Born in an agriculture family background, Sowmya has been a rustic person since her childhood observing, learning, working and growing up in her family farm based out of Erode in Tamil Nadu. She did her under-graduation in Information technology and worked with TCS for couple of years. Starting to volunteer with NGOs then, she realized her strong love to work for grassroots level communities with specific focus on agriculture sector. With strong passion to work for people and planet, Sowmya did her Masters in Social Work – Livelihoods and Social Entrepreneurship from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She excelled highly in academics bagging all the awards during her academic stint. With five plus years of experience working with farming communities across India from the central himalayas to coastal south on sustainable livelihood and climate change, Sowmya founded HOOGA SEED KEEPERS COLLECTIVE, a social enterprise majorly focused on native seed keeping effort as a collective effort with farmers, gardeners and food growers to conserve what is endangered and forage for what is extinct. Sowmya focuses on experimenting with climate resilient native varieties of heirloom seeds, supporting small farmers – educating and creating awareness about native seeds and regenerative farming. She is a passionate community worker, seed nerd and sustainable business research consultant. She is very keen on contributing to the global ‘grow your own food’ movement to ensure food security, combat climate change and seed sovereignty.