Food Heritage India

Meet five extraordinary changemakers transforming Indian agriculture with bold ideas, indigenous wisdom, and innovations that are quietly reshaping the way India farms, eats, and thrives. This September, Optum Presents The Better India Showcase, supported by the M3M Foundation, is honouring their impact.

Once a schoolteacher, Suman Bokan now feeds 40 people a day with traditional Haryanvi meals cooked over fire in clay pots on her rooftop in Gurugram.

Once grown across Powai and Thane and favoured by the British, the rare Cawasji Patel mango—named after a philanthropist who helped shape Mumbai—is making a comeback on a Maharashtra farm.