Though frequently characterized as ‘resource poor’, many of India’s farming communities are extraordinarily rich in plant and animal genetic diversity and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). One of the greatest hallmarks of our TEK practices is nutrient-dense food crops.

Story of Sona Moti – The Golden Pearl: In 2018, our farmers traveling in the area were given a handful of an ancient wheat variety as an offering from an ashram in Pingalwara in Amritsar, Punjab. We had it tested to discover that this was a variety that had been cultivated in India for over 2000 years but was slowly becoming extinct. This spherical-shaped golden-hued grain was also tested to have high folic acid content and more than 3 times the minerals found in other wheat. The grain was renamed Sona Moti because it looked like a golden pearl.

We taught our farmers in Punjab to multiply these grains, grow the wheat using natural farming techniques and we created supply chain linkages through our retail distribution network.

Today our Sona Moti growers earn 4 times the price of industrialized hybrid wheat sold in the market.