Best of 2025: 10 Farmers Who Brought New Income, Nutrition & Dignity to Rural India

Sometimes, change begins with a single act of care. A daughter planting ancient wheat to help her mother heal. A young man leaving the city to give local farmers a more reliable income. Sisters revamping neglected land into a successful farm that nourishes their community. Across India, these moments of compassion and curiosity are reshaping rural life.

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In 2025, farming became more than work; it became a way to heal the land, uplift communities, and create opportunities where there were none. These agricultural innovators remind us that the heart of progress often beats in the soil beneath our feet, in the stories of people who saw a problem, felt its weight, and refused to leave it unsolved.

Here are 10 stories of agricultural entrepreneurship rooted in care and sustainability that shaped the way we saw rural innovation in 2025.

1. Vaishali Patil, Jalgaon - Rekindling an ancient supergrain

The journey that began as a daughter’s hope to ease her mother’s struggle with leukaemia became a region-wide agricultural revival. In 2018, Vaishali planted just two acres of Khapli wheat, an ancient grain rich in fibre, antioxidants and low glycaemic properties. Within a few years, word spread across the region, and today Khapli wheat is cultivated on 1,500 acres, fetching premium prices while enriching soil health.

Vaishali also maintains her family’s banana legacy, along with groundnut, coconut and tur dal cultivation. She holds possibly the first Seed Dealer Licence for Khapli wheat, making sure hundreds of farmers have access to high-quality seeds. 

Read her story here. 

2. Shivraj Nishad, Kanpur - Bottling sunshine

Shivraj left a secure pharmaceutical career to set up a solar-powered flower dehydration unit. Processing 20 to 30 tonnes of flowers annually, his unit converts roses, jasmine and butterfly pea into teas and natural colourants. This innovation has helped over 100 farmers shift from uncertain seasonal earnings to stable, value-added incomes, while reducing post-harvest waste and lowering the carbon footprint.

Read Shivraj’s story here. 

3. Sachin Kamlakar Karekar, Ratnagiri - The turmeric titan

Sachin developed the indigenous ‘SK‑4’ turmeric variety, combining high yield, disease resistance and market appeal. Around 500 farmers across 13 states now cultivate this variety, earning better prices while practising sustainable agriculture. What was once a traditional spice crop has become a source of livelihood, confidence and prosperity.

Read Sachin’s story here. 

4. Aishwarya Bhatnagar and Prateek Rastogi, Lucknow - Sowing seeds of nutrition

Through their venture Greenday, the duo provides biofortified seeds enriched with iron, zinc and other micronutrients. Reaching over 15,000 farmers in Uttar Pradesh, they have improved the nutritional content of staple crops while boosting incomes. Their vision of an Rs 10 crore impact shows that agriculture can feed both the body and the economy.

Read their story here. 

5. Prabhat Kumar, Gaya - Changing Bihar’s farms

Engineer-turned-agro-innovator Prabhat founded SumArth in 2015 to help farmers diversify beyond paddy and wheat. His early success with onion storage facilities allowed farmers to sell when prices were higher, doubling profits in some cases.

The venture supports 25,000 farmers across 500 villages, introducing mushrooms, baby corn, sweet corn and strawberries, combined with agronomy training and market access. Collective earnings have surpassed Rs 100 crore, illustrating the power of knowledge and infrastructure in changing rural livelihoods.

Read Prabhat’s story here. 

6. Krishna Chandra Halder, Hooghly - The papaya pioneer

At 70, Krishna continues to innovate, cultivating a disease-resistant, high-yield papaya variety producing up to 75,000 kg annually. Instead of keeping the techniques to himself, he trains fellow farmers to replicate his methods, empowering them to increase yields sustainably and confidently.

Read Krishna’s story here. 

7. Gnana Saravanan and Krishnasudha, Palakkad - Tech meets organic farming

Leaving their IT careers behind, this couple turned a 36-acre family farm into Deesan Farms, combining organic cultivation with biodigesters, dairy units and intercropped fruit trees. They also produce value-added products like cold-pressed coconut oil and ghee, host thousands of visitors, and have trained over 15,000 farmers in sustainable, technology-infused practices, demonstrating that tradition and innovation can coexist to rejuvenate land and livelihoods.

Read their story here. 

8. Sonia Dahiya, Sonipat - Empowering women through mushrooms

Sonia turned her biotechnology background into a high-tech mushroom farm producing 10 tonnes monthly. Beyond revenue, her greatest achievement has been training rural women to run cultivation and processing units, creating independence, skill development, and a community of female entrepreneurs.

Read Sonia’s story here. 

9. Namita and Manisha, Dehradun - From neglected hillside to organic abundance

Sisters Namita Rawat Negi and Manisha Gosain revealed neglected amla trees on ancestral land and turned the terrain into Doon Gooseberry Farm. They cultivate gooseberries, mangoes, brinjals, tomatoes, lemons and other vegetables without chemicals, producing chutneys, pickles and jams that generate about Rs 11 lakh annually.

Beyond income, they actively involve local women, training them as entrepreneurs, with plans to establish a women-run processing unit. Their farm is proof of how caring for land and people can grow together.

Read their story here. 

10. Mohit Nijhawan, Chandigarh - Big impact from microgreens

Mohit left a 20-year pharmaceutical career to grow microgreens on just 100 sq ft with an initial investment of Rs 30,000. Today, Greenu produces over 75 varieties, earning Rs 12 lakh per month while training over 300 farmers nationwide. His work proves that small spaces, low investment, and good ideas can yield both nutrition and livelihood.

Read Mohit’s story here.