Headline

Founder, CEO, at Bhoomi Farms

About

I am Shankar, and I am a regenerative organic farmer. I am passionate about organic and no-till farming, developing healthy vibrant soils and growing healthy crops full of nutrition. With a heart for innovation and a hands-on approach to sustainability, I've spent the last 15 years doing organic farming. Leaving behind a career in engineering, I embarked on journey to reconnect with the land, to understand nature's wisdom to build thriving ecosystems. As the lead farmer, founder, and CEO of Bhoomi Farms, I lead a passionate team, dedicated to co-creating regenerative landscapes. From diversified crop rotations and no-till farming to holistic livestock management, we're committed to nurturing healthy ecosystems that regenerate soil fertility, increase carbon sequestration, and promote biodiversity while producing nutrient-dense, flavorful food for our communities. I'm interested in forging connections with fellow change makers, thought leaders, and sustainable innovators who share my vision for a regenerative future. Whether you're a farmer, researcher, entrepreneur, or simply curious about the transformative power of regenerative agriculture, I invite you to join me on this journey of regeneration and renewal. Together, let's cultivate abundance, restore balance, and sow the seeds of a brighter tomorrow.

Location

Bengaluru South

Work experience

Founder and CEO at Bhoomi Farms, Feb 2021 - Present · 5 yrs 9 mos, Greater Bengaluru Area, Regenerative Organic Farming. Growing Safe food through natural methods on healthy soil. Driving strategy for safe food for communities, increasing farmer income by farming organically. Connecting supply with demand.

Founder, CEO, Lead Farmer and Organic Farming Educator. at Mapletree farms, Jan 2016 - Feb 2021 · 5 yrs 2 mos, Tamil Nadu, India, Mapletree Farm is a joint effort by Shri S.D. Shibulal, Ex-CEO of Infosys, Smt. Kumari Shibulal, Shri. Mouli Raman, Ex-CEO of Onmobile, and Mr. Shankar Venkataraman who was an ex-Engineer from Silicon Valley California and was farming organically in California from 2008 to 2015 before starting this effort in India in January 2016. On-Farm Training includes farm mechanics, Ecosystems, Soil Biology, Soil chemistry, Plant Botany, Farm financial planning, Production planning, Integrated Pest Management, Soil building methods, Greenhouse production methods, Marketing, and Sales of organic products.

Founder and CEO at HILLVIEW ORGANICS LLC, Jun 2008 - May 2015 · 7 yrs, Vacaville, California, United States, Build soil using knowledge of soil chemistry, soil biology and ecosystems. Understand plant botany and integrated pest management. Build infrastructure such as solar panels, greenhouses, vegetable and fruit coolers. Grow and market first rate vegetables, fruits, dry fruits and nuts. Make excellent compost for the plants and trees. Investigate and use various cover crops to build soil. Work on community oriented projects such as educating children about importance of land. Work with community around the farm to build the local economy at Vacaville, CA 95688. Educate willing people about the importance of food and nutrition in human animal and plant health. Pursue agro forestry and animal husbandry and make holistic decisions about land and ecosystem. Work with universities and graduating students on research projects that help improve yields and disease resistance as well as seed saving quality. Create more farmers by introducing profit share scheme to ultimately create employee owned corporations.

Hardware Engineering ASIC and FPGA design and development at Infinera, 2008 - 2011 · 3 yrs, San Francisco Bay Area, Develop Architecture and Microarchitechture design for various Chips and systems. Build Framer device in ASIC for proprietary frame transport protocol between chips in XTN system. Build Fabric manager switch device in ASIC with frame buffers and deskew function for multi terabit XTN switch platform. Verify all the functions implemented in the ASICs by programming high speed third party SERDES and setting up diagnostic lab platform and by building diagnostics routines and sending live traffic on the XTN system platform. The main area of work is Optical transport protocols and systems.

Senior Hardware Design Engineer at Xsigo Systems, Aug 2006 - Nov 2007 · 1 yr 4 mos, San Francisco Bay Area, Develop Microarchitecture and design documents and build complex FPGAs with Xilinx technology from Concept to Implementation in an aggressive start-up environment and lab testing and integration testing of function on board and system in a network. Work with software and diagnostic teams in the lab for integration. The main area of work is Datacenter networking.

Education

Masters, Physics with specialization in Microelectronics, Bachelors in Electronics and Electrical, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani