We are working towards a sustainable future for small-scale farmers in Uttarakhand. Their socioeconomic condition is challenged by land abandonment caused by the extremely low profitability of agriculture, and by the eventual outmigration from rural areas in search for better job opportunities elsewhere. Small-scale agriculture in the mountains of Uttarakhand remains unprofitable because of a lack of economies of scale, inefficient mechanisation, informal and unreliable access to market and conflicts with wildlife.

Our story began in 2017, when we rented a piece of land in Kyarki village, in the Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, to test innovative crops. That’s where we first cultivated chia seeds (Salvia hispanica L.), a crop that was never grown before in the Uttarakhand mountains and that was not raided by wild animals. This discovery gave us the opportunity to travel around villages and teach farmers how to grow this crop to help them revive abandoned land. We then won a funding competition by the Central Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and launched a brand to help commercialise Himalayan chia and other crops sourced directly from the farmers.

In the Uttarakhand hills, there are many problems with agriculture, including rudimental mechanisation, the small size of the landholdings, and wild animals eating or destroying the crops. In the cities of India, there is a trend of consuming unhealthy foods, a growing incidence of non-communicable diseases and a lack of transparency in the food supply chain.

The solution is the creation of a bridge to connect the Uttarakhand mountain farmers with our Indian customers. On the one hand, we empower farmers with an opportunity to grow low maintenance, high value crops with an assured market, without middlemen involved. On the other, we empower our customers with a healthy and responsible choice, at a reasonable price.

We are heading towards the future of farming, where farmers will receive the price they deserve and fulfill a growing demand for healthy and traceable foods. As part of our mission to give back to society, we developed our Superfarmers marketplace app to connect farmers and B2B buyers in a transparent way, free-of-charge. Through our Superfarmers marketplace app, farmers have direct access to wholesale buyers to optimise and live off their agricultural production, while wholesale buyers - like ourselves - are able to identify and trace the best Himalayan foods for their subsequent distribution across India and the rest of the world.