Our story started almost 50 years ago. In 1978, Raees M. Irshad and Dr. Zainab Irshad bought a farm in Gharo, a town in the Thatta district of Sindh, Pakistan. An engineer and doctor by profession, the couple started farming as a hobby and decided to reinvest the income generated from farming back into the local community.
They funded sanitation projects and, medical care, and provided seed money to the community to start small businesses. Drawing on her medical profession, Dr. Zainab Irshad also provided free medical and gynecological care for women.
A teenager at that time, Khurram Irshad would accompany his parents while they tended to the farms. From a young age, he saw firsthand how the rural population struggled with access to basic healthcare, water and sanitation, and education; this exposure instilled in him a lifelong commitment to give back to the community.
In 2001, Raees M. Irshad established the Irshad Foundation and set up a school to provide quality education to disadvantaged children. Noor Begum Model School especially prioritizes the education of young girls, providing economic incentives to encourage girls to graduate from high school in a community where their education otherwise gets sidelined.
The school has taught thousands of students over the years and caters to the needs of different students. It provides standardized schooling, while also offering a foundational literacy program to children who’ve never been inside a classroom before. The school has a computer lab where children can get access to the Internet and explore the world.
The school also has a vocational training component. Young girls are taught how to sew so that they can earn income.
Additionally, this school functions as a healthcare center for the local community. Irshad Foundation partners with medical providers and hospitals to run medical camps at the school, providing free consultations, blood tests, and medicines, along with coverage for surgical costs.
Khurram Irshad, one of the trustees of the Irshad Foundation, started growing energy crops in California. The following year, he introduced energy crops to Pakistan, where he saw that the soil was vulnerable and the agricultural practices were outdated.
Then came the devastating floods of 2022. One of the worst climate disasters in Pakistan's history, these floods swept away livestock and crops, destroyed homes, and shattered farmers' sense of security. For Khurram, this was a call to act with greater urgency.
Khurram Irshad established Indus Biochar after recognizing that biochar offers a profound and multi-faceted solution. Biochar-based compost restores nutrients to degraded land, dramatically improves water retention in soil, and increases crop yields for the smallholder farmers.
Indus Biochar partnered with PlantVillage+ backed by The Pennsylvania State University. This partnership allows Indus Biochar to leverage world-class research in AI-powered agriculture and biochar science to deliver maximum impact to farming communities.
Today, Khurram is joined by his daughters, Shanzeh and Aizah, who also care deeply about climate action. Shanzeh has built a career on advocacy and has been a part of organizations such as Climatebase, Work on Climate, and Climate Literate. Aizah is currently a PhD candidate at UMass Amherst, where she researches soil nutrient cycling.
Indus Biochar plans to deploy 100 pyrotowers in Pakistan to generate biochar-based, enzyme-inoculated compost.