being forced to eat mud should never be a feature again, anywhere.
  • 00:08:30
    Thank you.
  • 00:08:31
    (Applause and cheers)
Tags
  • smallholder farmers
  • reliable income
  • greenhouse-in-a-box
  • climate risk
  • farming innovation
  • India
  • agricultural technology
  • poverty alleviation
  • Kheyti Rakshak
  • sustainable farming