Beforest, a community-based holistic sustainable farming initiative, was founded in 2017 to change the way people perceived collective farming. Bengaluru-based Beforest sets up food- and water-secure landscapes using the principles of permaculture and natural farming.

Sunith Reddy, an IIT Madras graduate, Sameer Shisodia, a BITS Mesra-pass out, and Shaurya Chandra, an IIT Rourkee alumnus gave up their respective careers to create a meaningful platform for sustainable farming. Their brainchild Beforest is an initiative that not only helps people buy agriculture land, but also forms self-sustainable farm collectives that can generate income.

Beforest believes nature is essential for our well-being. The last few decades have been a big divergence from this paradigm. Sustainability has taken a back seat in the interest of aggressive growth. This has resulted in urban centres as the primary drivers of the economy and an ever-increasing urban population that sucks in natural resources from the rural and peri-urban zones, degrading them over time. Water and food security have become serious issues that have penetrated the basic fabric of our society, today. Beforest offers a sustainable alternative to ensure fulfilment of life’s basic needs. In the beginning, Beforest took a holistic look at the existing environmental problems, and see if a framework could be devised that drives our society towards economic, ecological, and social viability. Was it possible to build a framework to ensure food and water for a community? Beforest took the first steps in addressing such questions using principles of natural farming. Eventually, the process resulted in a community that now lives amidst what can be called a ‘food forest’-a mixed self-sustaining perennial system of food and water that requires no external inputs-True Abundance.

Beforest’s collectives (both farming and wilderness collectives) are great examples of sustainable living. Each member buys a part of the collective, and Beforest executes and manages the landscape as a single farm for a period of 10 to 15 years. During this period, the team at Beforest strives to make the landscape food, water, and power secure or in other words, resilient. The surplus produce is sold under their umbrella brand BeWild. Every collective acts as a prototype of sustainable agriculture and an incubator for the local community.

Currently, Beforest has three collectives in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Coorg. Over the next 5 years, the company hopes to bring at least 10,000 acres of unused, degraded suburban landscape into its fold and restore the soil, water, and economy of the region. This is how Beforest is striving to bring their version of a reimagined rural India to life. 

Beforest Collectives

The Tamarind Valley Collective, Thagatty-85 km from Bengaluru-is a 75-acre farm collective-31 km from the ORR near Ibrahimpatnam-31 km from the ORR (Bongloor exit), 100+ acres
Coorg-Poomaale Estate, a wilderness collective in Kakkabe (about 30 km from Virajpet, Coorg), is a 127-acre farm
Adilabad, Telangana-Proposed forest collective is 320 km from Hyderabad on the banks of the Penganga River; boasts of a 500+ acre wilderness collective with shared forest bungalows
Meghamalai Private Estates (near Periyar NP/Kodaikanal/Madurai)-Proposed wilderness and estates spread across 700–1000 acres contribute to 50–70% forest cover.

For more information, readers may please check their website http://beforest.co/