Founded in 2016 by Dharmishtha Goenka, Praakritik is a Mumbai-based brand sourcing produce from farmers across India who do not use any pesticides or chemical inputs for cultivation. In their initial years, Praakritik—which means ‘of the nature’ in Hindi—regularly visited farms to understand the region’s climate and topography, and identify farmer producer organisations (FPOs) growing produce without any chemicals. Their products include a range of native ghee varieties; cold-pressed oils; chemical-free pantry staples like flours, dal, pulses, rice; natural sweeteners like honey, jaggery, and coconut sugar; and spices.
Praakritik currently works with more than 750 farmers across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Uttarakhand. They regularly visit farms to check the soil for any harmful pesticides or fertilisers. Given their philosophy of sourcing locally grown ingredients, they procure raw honey from tribal communities in Jharkhand, khapli atta from Karnataka, coconut oil from Tamil Nadu, and moringa from Gujarat, to name a few.
Along with working with organic-certified farmer groups, Praakritik also works with six gaushalas across the country to procure ghee that is obtained from the milk of native breeds of cows. Praakritik began its operations by supporting a gaushala in Nadiad, Gujarat. Traditionally, they would only sell milk, but Praakirik established a market by procuring hand-churned ghee from the milk obtained from Gir cows.
To ensure quality of their products, Praakritik partners with an NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited laboratory in Mumbai.
The Locavore Stamp
The Locavore Stamp offers a closer look at how Praakritik works—not just what they produce, but the practices, choices, and compromises they make, and their relationships with the people growing the food. We look at their work through seven interconnected lenses: Origin, Knowledge, Workforce, Production, Composition, Packaging, and Community. Together, these form a single food landscape, reflecting how none of these aspects exists in isolation.
Traditional certifications rely on defined standards and thresholds, but these can sometimes leave less room for the nuance of how a producer actually operates. The Locavore Stamp is intended to make more of that complexity visible rather than reduce a producer to a pass, fail, or score. It is a way to make a producer’s practices more transparent, recognise where meaningful work is being done, acknowledge where there may still be room to improve, and give you greater context to be able to decide whether and how you might support it.
What follows is a snapshot of Praakritik at the time of publication, based on our research and several rounds of conversations with Dharmishtha Goenka.
Hover or tap on the illustration above to explore the seven lenses of The Locavore Stamp. Illustration by Antara Raman.
Origin
Praakritik sources ingredients from over 750 farmers across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Uttarakhand.
Knowledge
They rely on traditional and indigenous knowledge of farmers to procure ingredients such as their roasted khapli wheat rava, jackfruit powder, moringa powder, and coconut sugar, along with related recipes.
Workforce
Praakritik has 52 team members with employee redressal procedures in place. They have an all-women processing team at their production unit in Mumbai. They have chosen to keep their wages confidential.
Production
All produce is free of chemicals, certified organic, and made using traditional processing methods such as hand-pounding and churning.
Composition
Their products do not contain any artificial ingredients or preservatives.
Packaging
The ghee and oil are packaged in glass jars, pantry staples like flours and dals in laminated pouches, and spices in plastic bottles. All products are shipped in cardboard boxes.
Community
Praakritik maintains its relationships with farming communities through regular field visits, sharing crop requirements in advance, and ensuring secure markets for their farmers. They also built Ghee Shala, a ghee-processing facility in Pune for the first gaushala they partnered with.
Why We Love Praakritik
- Locally sourced ghee from native breeds of cows: In 2025, Praakritik launched their online Ghee Store which features six different types of ghee made from the milk of native cow breeds—Badri in Uttarakhand, Hallikar in Karnataka, Kankrej in Gujarat, and Tharparkar in Rajasthan. They work closely with local communities who ensure that the cows graze freely on native varieties of plants. They also churn the ghee by hand at the gaushalas. Each variety of ghee has a distinct flavour profile, depending on what the cows graze on. For instance, Badri cow ghee is herbaceous, Hallikar cow ghee is smoky, Tharparkar cow ghee is light and creamy, and Kankrej cow ghee is rich and aromatic.
- Spotlighting traditional production practices: Praakritik’s ghee is made using the ‘bilona’ method—here, the milk is converted into curd, which is then churned by hand to obtain butter. The butter is simmered on low heat which results in ghee. To make cold-pressed sesame and sunflower oils, they employ the ‘kachi ghani’ method—oil seeds are stone crushed at low temperatures without external heat to preserve natural nutrients. Attas and spices are stone-ground.
- Maintaining close relationships with farmer groups: Praakritik sources directly from farmer producer organisations; they regularly visit their farms and help them establish market linkages for their produce. For example, in 2017, Praakritik started by sourcing 500 kilograms of khapli wheat from a group of 20-25 farmers in Maharashtra. Over the years, this network has grown to include over 400 farmers who sow khapli wheat—in October, after the monsoon—depending on Praakritik’s requirements, who then procure the entire harvest. Praakritik also continues to partner with the first gaushala they supported; it has now relocated from Nadiad, Gujarat to Pune, Maharashtra. Typically, these communities would only retail milk to large dairies, but with Praakritik they also make and sell ghee.
How does the use of traditional production methods impact the quality and flavour of products? Could you explain with examples?
“At Praakritik, we consciously choose traditional methods such as cold-pressing our oils, cold-grinding our spices, stone-ground attas, and preparing bilona ghee through slow churning and gentle simmering. Employing low-heat processes helps preserve the ingredients’ natural nutrients, aroma, and authentic flavour, unlike conventional high-heat processing that can diminish nutritional value.”
—Dharmishtha Goenka, Founder
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How to Buy
If you would like to learn more about Praakritik, or try their products, check out their website. If you’re interested in supporting them in other ways, please contact us at connect@thelocavore.in.
This is a paid partnership with Praakritik. At The Locavore, we strive to keep the practices of a producer transparent and honest across all forms of partnerships.
Yashvi Shah is the Senior Partnerships Copywriter at The Locavore. In her free time, she likes creating playlists for her friends, and going on runs.
Gia Alvares is the Partnerships Associate at The Locavore. She is a writer with a background in Economics and Sociology, drawn to work that centres people, stories, and lived experiences.
Editor: Yamini Vijayan
Copy Editor: Khorshed Deboo
