R Sridhar

Sridhar Radhakrishnan is an Engineer by education and Environmentalist by passion & practice. His broad interest is Environmental Health and Justice. His main work is in the areas of Sustainable Agriculture, Agro Ecology & Food Sovereignty, Environmental Policy & Advocacy, and Ecosystems & Land Use Policy. Presently, he functions as Steering Committee member in the india-wide Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA-Kisan Swaraj). He is Director in Thirunelly Agri Producer Company (TAPCo), a Farmer Producer Organisation based in Wyanad, Kerala. 

In the last two years, he has been supported by his friends and batchmates, whose personal contributions keep him going. Recently, he has a consultancy with Asar Social Impact Advisors. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Agro Ecology Fund, a multi-donor fund supporting agroecological practices and policies. His past experience includes being a Coordinator(Policy & Campaign) from 2006-2019, of the nation-wide multi-partner project, Save our Rice Campaign-India, that worked on indigenous paddy conservation and organic farming activities in 6 states - Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. He was also Programme Director of Thanal, a voluntary organisation, based in Kerala, working on matters related to Environment, Agriculture and Climate change. He was associated with the Consumer Research, Education, Action, Training and Empowerment (CREATE) Trust in Tamilnadu as one of its honorary advisors. 

He is a founder member and continues to be associated with the Coalition for a GM Free India, a nation-wide movement to address the concerns around Genetic Modification in agriculture. He functioned as its national coordinator, for a 2-year period. He has also been a founder member and co coordinator, in the Kerala state-wide collective of environmental groups, called the Kerala Paristhithi Aikya Vedhi. He was associated as a Principal Researcher in two projects under the Kerala Research Project on Local Level Development (KRPLLD) at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum, a premier research institute in Kerala. He works closely on state policies, and is on policy committees for governments. Presently, he is in the Expert Committee under the Tamilnadu State Development Policy Council, on developing a Sustainable Land Use Policy for the State. He is also a member in a sub-committee on agriculture for the 14th Five Year plan development in Kerala. He writes and comments on agriculture, food and environment policy and facilitates two policy dialogue platforms - Agri Insight & EcoDialogue Kerala. He is a mentor/advisor for various youth based groups as well as eco-centric startups and enterprises. He authored two books related to environment and resource use. He also co-authored the publication ‘A Green Print for Sustainable Kerala – Lessons for Existence’ . 

He is 54 years old and lives in a mud and bamboo (COSTFORD) home, with a tiny food garden, with his wife and son at Karakulam, a village panchayath in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram city, Kerala.