Skip to content
BeeaBeej

— Our Growers —

The Hands
That Feed Us.

Modern food strips out the names of the people who grow it. We put those names back. Meet a few of them.

— Filter Region10 farmers
Selvam & Family Tamil Nadu

Selvam & Family

Traditional Paddy

Vellalar farming community · SRI (System of Rice Intensification)

Selvam has been saving and cultivating indigenous rice varieties for three decades. His farm is a living seed bank — housing over 40 heirloom paddy varieties including GI-tagged Navara, Mappillai Samba, and Kichili Samba. He relies entirely on collected rainwater, farm-composted green matter, and traditional SRI (System of Rice Intensification) spacing that reduces water use by 30% while maintaining yield.

  • Seed saving — 40+ heirloom paddy varieties maintained
  • SRI spacing reduces water use by 30%
  • Farm-composted green matter
Visit This Farm
Kamala Devi & the Pahari Women's Collective Uttarakhand

Kamala Devi & the Pahari Women's Collective

Millets, Amaranth & Mountain Legumes

Pahari women's collective (SHG) · Baranaja — 12-crop intercropping system

Farming on the steep inclines of the Garhwal region requires what Kamala calls 'mountain patience'. She leads a women's Self-Help Group (SHG) of 23 farmers who collectively maintain the Baranaja system — an ancient intercropping practice using 12 varieties of grain, pulse, and oilseed grown together on the same plot. The result is a polyculture that requires no synthetic fertiliser, manages its own pest pressure through diversity, and produces food for every nutritional need.

  • Baranaja 12-crop intercropping system
  • No irrigation — relies on monsoon and snow-melt
  • SHG collective seed bank for 12 crop varieties
Visit This Farm
Raju & the Zero-Budget Circle Madhya Pradesh

Raju & the Zero-Budget Circle

Kodo Millet, Little Millet & Lentils

Gond tribal community · ZBNF (Zero Budget Natural Farming)

When Raju transitioned his 5-acre farm to Zero Budget Natural Farming 10 years ago, his input costs dropped from ₹40,000 to ₹4,000 per season — and his soil recovered its earthworm population within three years. He now mentors 15 tribal farmers in the Beej Bachao Andolan (Save the Seeds movement), maintaining community seed banks for Kodo millet, Little millet, and 8 varieties of indigenous lentil.

  • ZBNF — input costs reduced from ₹40,000 to ₹4,000/season
  • Beej Bachao Andolan community seed bank
  • Legume rotation to restore soil nitrogen
Visit This Farm
Meitei Farmers Collective — Manipur Imphal Valley, Manipur

Meitei Farmers Collective — Manipur

Chak-Hao (Black Rice) & Indigenous Rice

Meitei farming community · Traditional flood-field cultivation

The Meitei community of Manipur has cultivated Chak-Hao (black rice) for over 2,000 years. Unlike commercial rice, Chak-Hao is grown in traditional flood-field plots without synthetic inputs — the same waterlogged conditions that concentrate the anthocyanin pigments responsible for its deep colour and medicinal properties. The GI tag awarded in 2020 recognised what the community has always known: that Chak-Hao from Manipur cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world.

  • Traditional flood-field cultivation
  • No synthetic inputs — maintained by community protocol
  • GI-tagged variety protection (2020)
Visit This Farm
Jaintia Hills Turmeric Farmers Jaintia Hills District, Meghalaya

Jaintia Hills Turmeric Farmers

Lakadong Turmeric

Jaintia (Pnar) farming communities · Traditional jhum (shifting cultivation) adaptation

In the mist-wrapped Jaintia Hills at 900–1,200m altitude, turmeric grows slowly under the shade of forest trees and in cool, mineral-rich volcanic soil. The Lakadong variety — maintained by Jaintia farmers for generations — regularly tests at 7–9% curcumin, compared to 2–3% for commercial varieties. The farmers harvest by hand, boil briefly, sun-dry on bamboo mats for two to three weeks, and traditionally hand-pound the rhizome. The GI tag awarded in 2015 was a formal acknowledgement of what the soil and the community together produce.

  • High-altitude cultivation (900–1,200m) in volcanic soil
  • Hand-harvesting and hand-pounding to preserve volatile oils
  • GI-tagged variety protection (2015)
Visit This Farm
Baiga Tribal Farmers — Kanha Region Mandla & Dindori, Madhya Pradesh

Baiga Tribal Farmers — Kanha Region

Wild Forest Honey & Tribal Grains

Baiga tribe (PVTG — Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group) · Forest-integrated beekeeping + Bewar (shifting cultivation)

The Baiga tribe of Madhya Pradesh is a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) — one of 75 communities in India classified as at the highest risk of marginalisation. Their relationship with the Kanha-Pench forest corridor is millennia-old. Wild honey collection — using traditional log hives and knowledge of forest bee behaviour passed down through oral tradition — is not just income; it is a practice that maintains the Baiga community's spiritual and cultural connection to the forest. Every jar of wild forest honey supports a PVTG family and the biological knowledge they carry.

  • Traditional log hive beekeeping in forest corridor
  • Zero-input wild honey — no feeding, no treatment, no processing beyond straining
  • Bewar (traditional land rotation) for tribal grain cultivation
Visit This Farm
Deben Kalita Nalbari District, Assam

Deben Kalita

Joha Aromatic Rice

Assamese farming community · Traditional Brahmaputra flood-plain cultivation

Deben has preserved 14 sub-varieties of Joha rice across his family's three-acre plot in the Brahmaputra flood plain. Each variety flowers at a different time — an ancient risk-diversification strategy ensuring at least one variety survives whatever the monsoon brings. He has refused every offer from hybrid seed companies. 'If I switch, who will grow these in 50 years?' he says.

  • 14 Joha sub-variety seed bank maintained
  • Flood-plain cultivation with natural silt composting
  • No synthetic inputs — community farming protocol
Visit This Farm
Krishnamurthy P. Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu

Krishnamurthy P.

Mappillai Samba Rice

Vellalar farming community · Rain-fed terrace paddy

After 15 years in Chennai's textile mills, Krishnamurthy returned to his village to revive his grandfather's Mappillai Samba paddy. Today his 4-acre plot yields a variety no commercial mill stocks — hand-pounded, red-bran-intact, sold directly to families seeking the iron-rich bridegroom's rice of the Tirunelveli tradition. He coordinates with the Save Our Rice Campaign to save other endangered Tamil varieties.

  • Hand-pounding to preserve red bran layer
  • Rain-fed cultivation — no irrigation infrastructure
  • Direct-to-family sales model — bypasses wholesale
Visit This Farm
Thomas Kuriakose Idukki District, Kerala

Thomas Kuriakose

Cardamom & Virgin Coconut Oil

Syrian Christian farming community · Shade-forest cardamom cultivation

Thomas's cardamom estate at 1,200m in the Cardamom Hills is grown under the shade of the original forest canopy — not a plantation monoculture. He cold-presses coconut oil from his farm's own trees and makes four harvest passes through the estate each season, selecting pods at exactly the right maturity for peak 1,8-cineole content. He refuses to use growth-promoting hormones despite the yield incentive.

  • Original forest-canopy shade cultivation
  • 4 harvest passes per season for peak maturity selection
  • Cold-press VCO from estate-grown coconuts
Visit This Farm
Vasanti Shinde & the Gul Cooperative Kolhapur, Maharashtra

Vasanti Shinde & the Gul Cooperative

Sugarcane & Jaggery

Maratha women's farming cooperative · Traditional open-pan jaggery processing

Vasanti heads a cooperative of 28 women farmers who press their own Kolhapuri jaggery within 24 hours of cane harvest — a strict standard ensuring the lowest impurity and highest mineral retention. The cooperative has rejected export offers requiring chemical sulphur treatment, choosing quality over volume. 'Our iron content is our value,' she says.

  • 24-hour press-to-pan protocol — no sulphur treatment
  • Women-led cooperative — 28 farming families
  • Kolhapuri Gul variety protection
Visit This Farm

— Open Call —

Are you a farmer
growing the old way?

We're always looking for partners who tend heirloom seeds without synthetic input. If that's you, or someone you know — write to us.

Get in Touch