5th January 2021. My phone rang this morning. A buyer wanted 5 tons of Moringa leaves. "If it passes the lab test, we will buy it immediately," he said.

I smiled bitterly. I stopped farming Moringa 3 years ago.

September 2011. I left my engineering career at Aujan (Coca-Cola), Dubai to return to India. Family had stopped farming due to drought. I wanted to restart. I was full of hope.

But the reality of modern agriculture hit me hard.

THE CHEMICAL TRAP I looked at Papaya. Potential income was great, but I saw 18 empty hazardous chemical bottles on the neighbor's plot. I looked at Onions. Experts said, "Just spray Roundup (weed killer) twice before you start."

I refused. People called me a "fool" for not taking the easy route.

THE MARKET VOLATILITY I grew Moringa naturally. When I sold, prices crashed from ₹180 to ₹18 as everyone harvested at once. The market didn't care about ethics.

THE "FAMILY FARMER" PILOT My mother and I started a vegetable subscription model. 15 families. No chemicals. Just trust. It was working.

Then, tragedy struck. My mother, the project's backbone, fell ill. With her health declining, the project collapsed.

THE REALIZATION I learned a hard truth. A regenerative farm with high soil carbon should produce higher yields than a chemical one. Nature is smarter.

But there is a catch. Rebuilding soil health takes years. During this transition, yields drop. A small farmer cannot survive this "Valley of Death." They go broke before the soil recovers.

You cannot ask a farmer to save the soil if they cannot feed their family.

THE SOLUTION: SARVAANI & THE FMU We needed a financial bridge. So we built the FMU (Farmer Manufacturing Unit) model.

We help farmers set up manufacturing units on their land. Instead of selling raw produce, they sell finished products (virgin coconut, cold-pressed oils).

• The Economics: Value addition increases income immediately.

• The Ecology: This income buys time. It lets farmers survive the transition and restore soil health without pressure for immediate high yields.

THE PROOF We established our first unit, Jamuna Traders, headed by Jamuna (young woman farmer). Today, it is successful and self-sustaining. No begging for fair prices; they manufacture value.

Our second unit, Ganga Naturals, owned by Manoj (urban-returned farmer), has operated for a year.

It took me a decade of failures to figure this out. But we are finally building a model where financial growth and soil health go hand-in-hand.

— Puttaradhya Siddaraj, Founder & CEO

#FounderJourney #RegenerativeAgriculture #Sarvaani #SoilHealth #SustainableBusiness