On Bangalore’s beautiful outskirts, a farm startup wants to up India’s health, one belly at a time

One of the many water apples I sampled. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

I’m on a morning conference call with Back2basics father-daughter duo – founder and chief farmer Srinivasan Madhusudhan and idea cultivator (that’s her real job title) Bhairavi Madhusudhan – when I hear shouting. Srinivasan drops off the line.

Everything’s fine, Bhairavi assures me – it’s just that there’s been an elephant attack, and it’ll just be the two of us while the problem gets sorted.

About three weeks later, I’m sitting with Bhairavi as we’re driven on bumpy roads through greenery on the outskirts of East Bangalore. I only have time to tour two of Back2basics’ farms today, but both are experimental farms – open to 30-person groups every month to tour (and snack from) – and one is the one paid a visit by the elephants.

The elephants came to eat bananas and, finding they weren’t ripe enough, stomped on the cherry tomatoes. Then they took a bath in the water nearby, hung out a little more, and – as Bhairavi says – “bounced.” Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

I note immediately that the air is cooler and cleaner, even as the city haze is visible at a distance beyond the trees. I’m witnessing only a portion of Back2basics’ 180 acres of organic fruits and vegetables, and only a part of the over 450 workers there, but it’s still surprising to me when I hop out of the vehicle and see a small warehouse, with a couple handfuls of people sorting through vegetables by hand.

This group of people and some delivery trucks is what keeps Back2basics’s food growing and delivered – the company exports to Europe and Singapore, as well as multinational corporates in India and 45 organic stores in Bangalore. More recently, they’ve begun taking orders from around Bangalore and delivering straight to homes.

A walk in the garden

Srinivasan leads me through one of Back2basics’ experience farms. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

Srinivasan meets us when we arrive and takes me through the fruit farm first. The first food I sample is actually growing right in front of my feet, so close to the ground that I mistook it to be part of the grass. He rips off a leaf for me. It’s minty when I take a bite. Spearmint, he tells me.

He ends up handing me more samples than I can eat at once, so one of the workers hands me a plastic bag to hold my food – the only plastic allowed on the farm is that used to carry the produce. Overhead, a white bird with impressive wingspan floats over the garden, along with a green bird that I haven’t seen before in Bangalore. Plenty of parrots hang out around the farm, Srinivasan tells me. They’re circling because he feeds them every morning, and his presence makes them think it’s time to eat.

Sweet basil, straight from the source. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

Seeds of fate

Sprouting organic