The Plate Podcast

The dairy industry is one of Indian agriculture's standout success stories. Until the 1970s, milk shortages were common. The White Revolution, led by Verghese Kurien, not only made India self-sufficient but also the world’s largest milk producer. Now, these achievements are under threat. Milk production growth is slowing, and Indian dairy products struggle to meet global quality standards. The Pla...

In this episode, The Plate’s Sanjana James speaks to Anushka Jaiswal, a dynamic young agripreneur from Lucknow. Defying norms in a traditionally male-dominated field, this economics graduate turned her passion for farming into a thriving profession. Anushka’s innovative farming techniques are not just transforming her journey but also setting a new benchmark for modern agriculture. We speak to her...

Given the concerns around climate change and ecological degradation, a shift to natural farming practices that exclude the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, is advocated by many as the only way forward. But, can going back to a simplistic method of using farm waste and manure help feed a country of 1.4 billion? Is natural farming even financially sustainable for farmers and consumers ali...

Small and marginal farmers, or those with less than two acres of land, make up over 86 per cent of Indian farming. A majority of these smallholder farmers  are women. Their participation is not just invisible, but they own very little land. In many ways the challenge of reforming agriculture in India, starts with empowering women farmers, especially the landless and poor.  This is what drives the...

Tomato prices have skyrocketed to Rs 150-200/kilo now. Just a few months ago, farmers were dumping tomatoes on roads in protest against prices falling to as low as Rs 1-2. Why do prices of essential vegetables in India swing as wildly as the dukes ball on a green top in Nottingham? The Plate's TR Vivek speaks to Vilas Shinde, the chairman of Sahyadri Farms, India's largest farmer producer...

India is now the world’s most populous nation of 1.42 billion surpassing China. In November 2022, the world population touched 8 billion. How to feed 10 billion people by 2050 with lesser natural resources, is a subject that has fascinated award-winning US science journalist and writer Charles C Mann. It was the central question of his 2018 book  The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientis...

Climate change shows up in the form of frequent events of unseasonal rains, heatwaves and even the virtual disappearance of spring time in India. For small farmers, it is now one of the biggest existential threats. BioPrime, one of the few deep-tech startups in Indian agriculture is trying to solve for this problem by developing technologies that rely on rekindling the ability of plants to respond...

India is the biggest importer and consumer of dates. Given the big demand, India is trying to grow a lot of it and achieve self-sufficiency. The Plate's Anisha Jain spoke to Ajit Singh Batra , Senior Vice President Business Development from Gujarat’s Atul Limited. At Atul, Batra and team run a project called Greening The Desert. It aims to boost indegenuous  production of table dates in the de...

Onion is India’s most politically sensitive crop. Any increase in consumer prices of onions is a nightmare for politicians. But the prices often crash too making farmers angry. Why is that so? What explains the constant supply and demand crisis of Onions in India? And India, an onion surplus nation fails to make money in exports even when there is a global shortage of onions. To find answers to so...

Some 800 small, grape farmers in Nashik joined hands in 2010 to form a company called Sahyadri Farms. Owned and managed entirely by farmers, it is now a Rs 800 crore company. It is the largest Indian exporter of grapes. Sahyadri makes almost half all the Kissan tomato ketchup sold by the FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever.  Today many of the farmers who founded the company are millionaires. We spoke to...

Any conversation about food and agriculture or even India’s history since Independence would be incomplete without looking at the Green Revolution. The Green Revolution led to a massive jump in food production, making a poor nation self-sufficient in foodgrains. For that reason alone the Green Revolution could be put right at the top of events that shaped modern India. For a historical perspective...