India loses thousands of acres of natural forest every year. DVISSA's agroforestry partnership programme is fighting back.
The paradox at the heart of DVISSA's business is one that keeps the founders up at night: the product depends entirely on healthy, biodiverse forests — and those forests are disappearing. India's forest cover has declined steadily over the past three decades. The wild flora that makes Bihar and Jharkhand honey exceptional — mahua, karanj, jamun, and dozens of other native species — requires intact forest to survive.
In 2021, DVISSA launched its Agroforestry Partnership Programme with a simple premise: if the company's business depends on forests, the company should invest in forests. The programme partners with local farmers who own agricultural land adjacent to forest areas, encouraging them to plant native tree species that support bee populations — while also providing additional income through fruit, timber, or leaves.
The economics are structured carefully. DVISSA provides free saplings of native species (mahua, jamun, arjun, neem) grown in partnership with a forest department nursery. Farmers commit to maintaining the trees for at least 10 years. In return, DVISSA guarantees to source honey from beekeepers working in that farmer's area, creating an indirect economic benefit from the trees the farmer is planting.
In the first year, 18 farmers enrolled and planted approximately 4,200 saplings across 22 acres. By 2023, the programme had grown to 67 farmers and over 18,000 saplings. Independent ecological surveys have already recorded increased bee population density in areas where the programme operates — a direct signal that the intervention is working.
The programme also serves as a model that other companies in the natural foods space have begun to study. DVISSA has made its methodology open-source — available on the company's website for any organisation that wants to replicate it. The belief is that environmental restoration at scale requires many actors, not just one company doing it alone.