She quit corporate job to conserve native seeds

Can seeing so many varieties of pulses play a part in changing the course of your life? 

Well, it did for me.

I came across 45 varieties of rajma (kidney bean) displayed in a stall at the Organic World Congress in Delhi in 2017. I’d never seen such diversity in pulses. At the most we see two or three varieties in shops. 

It was a turning point in my life.

I was also exposed to the works of stalwarts like Vandana Shiva and G Nammalvar on organic farming. My interactions with people like Dr G V Ramanjaneyulu (Centre for Sustainable Agriculture) and Krishna Prasad (Sahaja Samrudha) – both of whom have done exceptional work in conservation agriculture and seed sovereignty – gave me inspiration and direction. 

They helped me develop a model to conserve endangered seed varieties.

In March 2020 I started an online store for seeds and garden accessories aimed at home gardeners. 

A year later, I began the HOOGA Seed Keepers Collective, a social enterprise in my village Kanjikovil in the Erode district of Tamil Nadu. HOOGA is short for “Helping of Oppressed Generation of Agriculturists.” HOOGA’s aim is conservation of native seeds.

Then I visited select farmers in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala who grow vegetables using native and heirloom seeds. 

I met one Kokila who grows 100 varieties of tubers on her terrace in Bengaluru, Eswaramurthy who grows the samba variety of turmeric and Vasanthi who grows winged beans and clove beans, both rarely seen in the market.

I met Madhesh, a tribal farmer with an encyclopaedic knowledge about cassava diversity and he grows them too. And a 100-year-old farmer in Kerala who still climbed coconut palms! 

It was a three-month long trip that was an eye-opener.

Back in my village, we started a seed bank at HOOGA. 

The climate-resilient Sivagiri thorn brinjal, head-sized white brinjal, goat leg tuber variety which tastes like goat leg soup, multi-branched hill okra, metre-long cowpea, a pumpkin variety which yields over 50 fruits per plant, Trefle du Togo tomatoes, elephant tusk okra – those are just a few of the varieties in our seed bank.

Besides having our own food forest, we work with 35 farmers, both men and women, who grow vegetables for our seed bank. 

So far we have conserved and propagated over 100 vegetables, of which 15 are rare and 30 very rare. 

Once in three months we conduct a seed yatra to document local knowledge of indigenous sustainable food production and seed saving mechanisms. 

The recent Pusa Krishi ICAR – IARI UPJA 2022 grant will help us grow more varieties and also help those looking for high-yielding, nutritious vegetables.    

Most of the organic farmers want to grow native heirloom vegetables. We help in getting their farm as a certified seed farm.

And I must say this entry into farming was actually a switch in my career.

As I hail from an agricultural family I wanted to study and do something related to agriculture. 

But my parents were against it. 

So I ended up graduating in Information Technology. I worked for a big corporate company for a few years. 

I mustered the courage to quit my job to study social work at Mumbai’s TISS, while volunteering for a non-profit organisation.

I excelled in my studies and earned awards too. Working with the Mahadev Koli tribes of Thane was a different experience.Later I joined the Uttarakhand-based Institute of Himalayan Environmental Research and Education  and piloted a fruit processing enterprise, engaging women farmers in the hills. I realised how difficult mountain farming was then.

It was around this time that my interest drifted towards seed conservation and I ended up starting HOOGA.

Interestingly, my parents who were once against my taking up agriculture, are today my most ardent supporters and value my work too.