Rural India is home of the original gig-economy worker. Enterprising villagers hop from tilling fields to tending shops, to door-to-door selling each day. Read the latest trends in micro-enterprises, rural start-ups and the shifting livelihoods of India’s villagers.
Livelihoods
Smart water management mitigates coastal salinity
Rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge through ponds and desilting of check dams have curtailed salinity ingress in coastal Gujarat, increasing freshwater availability
Cattle farmers revive traditional herbal remedies
Farmers in Tamil Nadu are switching to traditional remedies for cattle because ethno-veterinary medicine made with locally available herbs are more effective in controlling diseases at minimal cost
Vasai volunteers recharge ponds to raise water table
Volunteers in the villages of Vasai-Virar have revived traditional water ponds that were originally dug for irrigation. It has resulted in recharged aquifers and increased water availability for farming
Bengal’s weavers revive muslin, spin success
The revival of muslin, a fine cotton cloth famous for centuries, has infused financial stability into the lives of traditional spinners and weavers of West Bengal who were struggling for survival earlier
Recurrent floods traumatize people in rural Kerala
Even as Kerala reels under yet another flood due to extreme rainfall, people in the tiny village of Upputhode in the Western Ghats are still traumatized from the loss they suffered in last year’s deluge
Farmers across India revive folk rice varieties
Cultivation of traditional rice varieties is becoming popular in Chhattisgarh, after a campaign to popularize indigenous paddy strains spreads from Kerala to Himachal Pradesh to West Bengal
Community farming in Goa stops land conversion
Many villagers in Goa have banded together to revive rice cultivation through collective mechanized sowing and transplanting. The success in several villages has now become a catalyst for others
Collective enterprise fights malnutrition with millets
A collective enterprise in coastal Andhra Pradesh is contributing towards better nutrition of women and children in tribal areas by producing millet biscuits, while also providing stable rural livelihoods
Date palms make profitable entrance in Solapur
With climatic conditions similar to that of date-growing Kutch, Solapur farmers have started cultivating date palms, finding the extended growth period worth the wait financially