Event Speakers

Shashi Kumar Founder & CEO, Akshayakalpa Organic

“You can never grow a single crop organically,” is a line often delivered with certainty. Shashi Kumar has spent the last two decades proving why that certainty is misplaced.
Born into a farming family, Shashi was, paradoxically, advised by his father to stay away from agriculture, a livelihood seen as uncertain and unforgiving. He followed the conventional path instead, earning an engineering degree and building a successful 17-year career in the IT industry. Yet, despite professional success, the pull of the soil never faded. It was instinctive, deeply personal, and ultimately impossible to ignore.
In 2004, while still working full-time in the technology sector, Shashi began experimenting with organic farming at a small plot in Ramnagar. What exactly is organic, is the fundamental question he addressed. Through a relentless process of trial and error, he understood that chemical fertilizers and pesticides, while providing immediate nutrition to crops, end up killing all the microorganisms in the soil, including beneficial ones. Over time, this depletes the soil’s ability to support vegetation, rendering it unfit for cultivation. From this learning emerged a regenerative farming practice that transformed his barren land into a thriving ecosystem of crops, microbes, and living soil. During this phase, his wife Shilpa was instrumental in turning theory into practice by managing the day-to-day operations. Their farm became living proof that organic farming could be both sustainable and regenerative.