‘Greenhouse in a box’ from India wins Earthshot Prize
START-UP AWARDED £1 MILLION FOR ITS INNOVATIVE FARMING SOLUTION
AN INDIAN farming solutions start-up has been named as one of the five winners of this year's prestigious Earthshot Prize.
Kheyti, which won in the category of ‘Protect and Restore Nature’, enables smallholder farmers to reduce costs, increase yields and protect their livelihoods.
The Earthshot Prize, an initiative established by Prince William in 2021, rewards each winner with £1 million as part of the royal’s drive to save the planet.
Speaking at the awards ceremony in Boston last Friday (2), William, now the Prince of Wales, said, “I believe the Earthshot solutions you have seen this evening prove we can overcome our planet’s greatest challenges.
“It’s my hope the Earthshot legacy will continue to grow, helping our communities and our planet to thrive.”
Five Earthshot Prizes of £1 million will be awarded each year until 2030 in support of environmental innovation projects.
India is home to 100 million small-hold farmers, and the country is one of the most climate-affected in the world.
This year it recorded its earliest and one of its fiercest heatwaves on record, slashing harvests when the world was already beset by food shortages.
Kheyti has developed a “Greenhouse-in-a-Box”, designed to offer shelter from the elements and pests for the crops farmers grow.
“We are honoured to be recognised by the Earthshot Prize this year,” said Kaushik Kappagantulu, CEO and co-founder of Kheyti.
“The world depends on smallhold farmers and yet their lives are among the hardest on earth. Our Greenhouse-in-a-Box is empowering farmers in India today. The steps we have already taken at Kheyti are now building to change farmers’ lives at scale.”
The Indian start-up also trains and supports farmers to ensure their greenhouse is as effective as possible. By 2027, Kheyti’s goal is for 50,000 farmers to have a Greenhouse-in-a-Box, it said.
Among other winners was London-based start-up Notpla, founded by Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez.
They won in the “Build a WasteFree World” category.
Notpla is an alternative to plastic made from seaweed and plants.
At the 2019 London Marathon, 36,000 Notpla-made Oohos bottles, filled with Lucozade, were handed to runners.
This year, Notpla has made one million takeaway food boxes for
Just Eat Takeaway.com, with the potential to replace 100 million plastic coated containers in Europe in the future.
The other three winners were Mukuru Clean Stoves, Kenya (in the Clean our Air category); Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (Revive our Oceans); and 44.01, Oman (Fix our Climate.
This year’s winners were chosen from a list of 15 finalists.
The Earthshot awards, inspired by the late US president John F Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ ambition in the 1960s – which aimed to get a man on the moon within a decade – is targeted at uniting the world to work towards finding solutions for a stable climate by 2030.