My Journey to Starting Hooga Seeds
From a Tamil Nadu Farm to Himalayan Seed Banks: My Journey to Starting Hooga Seeds
To truly understand why I, Sowmya Balasubramaniam, started Hooga Seed Keepers Collective, I feel the need to begin from the very beginning. What I do today isn’t just a passion project or a trendy return to nature. It’s the dire need of the hour for our land, our food, our farmers, and our future.
Growing Up in a Farmer’s Family I was born and raised in a small village called Kanjikoil, nestled in Erode District, Tamil Nadu. My childhood was filled with the rhythm of rural life: waking up to the sounds of cows, walking through sun-drenched fields, and helping with the harvest when hands were short. My parents were farmers whose entire livelihood was based on agriculture—hard work under a hot sun, unpredictable weather, and senseless price drops. They knew the pain behind the produce, and like many farming families in India, they did not want me to follow in their footsteps. Farming, in their eyes, was a trap.
Into the City and the System I followed the well-worn path, studying Information Technology and moving to Chennai. For a while, I tried to adjust to the fast life of endless deadlines and air-conditioned cubicles. But I felt disconnected from people, nature, and purpose. I began volunteering with orphaned children and the elderly, which soon became the only thing I looked forward to. I decided to make social welfare my profession, applying to the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). I poured myself into the work, graduating with multiple honors, including Gold Medalist in Social Work.
A Girl, a Mountain, and 42 Varieties of Rajma Returning to my village meant marriage pressure, but I wasn’t ready. I listened to a long-suppressed calling and moved to a remote Himalayan village to work with an NGO. The mountains taught me simplicity and a deep connection to the Earth. One day in the Almora region, I met a grandmother surrounded by baskets filled with over 42 varieties of Rajma—colorful, speckled, striped, tiny, and large. I had only ever known the common red rajma. She explained that each had a purpose: some grew in less water, others cooked faster, and some aided recovery from illness. I was shaken by what we were quietly losing.
The Birth of Hooga Seed Keepers Collective I realized traditional seeds are disappearing, replaced by uniform systems controlled by corporations. After reading Dr. Vandana Shiva and Jeffrey Smith’s The Genetic Roulette, the danger of GMOs and the loss of farmer rights kept me awake at night. I started Hooga Seeds as a social enterprise and farmers’ collective. Today, over 50 farmers across India grow traditional, heirloom, open-pollinated seeds for Hooga. Over ten years, I’ve traveled across India, saving varieties on the verge of extinction.
Grow with Purpose Every time you plant a seed, you choose diversity over uniformity, nutrition over appearance, and resilience over vulnerability. We offer carefully grown native and heirloom seeds—the kind you can save and share. Join us in this seed revolution, whether in your balcony or farm, and let’s grow memory, culture, and resilience one seed at a time.
