Success Story: Dragon Fruit Lady! Know how Rewa Sood achieved great heights by turning barren land into fertile land

Success Story: The ‘Dragon Fruit Lady’ of Himachal Pradesh, Rewa Sood, chose to change her course in 2016. When her husband, Prof. (Dr.) Rajiv Sood, was diagnosed with a terrible illness like cancer, Rewa, who resides in Delhi, was going through a difficult time in her life. This unfortunate development led her to believe that our diet has a direct impact on our health.

She changed her life’s mission as a result of this realization. Rewa Sood chose “poison-free farming” after leaving Delhi and moving to the rural parts of Himachal Pradesh’s Una region. Using environmentally friendly methods like drip irrigation, Jeevamrit, and vermicompost, she began farming on 70 acres of rocky and desolate ground without the use of pesticides. Her goal was to use gardening as a tool for empowerment and wellness.

Rewa Sood has joined Krishi Jagran’s nationwide program, the “Global Farmer Business Network” (GFBN). Its objective is to encourage prosperous and sustainable agricultural entrepreneurship in India. Let us now discuss Rewa Sood’s success story in more depth.

Dragon fruit’s inception: a fresh revolution

Rewa Sood made a move in 2018 that altered the course of farming in Himachal. In the Una district, she began growing dragon fruit for the first time. The locals were unaware of this fruit at the time, and no one believed that it could be grown on arid ground. However, Rewa demonstrated that even arid terrain can produce gold if the right mindset and diligence are used by planting over 30,000 dragon fruit trees.

Her cultivation enhanced the land’s health in addition to raising money. She began growing medicinal and herbal crops such as ashwagandha, tulsi, kalmegh, sarpagandha, moringa, black wheat, and turmeric in addition to dragon fruit. This improved soil fertility and allowed farmers to earn money from a variety of crops.

Naturally, Agriva: From farm to processing

Reeva Sood went beyond just farming and took things a step further. In 2022, with funding from the World Bank grant program, she established “Agriva Naturally,” a processing facility for fruits and medicinal items. The facility, which is situated in the Una village of Behad-Bithal, cost ₹1.65 crore. Under the “Dragona” trademark, it produces dried figs, herbal extracts, herbal mixes of figs and ashwagandha, and dragon fruit juice.

With an annual processing capacity of 153 metric tons, the facility ensures employment for over 100 local farmers as well as the procurement and selling of crops. Its entire revenue in 2024–2025 exceeded ₹3 crore, with a turnover of ₹90 lakh.

Women’s Empowerment: Him 2 Hum FPO

Another of Reeva Sood’s lofty goals was to empower the village’s women to support themselves. She established ‘Him 2 Hum Farmers Producer Company Ltd.’ in 2021, a women-owned FPO with backing from the Ministry of AYUSH’s Medicinal Plants Board and NABARD. Women work in a variety of capacities under this FPO, including marketing, packing, cultivating medicinal crops, polyhouses, and nurseries.

More than 300 women are now involved with this FPO and actively cultivate dragon fruit, ashwagandha, tulsi, and moringa. This program has grown into a cross-state women’s cooperative movement that has now expanded to Himachal, Punjab, and Haryana. In Una, some 40 households also engage in farming via MNREGA and Agriva buy-sell agreements.

Social work’s origins: INDCARE Trust

Farming is only one aspect of Rewa Sood’s societal perspective. She established the ‘INDCARE Trust’ in Delhi in 1989 with the goal of empowering women to be self-sufficient. She established a number of self-help groups (SHGs), conducted nutrition, health, and skill-training programs for women, and instructed over 350 women in food processing, sewing, and cosmetics.

This trust has collaborated with institutions such as the World Bank, UNDP, NABARD, USAID, and DFID at the local level. ‘Umeed Ka Diya’ is one of the songs and IEC materials that Rewa has created to motivate mothers and adolescents in rural areas.

Education leadership: INDCARE College of Law

Rewa Sood also thinks about educating women about the law and their rights. In 2013, she established INDCARE College of Law in Greater Noida with this goal in mind. This college concentrates on social awareness, gender justice, and research in addition to teaching law. Reeva has served as an inspiration to many students, who have started along the road of social change.

Awards and Honors

Reeva Sood has received several accolades for her efforts, including the following:

• For contributions to the food and agricultural industries, the NBT Business Icon Award
• ‘National Health ICON’ (2023) WHO Diamond Jubilee Award
• World Women’s Day: BFUHS Women Changemaker Award 2025
• For taking part in the National Medicinal Plants Campaign, the recipient received the Guest of Honor Award.

Support for Families

Throughout this struggle, Reeva Sood has always had the support of her family. Currently serving as the Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Punjab, is her husband, Padma Shri Prof. (Dr.) Rajiv Sood. While her son, Dr. Ishaan Sood, has a PhD from KU Leuven, Belgium, her daughters are Dr. Tanvi Sood, an oncologist, and Er. Kanika, an assistant director at Gilead, USA.

In this case, we may claim that Rewa Sood has shown that everything is achievable with hard effort, social awareness, and genuine commitment. In addition to turning the arid area green, she has established an agro-ecosystem there that employs over 300 women and generates ₹90 lakh in revenue annually. Her narrative shows us that agriculture may serve as a vehicle for social transformation in addition to providing a means of subsistence.