Originally reported and written in July 2023, this story has been republished as part of our archival content.

In the heart of Kerala’s Idukki district, a collective of farmers toils hard. They are busy tending to their plantations and praying to the rain gods that the weather favours them this year. But they do not really have any reason to worry because the last few years have proved to be a game changer for them. They have unlearned and relearned the nuances of organic farming, thus witnessing a boost in their harvest.

And at the helm, driving this change are two individuals Bhavesh Sawariya — a mechanical engineer from Chhatisgarh, and Annu Sunny — a science graduate from Kerala. Now in their thirties, they met in 2015 in a social leadership development program called India Fellow.

Designed to propel the youth toward working on the ground level with communities in rural India, the program held a certain kind of fascination for Bhavesh who had always lived in the city and wanted to experience village life.

As he recounts to The Better India, this 13-month programme was instrumental in shaping everything he did professionally thereafter. In his words, “It was a work of fate.”

“Sometimes you have a calling to do something that is very different from what you set out to. When that time comes, follow the calling,” he advises. Today, Bhavesh and Annu’s creation ‘Graamya’ is a result of this tryst with fate.

The platform, which was registered in 2016 in Idukki, acts as a link between consumers looking to buy organically grown spices and farmers who are growing these. Graamya also empowers farmers to shift to natural farming methods, providing them with the support they need to make this transition.

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A trip to Ladakh that changed everything

During the course of the program,........

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