Prem Singh is a farmer from village Brokhar Kurd in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh. He received his early education from government school in his village and later went on to Allahabad University to pursue an MA in Philosophy.​ After completing his masters he decided to go back to village and began farming. With no formal education in agriculture, Prem Singh began farming in 1987 with the little knowledge he gained from his family and fellow farmers in village. He adopted the then prevalent farming method of two crops a year, dependant heavily on chemical fertilizers, irrigation through diesel pumps channelling the monsoon waters. He soon realised that despite intensive efforts put in by the farmer this method brought profits only to seed, fertilizer and tractor companies while the farmer was left with hopelessness and debts to pay at the mercy of only government aids.

Determined to bring positive change to his family and fellow farmers, Prem Singh started working on alternative models of farming. He started in 1990 with cultivating flowers, setting up orchards and a gau-shala. He developed ingenious tools and techniques to make farming more sustainable. In 1996 he developed his own farming method based on Avartansheel Artha-Shastra (Introduced by Shri A. Nagraj, proponent of harmonious co-existence) and cyclic properties in nature, he named this method Avartansheel Kheti. Inspired by his success, fellow farmers adopted this method of farming and soon a self-sustainable and happy community flourished.

While receiving an honour in 2010 by the then President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in Gulbarga, Karnataka, he realised that the government, its leaders and the bureaucracy of the country did not have a vision or solutions to the Indian farmer’s problem. This realisation came about when Dr. Kalam fell short of an appropriate answer to a question by a little girl on why the children of the nation are encouraged to become engineers, doctors, govt. officials and not farmers. He later converted his farm into an open school for farmers and everyone who is interested in natural farming, environment conservation and inclusive society, which was formally named Humane Agrarian Centre in 2016. Since then farmers, environment enthusiasts, social workers and volunteers from around the globe have been actively involved with the school.