Helps farmer groups build and own small solar plants that sell power to the grid
TL;DR Fieldkeep takes farmer groups through building a 0.5–2 MW solar plant on their own land under PM-KUSUM, from substation choice to loans and upkeep, so they own it rather than lease land to a developer. It earns development fees and an annual operating fee. The gap between allotted and built capacity is the opening.
PM-KUSUM Component A lets farmers, cooperatives, panchayats and producer organisations set up 500 kW to 2 MW plants near a substation and sell the power to the DISCOM on 25-year agreements[1]. Sounds great on paper, but take-up has lagged badly. By early October 2025 only 650.49 MW was installed against a 10,000 MW target, and Telangana, Tripura, Odisha, Gujarat and Assam reported none[2].
By 30 June 2026 installed capacity had reached 1,726.92 MW, yet DISCOMs had signed agreements for 9,871 MW by the end of 2025[3]. So most of that signed capacity isn't built yet. Why? Farmers who hold allotments usually lack equity and engineering help, and very few have the patience for bank paperwork.
What it does, in regulatory terms: a development and operations service for generators under PM-KUSUM Component A. The farmer group is the generator and signs the power agreement, while Fieldkeep is its contractor and adviser and holds no licence.
The seed proposed community-owned micro-grids to tackle energy inequality. Rural India is now largely grid-connected, so stand-alone village grids have a shrinking role. What farmers lack is income from the energy built on their land, so I pointed the idea there.
Fieldkeep finds substations with spare capacity, groups neighbouring farmers into a producer company or cooperative, prepares the bank file, runs the EPC tender, and supervises the build. After commissioning it cleans panels, handles faults and reconciles DISCOM payments each month. Members get a clear statement of what the plant earned and what the loan took.
The farmer group pays a development fee at financial close and an annual operations fee from plant revenue. The revenue comes from the DISCOM at a fixed tariff - ₹3.04 per unit for 25 years in Rajasthan's 2025 order[4], with a ceiling of ₹3.31 per unit in Tripura's 2025 call[1]. Rajasthan's regulator put capital cost at ₹2.69 Cr per MW[4], mostly financed by bank loans.
Projects with signed agreements by 31 December 2025 got until March 2027 to finish[3]. That deadline means thousands of megawatts of allotments need building help now or they lapse, and the clock is not slowing down for anyone. Rajasthan alone had 5,618 MW sanctioned and 1,236.05 MW installed by mid-2026[3].
The narrowest figure is the gap between signed and installed capacity - 9,871 MW signed against 1,726.92 MW installed[3]. At the Rajasthan cost of ₹2.69 Cr per MW[4] the unbuilt part implies large build spend, but not all of it will be farmer-owned. I found no public split of farmer-owned versus developer-owned capacity was found.
Most Component A plants built so far are developer-led, often on land leased from farmers. One mini-grid company, which began with village mini-grids in India, now describes itself as a distributed energy platform across the Global South[5], showing where community power players have moved. I found no Indian firm that offers farmer groups an owner's-side development and operations service as its main business. That is the gap.
| Difficulty | Hard (52/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹2–4 Cr |
| Time to launch | 12–18 months |
Solar EPC is mature. The hard parts are social and financial - forming a farmer group that stays united for 25 years, getting banks to lend to it and sorting out land records. DISCOM payment delays can also hit the group's loan repayments, and guess who gets blamed? You will.
Fieldkeep needs no licence of its own, since the farmer group is the generator and signs the power agreement. The scheme approvals are what matter.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't trust AI with land title or loan decisions. A wrong land record can stall a plant for years, so a lawyer and the bank make those calls.
Want to work out the AI layer for Fieldkeep? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I like this one for a founder with rural finance or cooperative experience plus solar project skills, working in one state with clear tariffs such as Rajasthan. If you want fast scale then it's a poor fit, honestly. First prove you can take one farmer group from allotment to bank sanction in under six months.
Plan for roughly ₹2–4 Cr for the team, development work and working capital. The plants themselves are financed mostly by bank loans to the farmer groups.
Fieldkeep needs no sector licence. The farmer group holds the scheme allotment and signs the power agreement with the DISCOM.
The model travels where farmers can sell power to the grid at a fixed tariff. Check your local feed-in rules and whether banks lend to farmer groups.
The free Fieldkeep validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the scheme and permissions checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for farmer groups and lenders, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Fieldkeep or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting banks to lend to farmer groups and keeping those groups together, which is exactly where I can help. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.