The Land Accelerator India Cohort 2026

WRI India, in association with Villgro Innovations Foundation, present the Land Accelerator India program that supports early traction stage entrepreneurs, or ‘Restoration Champions,’ across three central Indian states, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The program will equip the cohort with future ready skills to scale their restoration solutions and succeed in the sustainable restoration economy.

The Call for Applications for the 2026 cohort was officially launched on the Startup India portal and the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India’s Manthan platform. Supported by virtual ‘Ask-Me-Anything’ sessions with the Land Accelerator alumni, targeted partner-led dissemination efforts, and outreach across government platforms and a national-level event, the Call for Applications generated a strong interest among restoration-based businesses and around 60 applications were received. All applications underwent a rigorous screening process based on predefined criteria, with a strong focus on innovation, relevance, viability, scalability, and the impact potential of restoration based business models. Additional consideration was given to applications from women, underrepresented groups, and rural innovators.

About The Land Accelerator India Cohort 2026 

The Land Accelerator India’s cohort of 2026 brings together a diverse group of restoration-based businesses, including women led businesses and businesses working closely with rural communities, small and marginal farmers, and underrepresented groups. This cohort is working on a wide range of landscape restoration approaches, spanning sustainable agriculture and smart agri technology systems; circular economy and waste to value solutions; organic land management and soil restoration; and non timber forest produce value chains.

Here is a complete list of the 10 Restoration Champions who are part of the Land Accelerator India Cohort 2026:

Mahesh Chhagan Londhe
Founder, AgroZee Organics Private Limited (Millets Now)
Maharashtra

Focus Area: Sustainable agriculture and smart agri-tech systems

Agrozee Organics works to strengthen India’s food and nutrition systems by addressing soil degradation, declining farm incomes, and widespread iron deficiency. The enterprise is building an end to end millet value chain that integrates climate smart cultivation, women led decentralised processing, and science backed nutrition solutions.

Working with smallholder farmers in rainfed and dryland regions, Agrozee Organics provides seeds, training in good agricultural practices, and post harvest support, while enabling women self help groups with processing infrastructure, quality standard operating procedures, and traceability systems. Through its flagship product, Nutri Dabba, which uses patented Hydro NIR technology to extend millet flour shelf life without preservatives and enhance iron bioavailability, Agrozee Organics promotes climate resilient millets, strengthens livelihoods, and delivers culturally acceptable nutrition at scale.

Dr. Amrita Mukherjee Ganguli
Co-founder, Arogyam Medisoft Solutions Private Limited
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh 

Focus Area: Organic land management and soil restoration

Arogyam Medisoft delivers integrated agricultural diagnostic and advisory solutions to address soil degradation, water contamination, nutrient imbalance, and pesticide overuse faced by farmers due to limited access to affordable and reliable testing infrastructure. The enterprise offers portable, battery operated devices for rapid, chemical free diagnostics, including Soil Sathi for soil nutrients and organic carbon, LeafStalk Analyser for plant health and stress, and ACLIVIA for on farm pesticide residue screening.
These diagnostics feed into the Krishi Traceability Platform, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning models with large scale soil datasets to generate precise fertiliser plans, nutrient recovery pathways, and safe spray schedules. This model enables informed input management, improves productivity, reduces environmental risks, and supports long term soil and water health.
 

Dr. Sudha Ramesh Karbari
Founder, ArkaShine Innovations Private Limited
Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh

Focus Area: Organic land management and soil restoration

ArkaShine Innovations supports small and marginal farmers facing poor soil health and limited access to affordable, timely, and actionable soil information. The enterprise has developed portable, point-of-care soil intelligence systems that combine sensors, Internet of Things technologies, and artificial intelligence to deliver on farm diagnostics through products such as SoilENZ, SoilSparsh, and SoiLIFE. These solutions measure up to 25 soil parameters and provide instant, crop-specific fertiliser recommendations, shifting soil testing from centralised laboratories to the farm level. Through a pay-per-test, micro-entrepreneur-led deployment model, ArkaShine enables last mile access to real time decision making, reduces input misuse, improves productivity, and supports sustainable agriculture, climate resilience, and long-term soil health restoration.

Hitesh Warathe
Co-founder, Gramya Ventures Private Limited
Madhya Pradesh

Focus Area: Sustainable agriculture and smart agri-tech systems

Gramya Ventures works with smallholder farmers in India’s rainfed and tribal regions, where prolonged paddy expansion and chemical intensive farming have resulted in soil degradation, water stress, and low climate resilience. The enterprise has built an end to end millet value chain rooted in local production systems, sourcing kodo and little millets directly from tribal farmers through village level entrepreneurs and women led collection centres, with same day payments and assured buyback.

By providing native seeds, agroecological training, and millets-specific processing support, Gramya Ventures promotes a shift from water intensive paddy to climate resilient millets. This model improves soil health and biodiversity while strengthening farm incomes through business to business and white label markets.

Jayant Prabhakar Sarnaik
Founder, Nature Connect India Private Limited
Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra

Focus Area: Non-timber forest produce (NTFP) value chains (forest livelihoods)

Nature Connect India works with private forest owners and forest dependent communities in the Western Ghats, a region where forest degradation and loss of high biodiversity trees continue due to limited economic incentives for conservation. The enterprise has established certified, fully traceable value chains for forest products such as turmeric, indian kino, and cinnamon, integrating conservation principles across sourcing, processing, and marketing.

Through its brand ‘myforest’, Nature Connect offers premium, single origin wellness products that link FairWild and Fairtrade certifications with conservation agreements and premium pricing. This model enables communities to earn higher incomes while actively conserving forests, and supports biodiversity restoration, sustainable harvesting practices, and long term forest regeneration.

Abhishek Sahgal
Founder, Navork Innovations Private Limited
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Focus Area: Circular economy and waste-to-value solutions

Navork Innovations works to strengthen the mushroom value chain, where cultivation offers high potential and efficient use of agricultural residues but faces severe post harvest losses due to extremely short shelf life. The enterprise has developed ‘Navgri Smart Mushroom Protect’, a patented, FSSAI approved, plant based post harvest solution for button mushrooms, derived from soy and cinnamon polyphenols and applied through the regular watering cycle without the need for new infrastructure.

By inhibiting enzymatic activity, Navgri significantly extends shelf life at room temperature, improves quality parameters such as whiteness and firmness, delays cap opening, and increases yield by approximately 18%. This reduces post-harvest mushroom losses and avoidable food waste, lowers food-related emissions, and improves utilization of agricultural residues.

Prajwal M
Founder, Oscillo Machines Private Limited
Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra

Focus Area: Organic land management and soil restoration

Oscillo Machines works on developing electric farm machinery designed for low tillage to address soil degradation, rising emissions, and increasing cultivation costs driven by intensive tillage, chemical overuse, and diesel-powered equipment. The enterprise offers solutions for paddy cultivation and poultry operations, including Direct Seeding of Rice equipment, root-washed paddy transplanters, mechanized weeders, and poultry litter raking machines.These technologies reduce deep tillage, soil compaction, diesel dependence, and chemical inputs, while improving soil aeration, nutrient cycling, and operational efficiency.

Dr. Manisha Oraon
Founder, The Open Field
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra

Focus Area: Non-timber forest produce (NTFP) value chains

The Open Field works with tribal communities engaged in India’s NTFP economy, where informality, weak traceability, and the lack of village-level processing infrastructure have led to significant post harvest losses and low-income realization. The enterprise is building a fullstack ‘Forest Economy Operating System’ that integrates hardware, software, and market access.

This includes Ayan Hubs, solar powered, Internet of Things enabled micro processing units operated by women self help groups at the village level, and an offline first Forest Operating System that enables batch level traceability, geo tagged procurement, and transparent pricing. By enabling value addition at the village level and connecting producers to institutional and premium markets, The Open Field strengthens incomes for tribal collectors, particularly women, while improving efficiency and sustainability across NTFP value chains.

Namrata Acharya
Founder, Khedut Samriddhi Private Limited
Maharashtra

Focus Area: Organic land management and soil restoration

Khedut Samriddhi works with tribal and smallholder farmers to address soil degradation and declining agricultural productivity caused by excessive chemical fertilizer use and the limited adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. The enterprise operates an integrated organic agriculture ecosystem that provides affordable, high quality organic inputs alongside hands on training.

Its model includes village level vermicompost production that creates local employment, an organic input store offering a wide range of products, and online and offline training in chemical free farming. By combining accessible inputs with practical knowledge, Khedut Samriddhi supports farmers in restoring soil health, reducing chemical dependency, and transitioning to sustainable agriculture.

 

Naga Sai Krishna B
Co-founder, Kalp Climate Tech Private Limited (KriSHE Carbon)
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh 

Focus Area: Circular economy and waste-to-value solutions

KriSHE Carbon addresses soil degradation, declining water holding capacity of soil, and falling crop productivity in India’s dryland and cotton growing regions. The organization converts surplus crop residues, which are often burned and contribute to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, into biochar using clean, decentralized flame cap kilns operated by trained rural women and youth known as ‘Climapreneurs.’

The biochar is applied back to farmers’ fields, restoring soil carbon, improving moisture retention, and enhancing long term fertility. This approach also generates verified carbon removal credits, creating additional income streams for both farmers and Climapreneurs. By combining sustainable soil practices with climate linked economic opportunities, KriSHE Carbon empowers smallholder, tribal, and women farmers to increase productivity while reducing emissions.