The interviews and reporting for this story were conducted in 2024.

There is a five-acre piece of land in the Ungarada village of Andhra Pradesh that is a microcosm of produce, exotic and local — sugarcane, paddy, and mango orchards coexist here; and ensuring that each of them thrive to their full potential is a corporate professional turned farmer, Darlapudi Ravi. The 54-year-old recalls 2015 as the year he had his moment of catharsis.

“I was working as an assistant general manager in the cement industry, where I witnessed heavy pollution and dust in and around factory premises.” Where does the grime settle? he wondered.

He didn’t have to look very far for the answer. It lay in the news reports — filled with instances of pesticide poisoning, the discovery of new cancer variants and emerging health epidemics.

“I realised that diabetes, indigestion, and abdominal pains that many of my friends and relatives were experiencing were because of the unhealthy food they were eating,” he recalls. This, he deduced, was not limited to junk.

Take white polished rice, for instance. Darlapudi observed how often, what is sold by markets under the garb of being ‘carbohydrate-rich’, is pure starch with a high glycemic index.

Modern foods bring allure but do they bring substance?

This ambivalence led Darlapudi to quit his job and turn to greener pastures, both literally and metaphorically. Today, the patch of land in his home in Andhra Pradesh is where the farmer ensures the food practices of the past get a vibrant future. Darlapudi beams with pride as he shares that the germplasm bank he has nurtured is now home to over 3,600 varieties of indigenous seeds.

Safeguarding food diversity

Did you know certain varieties of bean, rice, corn and pumpkin produce seeds that when stored in apt conditions, remain viable even centuries later?

Darlapudi is cultivating a mini-revolution in his backyard. He is amused at........

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