A tech-tonic shift

Consuming food grain and cooking oil straight from the source made the author realise how much adulteration there was in the market

Just as agrarian distress is back in the public discourse, a highly readable memoir of a techie-turned-farmer offers an inside look at a farmer’s life and its attendant challenges. Venkat Iyer chronicles his transition from a hectic urban corporate life to the gentler pace of organic farming. It is, however, much more than an account of his personal journey — the memoir brings readers up close and personal with the lives that farmers lead, and the problems they face every day. 

When former IBM executive Mr Iyer moved to a village near Mumbai in 2004, he had no idea about