Kheti Baadi: Cultivating Sustainability Through Play

A Board Game Blending Agriculture, Economics, and Sustainability for Engaging Learning and Fun

After graduating from IIT Kanpur with a degree in Electrical Engineering, I became interested in the underpinnings of the human brain and mental health. Subsequently, I pursued a master’s degree in Cognitive Science in 2019. I simultaneously worked as a Research Assistant on TreadWill, an online mental health platform that delivers scientifically tested therapeutic techniques for self-help through engaging games and educational content.

When COVID-19 happened and isolated everyone at home, I became interested in how food and environment affect mental well-being. My family and I experimented with gardening and cooking traditional recipes using seasonal produce and started benefitting physically and mentally. The experiments later turned into an 1800 sq. ft. community kitchen garden in my neighbourhood to practise sustainable living.

Back on campus during the lockdown, I started playing board games with my friends to stay socially active and keep away the blues of the lockdown. As I played various games, I became familiar with the cognitive science behind the games, which became laboratories for me to think. Simultaneously, I was reading about agriculture and the environment, which presented to me the challenges of farmers farming sustainably while ensuring economic viability. Naturally, the two roads crossed, and I started thinking about a board game on sustainable agriculture and its economics.

The Science Behind the Game

Kheti Baadi is an intergenerational board game on agriculture, economics, and sustainability with hours of fun. The name originates from Hindi – Kheti means farming and baadi means horticulture. The players onboard as farmers, growing crops, managing livestock, buying seeds and resources, building infrastructure and selling the produce in a farmers’ market that mimics the classic Sabzi Mandis in India. Additionally, the game also has a rural bank that provides loans to the farmers for operations. The card-based mechanics of the game introduce the fundamentals of farming, agribusiness and rural banking. This teaches players, especially children financial decision making, debt management, and cash flow management.

The game also has environmental and systemic challenges through “News Events”, which simulate unpredictable problems like floods, droughts, and pest attacks with changes in government policies. Players resolve these challenges by paying penalties and incurring repair costs. However, sustainable practices like organic farming, rainwater harvesting and so on help to protect their farms and money.

Essentially, Kheti Baadi transforms the gameplay into an engaging learning process for economics, sustainability, and business strategy.

Concept – Prototype – Product Development

I played various games to analyze and pick appropriate game elements to adapt for Kheti Baadi. I tested the early concepts with family and friends for several iterations. I then started sketching wireframes for game boards and designing cards.

The next was handcrafting the prototype – cutting boards, cards, drawing illustrations and assembling manually. I simultaneously designed backgrounds and landscapes to increase the aesthetic appeal of the game. I kept incorporating the new concepts and designs into the prototype to get regular feedback from test users.

After reaching a reasonable convergence in design and gameplay, I collaborated with manufacturers and artisans to make a market-ready product. However, this step is an ongoing process as I work on product optimization for cost-effectiveness and good quality.

Challenges Faced

Firstly, introducing the fundamentals of games into farming was challenging. Farming involves cooperation, while business involves competition. So, balancing the two was key for developing an engaging gameplay.

Secondly, sifting through the vastness of Indian agricultural knowledge and choosing manageable game components without overwhelming the players was important. Indian agriculture is incredibly diverse, with numerous crops, techniques, environmental factors, and policies. Choosing representative elements from each category was challenging.

Finally, sourcing the right materials for producing a quality game is an ongoing challenge. The goal is to ensure that the game gets sustainably produced with safe materials for children and adults and stays visually appealing, tactilely satisfying, and cost-effective without losing its original charm of farming and economics.

Conclusion

Kheti Baadi is an intergenerational game appropriate for ages above 8 years, providing a common ground for families, grandparents, parents and children to discuss sustainable farming, food habits, health, economics, and the environment. I envision families having hours of fun while reconnecting with traditional wisdom and exchanging knowledge.

I also aim for accessibility. Making the game affordable for as many families as possible, especially in semi-urban and rural areas where agricultural knowledge has a direct impact.

In addition to these goals, my next steps include:

1. Launching the game on e-commerce platforms.
2. Running crowdfunding campaigns on platforms that support Indian makers globally.
3. Participating in gaming and educational events to find collaborators – schools, organisations and educators who want to spread the word on sustainability.
4. Expanding Karky’s Design Studio, a creative space for making products for sustainability and inclusivity. The Studio aims to have a collection of games to engage players on current global challenges.

Acknowledgements

The realisation of Kheti Baadi would not have been possible without the support of family, friends, and collaborators. I am grateful to my friends and colleagues Karthikeyan, Arun, Suren, Arjit, Jyoti, Vaibhavi, Sneha, Smith and Amritmay for sourcing board games and producing and testing prototypes.

Kheti Baadi, finally, is a collaborative effort and effective teamwork to provide the joys of gaming and farming.

About Karky’s Design Studio

Karky’s Design Studio is a creative space to make screen-free games for all ages on sustainability and inclusivity. The goal is to blend the seemingly preachy ideas of living with nature and the community through engaging games and DIY kits.

https://www.instagram.com/karkys_design_studio/

About the team

Silky Gupta, Co-founder 

I graduated in 2015 from IIT Kanpur with a B.Tech degree in Electrical Engineering followed by an M.S. degree in Cognitive Science in 2019. I am currently working as a Project Engineer in the Lab of Neural Systems in the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, IIT Kanpur. I lead a team to develop online interventions for mental health.

Karthikeyan Kannan, Co-founder

I did my bachelor’s in Biotechnology at Anna University and then joined PhD at IIT Kanpur. Global warming and climate change have become indispensable. Several organizations like Greenpeace and Friends of Earth are actively working towards a common goal of raising public awareness about environmental issues and climate change. Our mutual interest in strengthening community efforts to combat climate change and exploring different board games led to the idea of using board games as a tool to advocate against the processes that will worsen the existing climatic conditions.

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