• Kelachandra Coffee Partners with Deepflow Technologies to Deploy Hyperlocal Climate Intelligence in Chikmagalur
  • Data-driven climate intelligence to enhance resilience, productivity, and sustainable coffee cultivation

Bengaluru  – Qahwa World

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. The collaboration involves the deployment of Augmented Weather Stations (A-WS) and the IndraWeather platform (powered by mistEO) across Kelachandra’s 15 estates in the Western Ghats of Chikkamagaluru and Wayanad. This initiative aims to establish a data-driven, climate-resilient coffee cultivation ecosystem.

The project, which began with a successful pilot at the Chandrapore Estate, is now moving into a long-term deployment phase across the entire Kumergode Cluster. The expansion targets transforming traditional coffee cultivation into a system that can mitigate microclimate risks and enhance productivity across the company’s 6,500-acre network of estates.

  • Focus on Proactive Climate Adaptation

Ms. Rishina Kuruvilla, Head of CSR & Sustainability at Kelachandra Coffee, emphasized the necessity of 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… 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 leverages Deepflow’s Augmented Weather Stations to capture real-time environmental data with approximately 95% accuracy. This data is then processed by IndraWeather to provide hyperlocal forecasts essential for optimizing crucial farm operations.

  • Enhancing Quality and Operational Precision

Ms. Neleema Rana George, Head of Coffee Works & Technology at Kelachandra Coffee, detailed the operational benefits: “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, the technology demonstrated strong predictive accuracy, with real-time weather data accuracy around 95% and forecast accuracy ranging from 80–88%. Rainfall tracking reached up to 92% during peak events. This high level of precision supports smarter labour scheduling, lower-chemical pest interventions, and an overall reduction in operational costs.

Atthri Anand, Managing Director, Deepflow Technologies, noted the significance of the partnership: “Partnering with a legacy grower like Kelachandra Coffee validates the critical role of deep-tech in modern agriculture. Our goal… 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 provides a foundation for financial resilience, as the collected data can be used to potentially trigger parametric risk insurance coverage, further securing the plantation against extreme weather events.

  • About the Partners

Deepflow Technologies: An agri-tech startup incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore, specializing in AI-powered weather intelligence and IoT solutions to enable climate-smart farming.

Kelachandra Coffee: A division of the historic Kelachandra Group (est. 1786), cultivating premium shade-grown Arabica and Robusta with globally recognized certifications, and exporting to key international markets including Japan, Germany, and the Middle East.