BENGALURU/CHIKKAMAGALURU (India CSR): Kelachandra Coffee, one of India’s largest privately held coffee plantation companies, has announced a strategic partnership with Deepflow Technologies, an agri-tech startup incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore. Through this collaboration, Augmented Weather Stations (A-WS) and IndraWeather (powered by mistEO) will be deployed across Kelachandra’s 15 estates in the Western Ghats of Chikkamagaluru and Wayanad, enabling the creation of a data-driven, climate-resilient coffee cultivation ecosystem.
The initiative, which began as a pilot at the Chandrapore Estate, has now transitioned into a long-term deployment phase following strong validation of the technology. Building on the success of the pilot, the project is expanding to the entire Kumergode Cluster, aiming to transform traditional coffee cultivation into a data-driven, climate-resilient ecosystem while mitigating microclimate risks and enhancing productivity across Kelachandra’s 6,500-acre network of estates.
Rishina Kuruvilla, Head of CSR & Sustainability at Kelachandra Coffee, emphasized the long-term environmental vision behind the partnership: “Climate volatility is no longer a distant threat; it is a daily reality for coffee growers. By integrating Deepflow’s hyperlocal intelligence, we are shifting our strategy from crisis response, reacting to droughts or heavy rains after they occur, to proactive climate adaptation. This technology enables us to make informed decisions on varietal selection and agroforestry, ensuring our estates remain productive and sustainable for decades to come.”
The collaboration utilizes Deepflow’s Augmented Weather Stations to capture real-time environmental data with approximately 95% accuracy. This data is processed by IndraWeather (powered by mistEO) to provide hyperlocal forecasts that help optimize critical farm operations.
Neleema Rana George, Head of Coffee Works & Technology at Kelachandra Coffee, highlighted the operational impact:”Precision is key to maintaining the specialty standards Kelachandra is known for. With real-time insights into rainfall, temperature, and humidity, we can now scientifically schedule irrigation and fertilization, rather than relying on historical averages. The system’s ability to predict weather windows helps us optimize harvesting and fermentation, directly enhancing our cup quality while stabilizing yields against climatic stress.”
During the pilot phase, the technology demonstrated exceptional reliability and predictive strength, delivering real-time weather data accuracy of around 95% and forecast accuracy ranging from 80–88%, with rainfall tracking reaching up to 92% during peak events. This level of precision supports lower-chemical pest interventions, smarter labour scheduling, and overall reduction in operational costs.
Atthri Anand, Managing Director, Deepflow Technologies, commented on the deployment: “Partnering with a legacy grower like Kelachandra Coffee validates the critical role of deep-tech in modern agriculture. Our goal with the Augmented Weather Station and IndraWeather is to provide granular, estate-level data that empowers growers to navigate microclimate variability. Seeing our forecast models achieve such high accuracy in the complex terrain of the Western Ghats proves that data-driven resilience is scalable and effective for the Indian coffee industry.”
The partnership also opens avenues for financial resilience, as the data collected can be used to trigger parametric risk insurance coverage, further securing the plantation’s future against extreme weather events.
(India CSR)
