Krutika Ravishankar

Krutika Ravishankar is pioneering a new model to combat climate change in India by positioning farmers as key custodians of forests and biodiversity. Through her organization, Farmers for Forests (F4F), she is creating an ecosystem where smallholder farmers economically benefit from ecological restoration. Krutika has built a measurable, tech-enabled system—leveraging drones, AI, and satellite imagery—that tracks carbon sequestration and biodiversity gains. This innovation allows farmers to receive compensation through carbon markets and ecosystem service payments, incentivizing the widespread adoption of sustainable agroforestry practices across rural India.

Krutika Ravishankar is transforming how India tackles climate change by placing farmers at the center of forest restoration and biodiversity conservation. In a country where forest land has historically been cleared for agriculture, Krutika is flipping the traditional narrative by empowering farmers to become stewards and custodians of forests. This approach has led to both ecological regeneration and increased income for farmers.

Through her organization, Farmers for Forests – Krutika has built a farmer-led model of regenerative agroforestry that draws on local knowledge and community leadership. Farmers receive long-term support, financial tools, and agronomic training, to shift from extractive agriculture to regenerative practices that restore soil health, reduce deforestation and fires, and increase biodiversity. Farmers become active advocates and ambassadors for this transition, spreading the model peer-to-peer through trust, model examples, and demonstrable success. This is countering the hitherto top-down programs or external mandates. She is regenerating degraded land through agroforestry while earning dignified, sustainable livelihoods. These ‘farmer entrepreneurs’ not only restore their own land but become advocates and implementers of the model at the grassroots, driving decentralized and scalable impact. Equipped with real-time biodiversity and carbon sequestration data from drones, AI, and satellite imaging, farmers gain both confidence and measurable returns. This data is further leveraged by Krutika to directly link farmers to carbon markets- long dominated by large, corporate players- unlocking new income streams tied to ecological restoration.

This has opened up new income streams for farmers from ecological restoration. The model turns forests from being seen as “lost farmland” into valuable, income-generating assets through carbon credits, fruit-bearing trees, intercropping, and long-term timber income—boosting smallholder earnings by four to five times, while building climate resilience.
Krutika’s work is creating a systemic shift in India’s climate response. Since 2019, she has advanced a bottom-up model of environmental governance where the responsibility and benefits of land restoration are transferred to those who depend on it most: local farmers and communities. By directly connecting these communities to global climate finance, Krutika reframes forest conservation and livelihood generation as mutually reinforcing and not as trade-offs or standalone exclusive goals. As a result, she has built a scalable, decentralized approach to forest governance—rooted in justice, powered by community leadership, and driven by a new vision for the relationship between people and their land.

India is grappling with a systemic crisis driven by the dual degradation of its environment and rural economy. Nearly 30% of the country’s land is degraded, threatening the livelihoods of over 42.3% of the population that depends on agriculture and forestry for fuel, food, fodder, and income. Although agriculture contributes 18.2% to India’s GDP, farmers have not reaped the benefits. Forests have been cleared over decades to make way for farmland, yet agricultural returns continue to decline due to erratic weather, depleting soil fertility, frequent pest attacks, and rising input costs. Unpredictable climate patterns also make staple crop yields inconsistent, leaving farmers with unreliable incomes. While agroforestry offers a more resilient and economically viable alternative, the high initial cost of transitioning to these sustainable methods often remains out of reach for smallholder farmers.

The collapse of rural economies and rising climate vulnerability are consequences of a broken system. India’s major environmental initiatives—such as the National Forest Policy (1988), the Green India Mission, and the Multi-Annual Project for Coastal and Coastal Zone Management (MAPCC)- face serious limitations due to outdated frameworks, ambiguous definitions, underfunding, and poor implementation of community rights. The National Forest Policy lacks clarity on key terms and fails to safeguard the rights of tribal and forest-dwelling communities, while raising concerns over increased private sector involvement. The Green India Mission requires more funding and deeper community engagement. Similarly, MAPCC struggles to address complex coastal threats like pollution, habitat degradation, and climate change.

According to a 2023 World Bank study, India, despite being one of the world’s most populous countries, has only 1.8% forest cover, among the lowest globally. Without strong, community-centered conservation, this figure is unlikely to improve. Meanwhile, unsustainable farming practices, such as excessive fertilizer use and slash-and-burn soil regeneration, have degraded soil and polluted the air. The national climate discourse on net-zero goals and biodiversity often excludes those most impacted- smallholder farmers and indigenous communities.

For these communities, the crisis is personal and persistent. In semi-arid Maharashtra, for example, farmers earn as little as ₹10,000 (USD 118) a year from monoculture paddy farming. Their lands are parched, their soil depleted, and their harvests at the mercy of unpredictable weather. Indigenous communities face shrinking forests, frequent wildfires, and the steady erosion of their primary sources of food, fuel, and livelihood. Yet conservation efforts rarely translate into real protection for them.

Before Krutika’s intervention, forest restoration and access to carbon finance were dominated by large institutions and corporate actors. Smallholder farmers were effectively locked out-barred by technical, financial, and knowledge barriers from adopting regenerative solutions like agroforestry. Krutika saw a critical gap in India’s climate and land restoration strategy- the people most affected were the least involved. While agroforestry was gaining recognition and global climate finance was expanding, there was no scalable model that connected smallholder farmers directly to carbon income. Most efforts focused on urban afforestation or plantation-based approaches, not systemic, farmer-led land regeneration. This is the gap Krutika set out to address, by transforming farmers from passive victims of deforestation into empowered stewards of India’s ecological recovery.

Krutika is building a nationwide movement to place farmers and indigenous communities at the center of India’s climate response. Drawing from her experience with a local program, Krutika launched her own pilot in 2019, in a few villages in Maharashtra. The success of her program enabled these villages to serve as showcase models for wider replication. Through her organization, Farmers for Forests (F4F), she is pioneering a regenerative agroforestry model that links ecological restoration directly to rural incomes. Her strategy combines payment-for-ecosystem-services, precision technology, and deep community engagement to shift the incentives and governance of land restoration.

Krutika’s approach features structured pathways that enable smallholder farmers to adopt regenerative agroforestry practices while providing them with consistent financial support and technical assistance. F4F begins by identifying farmers with degraded or vulnerable land and supporting them to transition to agroforestry. Farmers receive subsidized saplings, organic inputs, drip irrigation, and practical training, while maintaining full ownership of their land. Agroforestry plots are carefully designed through collaboration between farmers and technical experts, with native, fruit-bearing, and timber species planted alongside intercropping options that diversify income, restore soil health, and strengthen climate resilience.

Monitoring and tree-counting are conducted quarterly by field visits, drone imagery, and feedback from farmers to assess tree health and program outcomes. To incentivize sustained conservation, conditional cash transfers are issued based on the maintenance of tree cover, while carbon offsets generated through sequestration further supplement farmer incomes. Strong feedback and learning loop ensure continual refinement of the model, enabling improvements and addressing risks in real time.

Krutika has pioneered India’s first high-precision remote monitoring system, enabling payment-for-ecosystem-services, making forest stewardship a viable and dignified livelihood. F4F integrates a robust, tech-enabled monitoring system using drones, satellite data, and AI-powered carbon modelling to track environmental outcomes with high precision. Verified improvements in tree survival, vegetation cover, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity trigger monthly performance-based cash payments to farmers. Farmers also retain a 70 percent share of any carbon credit revenues generated through the program, offering a long-term incentive to sustain conservation practices. To lower financial barriers, F4F covers 85 percent of initial transition costs, making agroforestry affordable for smallholders who previously lacked access to such models. By linking smallholder farmers directly to global carbon markets—previously dominated by corporate actors—Krutika creates a powerful financial engine to drive forest conservation at scale.

The success of early adopters has created a powerful peer-to-peer movement, with farmers becoming ambassadors of the model within their own communities. By building strong farmer networks and supporting them with accessible technology and clear market pathways, Krutika ensures that change is driven from the grassroots. F4F’s work has also been embedded into public systems with the state governments of Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, and is piloting her model with the national Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

To further enable replication at scale, Krutika is building an open-source digital platform and toolkit that enables local NGOs, farmer collectives, and government agencies to implement the model independently and at low cost. F4F has also closely worked with CSR funds, philanthropy, and carbon markets to develop blended finance models to ensure financial resilience and long-term sustainability. Beyond agroforestry, Krutika is applying her approach to broader ecological challenges—from mitigating human-wildlife conflict to piloting new innovations such as biochar to enhance carbon storage.

At its core, Krutika’s strategy reframes climate action and forest conservation in India by proving that empowered farmers armed with the right tools, incentives, and market access can drive large-scale ecological restoration while building sustainable livelihoods.

Krutika has demonstrated that community-led agroforestry can be a transformative force for both environmental restoration and rural livelihoods. Her model is already reshaping practices and mindsets across multiple states in India. As of 2025, F4F has transitioned more than 2,500 hectares of degraded farmland into thriving agroforestry systems, with an additional 2,000 hectares of forest now under direct community management. Beyond these core areas, through widespread training and support, an additional 200,000 hectares of forest and vulnerable landscapes have been protected.

More than 26,000 smallholder farmers—most of them women—are now directly participating in F4F’s model, while over 100,000 farmers have received training in regenerative practices. The ecological gains show that there is a 27 percent increase in vegetation health (NDVI), over 50,000 tons of carbon have been sequestered, with a threefold increase in biodiversity on restored plots. Sustainable water practices—particularly drip irrigation—have conserved an estimated 4.5 billion litres of water. On an individual level, farmers have reported a three- to fourfold increase in per-hectare income by the fourth year of adoption. This is because agroforestry delivers multiple revenue streams through fruit, timber, intercropping, and carbon credits.

Most significantly, Krutika’s model has catalyzed a mindset shift. Farmers who once struggled to make ends meet through monoculture cropping or depleted lands now see agroforestry as a practical, proven path to resilience and prosperity. The ease of transition—enabled by F4F’s technical and financial support—has empowered farmers to take ownership of the model and spread it organically within their communities. Many farmers who previously migrated for work are now staying in their villages, becoming local entrepreneurs and mentors to others.

F4F’s success has also attracted significant institutional interest. In addition to influencing five state governments, Krutika’s model is now informing national-level policy pilots aimed at decentralizing forest governance. Major corporate partners, such as Accenture, are also integrating the model into their sustainability portfolios. In 2024, F4F’s "Efficient Ecosystem" project converted 133 acres of non-cultivable land into productive agroforestry, with 97.9 percent of participating farmers affirming the program’s relevance to both income generation and environmental conservation.

Krutika has also stepped in to actively tackle pressing local challenges. In Gadchiroli, where wild elephants had been damaging property and crops, F4F reduced human-elephant conflict by combining targeted reforestation with drone-enabled tracking of elephant migration. In Ahmednagar, a pilot project on biochar is showing promising results in improving tree growth while enhancing carbon storage. Across all districts, F4F’s AI-powered carbon model—developed in-house with 95 percent accuracy—has allowed real-time tracking of over 1,000 farm plots, providing transparency and accountability to both farmers and funders.

By demonstrating that livelihoods and conservation can be mutually reinforcing, Krutika is shifting forest management from a state-controlled responsibility to a community-owned and tech-enabled enterprise. Her replicable model is already driving systemic change: farmers are achieving financial stability through ecosystem payments and carbon credits by reducing their input costs, and gaining new income streams from sustainable forest produce. Social dynamics are also changing, as farmers evolve from subsistence cultivators to environmental stewards and climate leaders.

Going forward, Krutika envisions catalysing a pan-India movement toward regenerative agroforestry. By 2030, she aims to restore over 30,000 acres of land and spark the transition of millions of hectares to sustainable land-use practices. Her vision extends beyond scaling Farmers for Forests—she is developing a replicable, open-source blueprint for regenerative forestry that can be adapted and implemented by governments, SHGs, and civil society actors. As the organization enters a phase of rapid growth—with a 100+ member team, deepening government partnerships, and market traction among carbon buyers—Krutika is focused on codifying systems and building robust tech infrastructure to ensure fidelity of impact at scale. Through open platforms, collaborative partnerships, and close work with government bodies, she is ensuring that every farmer in India, regardless of landholding size or background, has access to the tools, knowledge, and markets needed to become a steward of the forest.

Krutika Ravishankar’s journey began in the unlikely corridors of international finance. With a background in Economics and Environmental Studies, she worked in equity markets and international development, gaining a clear view of how capital flows and market systems function. Yet, it was a sabbatical spent in rural India that shifted her trajectory. As an undergraduate student, she took a leap of faith and took a break from her studies in the US, returned to India to follow and observe social leader Anna Hazare. She studied his visionary model for village restoration and was greatly inspired by it. On the ground with smallholder farmers, she witnessed the collision of poverty, ecological degradation, and policy failure and felt deeply called to action.

From childhood, Krutika’s connection to nature was ingrained. Her creative and personal life was shaped by time spent in forests and with animals, sparking an early awareness of the stark imbalance between human expansion and ecological preservation. Even as she navigated elite institutions and global markets, she carried a persistent discomfort with the glaring human domination over nature that drives climate collapse. These early sensibilities matured into a fierce commitment to justice for both people and planet.

While Farmers for Forests is her first formal entrepreneurial venture, Krutika’s career reflects a pattern of system-oriented problem solving. Her ability to straddle finance and ecology, once seen as conflicting domains, is now the foundation of a model that delivers climate solutions rooted in community ownership. The venture reflects her belief that the tools of the market, if ethically redirected, can drive equitable regeneration. Krutika Ravishankar has over 14 years of experience in international development, forestry, and finance, collaborating with prominent economists like Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. She gained experience managing teams and field operations across India, overseeing large budgets, ensuring financial compliance and using data analysis and management tools. Her diverse experience includes roles at Suvita (then called Charity Science Health), The World Bank Group, and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), where she managed research projects and engaged with government officials.

Krutika holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) from Mount Holyoke College, with a major in Economics and a minor in Environmental Studies. She is the recipient of the Mount Holyoke College Leadership Award and the Mary Lyon Alumni Fellowship. Beyond awards and recognitions, Krutika focuses on the values it unlocks- credibility with policymakers, collaboration opportunities with global actors, and renewed urgency for collective action. She remains grounded in her core purpose- to build a future where farmers, forests, and ecosystems thrive together.