In this generation, everyone is interested in becoming an engineer, doctor, or any other but not a farmer. Because everyone has an opinion that farmers cannot earn much money. But if there are no farmers, there will be a scarcity of food.
But many of them these days come in the front line to study agriculture, innovate new technologies, and earn a good amount of income. In those, Satya Raghu Mokkapati is also one, who has taken farming to the next level.
Let us look into his success story and learn how he helped farmers to double their incomes by innovating “Greenhouse in a Box”.
Success Story of Satya Raghu Mokkapati – Know How He Started “Greenhouse in a Box” For Farmers
Climate change is one of the biggest consequences in India, and farmers are the ones who witness losses every year due to rain, droughts, and heat. According to the data from the National Crime Records Bureau, farmer suicides have increased.
For farmers, income is unpredictable and unviable. While there are a number of companies helping farmers with their go-to-market solutions, is there any way to prevent dependency on rains and crop failure??
When Satya Raghu Mokkapanti was 17 years old, he saw a farmer eating mud, out of hunger in his village, and he asked the farmer why he was eating mud, the farmer replied, “ My crops failed and my stomach didn’t know that my pockets are empty”.
That incident remained like that in Satya’s mind and thirteen years later in 2015, he started “kheyti” with his friends, Ayush Sharma, Sowmya, and Koushik. The main aim of this Kheyti is to supplement and enhance the income of farmers, through their innovative method, i.e., Greenhouse in a box.
But this idea was not innovated just by that incident, when they were working with nearly 250 farmers, Satya Raghu noticed how farmers were suffering for multiple reasons, he and his team researched and said that the main issue was open cultivation.
After speaking to 150 farmers, they finally came to the conclusion that they need a protection solution from heat, and pests, to not hit the crops directly.
How To Do This “Greenhouse in a Box” Concept
To do this Satya Raghu Mokkapati and his friends have taken the 250 square feet unit of land and planted high-quality seeds. And once you have established this greenhouse it gives you yields 4-5 times bigger than open farming.
He says that his team has a lot of control over practices, so every day one person visits the field from kheyti. They do micromanaging to give more amount of yield to the farmer.
For water facilities, kyeti uses the drip irrigation method and they provide mulching sheets near the roots. By that water evaporation will be reduced. And that will be available for the crops.
The net cover that we have used will reduce the water usage as they are growing in a GIB, which requires water only for 15-20 minutes a day.
This became a huge success because of reducing water usage as many farmers faced the problem of water scarcity or overflowing of water leading to fewer crops.
With this farmers are very happy, and the idea of kyeti is not just for greenhouses but beyond that.
About “Greenhouse in a Box” in Satya Raghu’s Words
He says “Greenhouse is a protection for farmers crop not to get pests and anything as we build houses to live in a safety and to protect ourselves with the environmental factors from heat, insects, rain, floods, etc.
Also green house cuts of excess heat by 2-4 degree Celsius. And reduces pest by 90 percent and save 98 percent of water compared to open cultivation.
Coming to Greenhouse in a Box Kit has two types One is for 320 sq mts, which costs Rs. 2 lakhs. And the other one is for 462 sq mts that costs, Rs.3.35 lakhs rupees. And even kheyti team provides training about what to grow, how to grow, and when to grow”.
Finally, he said that millions of farmers in India are suffering from a lack of access to climate risk mitigation technologies. So, by 2025 they are aiming to help a million farmers.
Conclusion
We are hoping that you have understood the concept of Satya Raghu Mokkapanti about “Green House in a Box”. Even though farmers do not trust them at the start, after seeing the success of Green House in a Box many farmers have started doing it.
We wish them all the best to the kheyti team to grow, and if you know a farmer struggling with open cultivation near you, just introduce this concept to them.
Still for more interesting articles, like Padma Shri Winner’s Secret to Saving Kerala’s Paddy Seeds: A Tale of Triumph, From Lab Coats to Field Success: Pune Scientist Duo’s NutriSens Boosts Farmer Yields,
and many more, Check out our version weekly.com website.