Over the past two years, state governments in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, together with NABARD, have adapted Earthshot Prize-winning innovator Kheyti’s low-cost protected cultivation paired with tech-backed farmer advisory across thousands of smallholder farms. Odisha is preparing to follow this example. In March 2026, the Government of India formally asked all states to consider the model.

On 27 April 2026, every one of the world’s fifty hottest cities was in India. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research estimates that heat stress can cut vegetable yields by up to 70 percent — and the households worst placed to absorb that loss are India’s nearly 100 million smallholder farmers.

Low-cost protected cultivation can help farmers mitigate this challenge. Over the past two years, state governments across India have moved decisively in response. Andhra Pradesh’s Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP-AP), championed low-cost protected cultivation for smallholders before any central scheme recognised the category. Uttar Pradesh supported 100 farmers under the Atal Bhujal Yojana groundwater conservation programme. Telangana followed with a 1,000-farmer tripartite programme including the state’s rural-poverty mission and the Department of Horticulture. Madhya Pradesh has already supported 350 farmers last year and has now committed to a 500-farmer expansion under the Public-Private Partnership for Agriculture Value Chain Development (PPP-AVCD) framework, with a longer-term vision extending into the lakhs of farmers. Odisha is preparing to follow with a state scheme. NABARD has anchored demonstration projects for 200 farmers in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, & Rajasthan under its Farm Sector Promotion Fund.

The model these governments are backing was pioneered by Kheyti, the Hyderabad-based, Earthshot Prize-winning agri-tech enterprise. Kheyti re-engineered the conventional greenhouse into a low-cost protected cultivation structure that costs a fraction of a standard greenhouse and is sized for a small farmer’s plot, paired with AI-powered advisory delivered through field agronomists and a mobile decision-support tool. After proving the model directly with more than 7,000 farmers across 8 states, Kheyti has begun working alongside state governments and central institutions to democratise the model and carry it to the millions of smallholder farmers they aim to reach.

On 7 March 2026, the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, formally wrote to state horticulture mission directors across the country, asking them to consider promoting low-cost protected cultivation for small and marginal farmers. The advisory cited a technical evaluation by the ICAR–Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru, which assessed Kheyti’s low-cost shade net design and found it ‘very much cost effective’, ‘well designed and safe’, and that it ‘can be recommended for the farmers’. The institute went further, recommending “Low cost, small-sized nethouse models may be included in the protected cultivation schemes under MIDH.”, a $200M per year horticulture scheme funded by the government of India. The MIDH letter was copied to Kheyti, requesting Kheyti to provide technical assistance to the states for effective implementation wherever required.

Kheyti’s hope for the next five years is that low-cost protected cultivation grows beyond us and becomes as ubiquitous for smallholder farmers as drip irrigation and solar pumps have become over the past decade: a programme democratised to every state, owned by governments, and delivered by a large suite of market players.

Speaking on the occasion, various government officials and leaders who have championed this cause spoke about the ambition to scale this programme to millions of farmers.

“Protected cultivation has always been the government’s vision, but the Madhya Pradesh pilot demonstrated something important: when the right technology is combined with the right delivery model, it can reach the farmers who need it most. Small, low-cost protected cultivation structures are highly suitable for small-scale farmers, especially when combined with structured support. This is a model ready to scale, and with central policy support, it can benefit millions of smallholder farmers across India”, Preeti Maithil, Deputy General Manager, TRIFED, Former Director, Department of Horticulture and Food Processing, Government of Madhya Pradesh.

“Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has envisioned transforming Self-Help Group (SHG) women into “Lakhpati Didis” by promoting sustainable livelihoods. He has consistently emphasised that the future of smallholder farming lies in making agriculture less risky and more profitable. Low-cost protected cultivation—such as shade net and greenhouse-in-a-box systems—advances this vision by enabling small farmers to grow more on even a fraction of an acre, with significantly enhanced protection against heat stress and erratic weather. We are proud to have supported this model in its early stages, and we are glad that it is now being seriously examined by other states and the Government of India as a scalable solution for climate-resilient agriculture”, said Kondapalli Srinivas, Minister for MSME, SERP, NRI Empowerment & Relations, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

“India’s state governments and NABARD have shown over the past two years that climate resilience for smallholder farmers is solvable — when the model is built end-to-end for smallholder economics, and when public institutions choose to put their delivery capacity behind it. Kheyti’s role is to democratize the technology and provide farmers with AI-driven advisory to ensure their success. With the Government of India’s review now underway, we believe this category can grow to the millions of smallholders Maithil and Hon’ble minister Kondapalli Srinivas spoke of — across many states, with many implementation partners alongside us.”, said Saumya, Co-founder and Head of Public & Government Partnerships, Kheyti.