It was no small challenge that a few IIT students took on when they left their jobs in 2004. They wanted to help farmers adapt to climate change and profit in the process too. And at 39, Sonu Agrawal from IIT-Kanpur is quite pleased with that leap forward. As managing director of Weather Risk, which promises security against climate change, he has 150 people working with farmers in 15 states to optimise crop production, guard against weather patterns, access credit and insurance, and be part of a supply chain.

Weather Risk charges ₹3,000 per hectare to offer consultancy for a single crop season and usually works with groups of farmers. Over a decade, more than 25,000 farmers have approached the company, which also works with governments on solar energy programmes in Rajasthan and horticulture in Haryana, and tailors crop insurance schemes to suit specific areas.

Agrawal says the company has roped in corporates and agri input companies as sponsors, and set up 1,000 monitoring stations to collect data in homogenous climate zones. Each station has been built at a cost of ₹13,000.

Farm Income Groups (associations of small and medium farmers) in Haryana, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh form the bulk of the company’s clientele, while some big farmers ask for specialised services.

Managing losses is a part of the work. Describing, for instance, the company’s work with a group of potato farmers in Bengal over the last eight years, Agrawal says, “We introduced soil management systems and optimised water use. Several potato farmers went into loss because of unseasonal rainfall in April and frost in winter. We analysed weather systems and advised farmers in Bengal and Punjab to sow in September-end and harvest by February.” When potato is sown early, its leaves can be nipped before winter to protect them from frost, while the early harvest saves them from the unseasonal rains in March.

Apart from working with governments and farmers on crop insurance, a crucial area of intervention involves facilitating bank loans. Banks (mostly private ones) are more willing to lend to farmers if repayment is assured.

“The farmers are paying us for specialised data on soil, weather and rainfall, as well as for providing access to credit, insurance and supply chains. What we do is unique, we bundle a lot of tangible services to farmers. Our initial idea of simply selling crop insurance wouldn’t work,” says Agrawal.

The need for a company like this is a clear indication of how extension work by the government has failed in the country. On the other hand, it shows that farmers are willing to pay for specialised services.

The writer is an organic farmer based in Dahanu, Maharashtra

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