India, Jan. 6 -- The stories we hear in childhood often shape our destinies. They certainly shaped mine. I was raised in a city in Kerala in the 80s and 90s, yet it was my parents' memories of their village that set me on the path to becoming a farmer. They talked of diverse crops and seasonal food, adventures in cashew orchards, paddy fields that became vast water bodies in the monsoon, and rivers teeming with fish. But what the stories did not prepare me for were the innumerable challenges farmers face: Unfair prices for our produce, a political economy that sidelines those who grow the nation's food, a society that forgets that food is not born on supermarket shelves, and a weather pattern that keeps us guessing by the day.

My prepara...